"Every month, for over a year, we had been working on blends with a special tobacco from Panama. The unique notes of Panamanian tobacco, somehow had to be shared with the world. Creating 18 different Panamanian blends, we smoked the third one in line and knew this was Black Market! The mystery of Panamanian tobacco and the crate like box in which Black Market is displayed illustrates this cigar’s journey."

There is certainly a black market that exists in the cigar trade, but it usually has to do with tax evasion, contraband material or stolen goods. In the case of the Alec Bradley Black Market brand, the sinister-sounding name is more to get your attention. To hold your attention, brand owner Alan Rubin put together an unusual, but memorable blend.

This dark cigar is made in Honduras by the Plasencias and covered in a Nicaraguan wrapper. A Sumatra-seed binder from Ecuador holds together a filler that’s mostly Honduran, but there’s another tobacco from one country that Rubin believes defines the cigar—Panama. While there’s nothing illegal or illicit about Panamanian tobacco, it is unusual in the premium cigar world and brings a unique element to this Black Market that kept us interested. Like a good cocktail, however, the blend is balanced and no single tobacco speaks too loudly, though all do indeed get their say. Accents of dried herbs and smoked hickory highlight the rich, nutty smoke, which saturates the palate with every puff. Spice plays its appropriate part as well, occasionally bursting in the right places for a medium-to-full-bodied cigar that brings together the familiar with the exotic.