Hoyo de Monterrey: Excalibur Black No. 1 Cigars

When the Cuban trade embargo of 1962 eliminated exportation to United States, Hoyo de Monterrey cigars were some of the very first hand-rolled, Cuban-heritage cigars to fill the resulting void. Tobacco seeds were smuggled out of Cuba in diplomatic pouches, and since then, Hoyo de Monterrey has become a defining pillar of the Honduran cigar industry.

Hand-rolled in Danlí, Honduras, the Excalibur Black cigar is a foil of Hoyo de Monterrey's regular Excalibur line, which features a Connecticut Shade wrapper. For the Excalibur Black, however, that shade-grown leaf is traded for a richer, darker Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper around an Ecuadorian Sumatra binder and fillers from Nicaragua and Honduras. It all makes for a bolder, fuller-bodied rendition of the original Excalibur, appealing to those who appreciate Broadleaf wrappers.