Don Diego

Don Diego belongs to the first wave — the brands created after 1960 to replace, on the American market, the Havanas that had become unobtainable. Production was first set up in the Canary Islands, then transferred to the Dominican Republic, where it has stayed.

That origin explains its profile. What was needed was a mild, consistent cigar with a pale wrapper, able to reassure smokers deprived of their landmarks: Don Diego was composed for that and has never departed from it. Cedar, almond, a creamy softness, an easy burn — it is a cigar that asks nothing of anybody.

For two decades it was one of the best-selling brands in the United States, until the wave of full-bodied blends of the 1990s relegated it to the rank of an outdated classic. It has not changed for all that, which makes it a useful witness today: you can taste in it what the market called a good cigar before power became an argument.

The brand is still distributed by a large group, with no particular communication effort — and that is just as well.

The name Playboy is that of the magazine, not that of the company. Playboy by Don Diego was launched in 1996 at an event at the Playboy Mansion; Playboy subsequently had cigars under its own name, among them one series, introduced on 25 May 2009, which Cigarworld classifies under the Dominican Republic, entirely handmade.

Range Depth

• Don Diego Classic

  Wrapper Connecticut Shade · Strength Light

  Cedar, almond, a creamy softness. Composed after 1960 to reassure smokers deprived of the Havana, and never modified since — you taste in it what the market called a good cigar before the fashion for power.

  Corona · Lonsdale

• Don Diego Aniversario

  Wrapper Connecticut Shade · Strength Medium

  Longer-aged tobaccos, a little more body. The brand's only concession to its era.

  Robusto

🥃 Pairings

• Mild filter coffee

  Coffee

  Nothing stronger: the almond would disappear.

• White tea

  Other

  Without alcohol, it respects a softness that cannot bear competition.