D’Crossier Diplomacy Series

The D’Crossier Diplomacy Series is a cigar line that is made by a company called Pure Aroma Cigars. The company is run by Isaisas Santana Diaz. Pure Aroma Cigars is based out of Miami, Florida but uses a factory in Costa Rica to make their cigars.  Diaz is originally from Havana, Cuba but has lived in the United States since 1995. He named his company’s main brand D’Crossier as a tribute to his great grandfather Francisco Crossier. Originally Crossier came over to Cuba from France in search of a place to expand some vineyards he owned. It was there where Crossier expanded his passion for cigars. Diaz founded the company to complete his great grandfather’s legacy. Since Diaz established the company, his cigars have quietly caught the attention of many.  I recently have had an opportunity to smoke the Diplomacy Series in the Robusto size.  I’ve sampled several blends from D’Crossier and have found the cigars produced by Diaz to be high quality enjoyable smokes. In the case of the D’Crossier Diplomacy Series Robusto, I have found this one to be among the best produced by the company.

The original D’Crossier Diplomacy Series cigars was available in a four pack sampler consisting of two sizes – with two cigars per size in the packaging.  One of those sizes, the Taino – along with three new sizes are now offered in slide top boxes.  These cigars were showcased at the 2013 IPCPR Trade Show.

Without further ado, let’s take a closer look at the D’Crossier Diplomacy Series and see what this cigar brings to the table


Blend Profile

As with many D’Crossier cigars, the Diplomacy Series features Costa Rican tobacco.  In this case the Costa Rican tobacco makes up the binder and part of the filler.

Wrapper: Ecuador
Binder: Costa Rica
Filler: Costa Rica, Dominican Republic

Vitolas Available

There are now a total of five sizes.   The Robusto and Gordito are offered in boxes of 12 while the Taino and Trabuco are offered in boxes of 10.  

Packaging of the D’Crossier Diplomacy Series Robusto

The Double Trabuco and Taino were originally offered in the sampler packs.  The Double Trabuco is still available in the sampler pack only.

Robusto: 4 7/8 x 50
Gordito: 4 1/4 x 52
Trabuco: 5 1/8 x 60
Taino: 5 7/8 x 54 (this was available in the original sample pack)
Double Trabuco: 7 7/8 x 56 (sampler pack only)

Appearance

As mentioned in the introduction, for this cigar experience I smoked the D’Crossier Diplomacy Series Robusto.  The cigar features a colorado red wrapper when some darker marbling.  There is some oil on the wrapper’s surface.  There are some visible veins, but the wrapper seams are well-hidden.  The footer of the cigar is covered.

The band has a mostly gold, red, and black color scheme.  It contains a “DC” in gold – representing the D’Crossier logo.  The logo sits on a red background.  Surrounding the logo is a gold crown, a Roman style wreath, and some other gold adornments.  On both the left and right side of the logo is a black and white shield that says “HAND MADE” in small gold font in landscape mode.  The bottom part of the band has a black background with the text “Diplomacy Series” in gold cursive font.

Preparation for the Cigar Experience

Prior to lighting up my  D’Crossier Diplomacy Series Robusto, I selected a straight cut to remove the cap.  Once the cap was clipped, I moved on to the pre-light draw ritual.  While the foot was covered, I was able to get some nice flavors from the cold draw.   The pre-light draw delivered a mix of natural tobacco and pepper flavors.  Overall I considered the pre-light draw of the Diplomacy Series Robusto to be satisfactory.  At this point was ready to light up this cigar and see what the smoking phase would deliver.

Flavor Profile

The start of the D’Crossier Diplomacy Series Robusto provides a mix of wood, white pepper, and natural tobacco.  Early on the natural tobacco and pepper emerged as a primary flavor.  Some lemon notes surfaced early and were in the forefront as well.  The wood notes receded into the background.  The white pepper was present on the retro-hale.

By about the five percent mark, the wood notes re-emerged in the forefront with the natural tobacco flavors.  The pepper and lemon receded to the background.  A brown sugar note also surfaced in the background.  Overall, the balance of the flavors in the Diplomacy Series was excellent.  This flavor profile held into the second third.

In the second third, the wood and natural tobacco notes held as primary flavors.  The brown sugar and pepper were secondary notes while the lemon receded to a tertiary flavor.

The last third saw a lot of the sweetness that was present earlier diminished.  I found the flavor profile to be a combination of wood, pepper, and natural tobacco.  Overall the cigar still remained flavorful and had no harsh notes.  The resulting nub was cool in temperature and firm to the touch.

Burn and Draw

The  D’Crossier Diplomacy Series Robusto has some excellent construction and this was reflected in the burn and draw.  The burn line remained straight from start to finish requiring minimal touch-ups to keep straight.  The resulting ash was firm with a few isolated cases of minor flaking.  The ash had a mostly white color with some gray and black mixed in.  The burn rate and burn temperature were ideal.

Burn of the D’Crossier Diplomacy Series Robusto

The draw to the D’Crossier Diplomacy Series Robusto had a touch of resistance to it – which is something that I consider to be ideal on a cigar.  Overall, this made the D’Crossier Diplomacy Series Robusto a very enjoyable cigar to puff on.

Strength and Body

Overall, I did not find the D’Crossier Diplomacy Series Robusto to be a nicotine bomb, but it did provide enough pop to satisfy.  I assessed this cigar to be medium strength in the first half.  By the start of the second half, it progressed to medium to full.  It remained medium to full-strength until the end of the cigar experience.  The flavors had some nice depth to them to.  They start off medium-bodied and by the 20 percent mark, they progressed to medium to full where it remained for the duration of the cigar experience.  Overall, there was a nice balance between strength and body throughout the smoke of the D’Crossier Diplomacy Series Robusto.

Final Thoughts

D’Crossier might not be a brand that is on a lot of retail shelves, but they have shown me as a company that makes some excellent cigars.  The D’Crossier Diplomacy Series Robusto stands at the top of what i have seen released by the company.  This is a cigar that excellent flavor, excellent balance, and terrific construction.  I also found the Robusto size to be what I term the “perfect storm” between blend and flavor – in other words, the blend worked very well with this size.  This is the type of cigar I can recommend to either a novice or experienced cigar enthusiast.  As for myself, this is not only a cigar I’d smoke again, but its one that I certainly deem box worthy.

Summary

Burn: Excellent
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: Medium
Strength: Medium (1st Half), Medium to Full (2nd Half)
Body: Medium (1st 20%), Medium to Full (Remainder)
Finish: Good
Assessment: 4.0 Box Worthy
Score: 93

Source:  The cigars for this assessment were provided by Pure Aroma Cigars.  The samples received were initiated by Pure Aroma Cigars in order to provide feedback.  Cigar Coop is appreciative for the samples, but in no way does this influence this write-up.