JC Newman is now available in Singapore. The oldest, still active, American cigar family found a new distributor in the small southeast Asian city-state of Singapore. The J.C. Newman cigars used to be available in Singapore in the past, but for unknown reasons, the cigars disappeared. With a new distributor, the cigars are back on the shelves of retailers.

Julius Caeser 

The first batch of cigars already reached Singapore and includes several blends and sizes of the Julius Caeser brand. Julius Caesar isn’t named after the Roman emperor but after Julius Caeser Newman. The founder of the family business, and indeed, the J.C. in J.C. Newman. The difference in spelling between emperor Julius Caesar and Julius Caeser Newman is due to a spelling error when J.C. Newman migrated from Europe to America. The American immigration office misspelled his name, and it never got corrected.

Other J.C. Newman brands that are now available are the Diamond Crown lines including the flagship Black Diamond. We reviewed the Black Diamond Radiant last year. And the classic Cuesta Rey brand is also available. Cuesta Rey used to be a Cuban cigar brand. But J.C. Newman purchased the rights to the brand in 1958, right before the Cuban revolution.

The cigars are made at Tabacalera Fuente y Cia. J.C. Newman is the owner of a large factory in Esteli, Nicaragua, and of the iconic El Reloj factory in Tampa. But the family doesn’t have a production facility in the Dominican Republic. There they work with long-time partner Arturo Fuente. In exchange, J.C. Newman handles the distribution for Arturo Fuente in the United States. Both families founded the Cigar Family Charity Foundation and are the biggest sponsors of the cause. We will publish an article on that charity in our series of Cigar Charities soon.

Singapore

Last year, Bobby Newman and Cristal Blackwell Lastra visited the TFWA trade show in Singapore. They graciously took time out of their busy schedule for an interview with us. You can read the interview here. It’s good that J.C. Newman is now available in Singapore again.