Liga Privada No. 9 Robusto Cigar (5" x 52) Cigar

Liga Privada translates to "private blend" — Drew Estate originally crafted the cigar not for resale but for its own personal humidors, blended for the company president who favored rich, dark, oscuro-wrapped smokes, and the band still reads "Hecho Exclusivamente Para El Jefe" ("Made Exclusively For The Boss"). Dozens of trial blends were worked through before No. 9 emerged as the winner, and demand eventually pushed the small-batch, ultra-premium blend into commercial release. Drew Estate calls it "The Broadleaf Bully" — a nickname its fans gave the blend — and the Robusto is one of the line's core formats.

A dark, oily Connecticut Broadleaf #1 Darks (Oscuro) wrapper over a plantation-grown Brazilian Mata Fina binder and Cuban-seed long-fillers from Nicaragua and Honduras, drawing on seven distinct dark-air-cured leaves. Wrappers are hand-fermented for 18 months or more and the finished cigars rest a full year before release; only a few certified rolling pairs at Drew Estate's La Gran Fabrica in Estelí, Nicaragua are permitted to make the blend, at 250 cigars per pair per day. Robusto format, 5 x 54. Box count: 24 cigars.

Bold and complex, with dense earth and espresso at the core and a long, remarkable finish. Reviewers of the Robusto pull dark chocolate and cocoa, leather, baking spice and black pepper over a creamy backbone, with the body building fuller and richer through the second half.

Alcoholic: Bold bourbon or peaty Scotch. Non-Alcoholic: Strong dark roast coffee.

Afternoon or evening — the most popular No. 9 vitola and a cigar world best-seller.