Cuban or Dominican Cigars?

That is the question:  Cuban or dominican?

Like everything else, with cigars it comes down to personal taste and opinion but these are the main difference between the two: taste & manufacture.

Cuban Cigars are the most renown and their rollers or "torcedores" are believed to be the best in the world and they are highly respected in their country and overseas when they travel sharing their art of rolling around the world.

In 1492 Christopher Colombus sailor's reported that in the island of Cuba found natives smoke a primitive form of cigar. From there,  smoking cigars was spread to Spain and Portugal and later to France, Italy, America and Britain. The spanish took seeds to the Philippines and manufacturing houses were built first in Cuba then in Florida and other areas. From there the growing and manufauctiong of cigars grew and spread all through Europe, the States, South America, Asia & Oceana.

The main 2 markets are the United States and Europe with little sold in Asia, South Africa & Australia.

The taste will get affected by many things but one of them it's of course the weather so you will not get the same result even using the same seed when grown in Cuba than in the DR.

Cuban cigars are stronger with more peppery , spicy, earthy, woody and leathery flavours and with heats of cocoa & nutty flavours while the DR are milder and lighter.

Due to the embargo with Cuba the US cannot legally purchase these cigars so the DR caters mainly for this market while cuban targets the european market.

In my experience and my humble opinion I find dominican cigars to be generally of a better quality of manufacturing and more consistent today's day and also a better cigar for beginners due to its milder flavours.

I think DR cigars go through more strict manufacturing process resulting in a better and more consistent product. They are just more on top of presentation while cuba to me it's more about quantity. With cuban you risk finding plugged cigars, fakes, rolled too tight or too loose .... I mean this is also possible with dominican or any other origin but not as much.

I also like the fact that DR do a lot of their cigars in tubes wrapped on cedar strips which protects them and helps maintain better. Cuba does a few, mainly Romeo y Julieta but not as much.

If you look at a box of 25 dominican their wrapper colour seems to be the same all throughout the box, the filler with the same consistence while on a box of cuban it just differs so much.

I used to have a customer that made me go through boxes of Hoyo de Monterrey Double Coronas that came on cedar boxes of 50's and also the Cohiba Siglo Vi in cedar boxes of 25's and picked them to make a box just for him just because in the past he found that when purchasing a whole box so many of them where un-smokable for him.

With dominican this just doesn't happen. Look at the Davidoff Cigars. All so beautiful rolled & packed. Yes they are milder I will probably say that only the Millennium Blend will equal the strength of the cuban but to me I much prefer a milder cigar and my smoking experience it's better.

In saying this when you get a good cuban it's pretty hard to compete with that. Their wrappers are oily and just beautiful. I like the earthy, coffee tones like the Partagas D4 and it could be quiet mild for a cuban as well as the Romeo y Julieta Churchill because due to it's length and ring gauge the smoke it's quiet cool. To me the pepperiness of Montecristo's it's just too much but again this it's just a personal taste.

When US place the embargo over Cuba and no body could purchase cuban cigars and the cuban houses couldn't sell to them all they did was start producing dominican cigars like Romeo y Julieta.

So how can I answer the question? What's best Cuban or Dominican? There is not best it's all down to personal taste and individual cases and products. I forgot to mention that some premium dominican's are also quiet expensive but so are a lot of cuban too let's say for example the whole range of Cohiba that I found so expensive.

So here are some of my suggestions:

Cubans:

Montecristo Edmundo, Montecristo N4, Vegas Robaina Unicos, Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure N2, Partagas D N4, Romeo y Julieta Churchill, Hoyo de Monterrey Double Corona in box of 50's, Partagas  Lusitanias in box of 50's, Cohiba S VI, Punch Punch, Ramon Allones Specialy Selected, Juan Lopez Selection N2, if you like full body cigars and you get a nice box of Bolivar Belicoso Finos with its superb oily wrappers hmmmm!!

Dominican:

Davidoff Millennium Blend Robusto or Pyramid, Macanudo Ascot (either cafe or maduro), Macanudo Diplomat Maduro (Great little fatty one!), Davidoff Crand Cru Range is not too bad either with No 4,& 5 my favourites, front he Davidoff Mille Range the 2000's in Tubos are pretty good. The Macanudo Hyde Park a good coffee cigar

From the Arturo Fuente house the Opus X Range but prepare your wallet and for what it is I just wouldn't pay for it.

Zino Classic from Honduras has also a great range of cigars. If you enjoy a robusto Zino N 6 it's a medium body cigar with sweet nutty tones and toast finish.  Their platinum series  is just so elegant, a great nicaraguan, honduran & peruvian blend. Grand Master or Chubby it's up to you

From Nicaragua Padron 2000 Maduro not bad either, nutty and chocolaty.


Your choice of cigar will depend on the time of the day you choose to smoke, the food and the drink that will go together with it. generally speaking Dominican cigars are a very good coffee cigar while cuban or full body dominicans like the Millennium Blend of Davidoff are great with cognac, brandy or good medium to full red.