Cigar Aficionado

A classic Camacho brand is coming back to cigar shops next month with a new name. It’s called the Camacho Diploma Special Selection, and it’s the successor to a brand once owned by the Eiroa family and later sold to Davidoff in 2008—the Camacho Diploma. 

“The original Camacho Diploma was for many years the most heralded cigar coming out of our factory in Honduras,” said Dylan Austin, vice president of marketing at Davidoff of Geneva USA. “After many years, we are excited to be able to resurrect this special cigar and share it once again with aficionados across the globe.”

The Special Selection is launching next month in a single 5 inch by 54 ring gauge size called Robusto. According to Davidoff, the cigar is crafted with only Honduran tobaccos, and the blend composed of 90 percent high-priming Corojo leaf.

“It is essentially the same recipe as the original Diploma blend, utilizing 90 percent high priming Original Corojo tobaccos,” Austin said.

The original Camacho Diploma made its debut in 2001. Christian Eiroa, who created the brand before selling Camacho to Davidoff, told Cigar Aficionado that the original Diploma was blended with top-priming Corojo tobaccos. 

“The Diploma was a cigar made from the top priming of the Corojo leaves—on the plant these leaves feel like leather because they were so thick,” Eiroa said. “The cigars were first given to visiting retailers in January, 2001. They were what I would smoke privately and kept them in specially made trunks. During the trade show that year, I brought in one box for every guest that had visited us. And because the boxes had a pyramid shape, I stacked the boxes. I was gifting one box to a customer and he said, ‘Is this my diploma for coming to Honduras?’ That is how the name was born.”

The new Camacho Diploma comes packaged in individual coffins and ships in 18-count boxes. It will only be offered once a year in limited quantities. This year, only 1,800 boxes were produced.

The Camacho portfolio of cigars, once owned by Camacho Cigar Co. (a company headed up by Julio Eiroa and his son Christian) was repackaged and reblended the Diploma, but the new version was short lived, and discontinued in 2015.

The new Camacho Diploma Special Selection is expected to launch in the U.S. on November 1. The Special Selection Robusto is priced at $20 per cigar and rolled at the Diadema Cigars de Honduras S.A. factory, in Danlí, Honduras.