Drew Estate
Cigars

Drew Estate Cigars, an absolute behemoth in the premium cigar business, produces some of the most popular brands on the market like ACID, Liga Privada, and Undercrown. Unlike many of the other famous cigar brands and makers on the market today which are decades, even centuries old and founded in Cuba, Drew Estate Cigars history started just over 30 years ago during the 1990s cigar boom.

Founded by fraternity brothers Jonathan Drew and Marvin Samel, in 1996, Drew Estate Cigars has always done things differently. Bonding over their shared love of premium cigars while in college, the dynamic duo decided to open a small cigar stand in the heart of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan.

The first few years forDrew Estate Cigars were full of pitfalls and mistakes, but the perseverance, passion, and creativity of Drew and Samel, as well as Drew’s colorful personality, helped to make Drew Estate Cigars a success.

With demand from the 1990s cigar boom dwindling in the late 1990s, Drew Estate Cigars needed something groundbreaking to stay afloat, and Drew and Samel needed to do it their way. In 1998, Drew traveled down to Nicaragua to learn all about the cigar business, cigar making, and opening a small factory, while Samel held down the fort in Brooklyn’s DUMBO neighborhood raising capital.

When Drew returned from Nicaragua in 1999, he brought with him something that would change the cigar landscape forever – ACID Cigars. At the time, flavored cigars were looked down upon and seen as covering up the flavor of poor tobaccos, but ACID set out to change that perception and succeeded with flying colors. Today, ACID boasts a portfolio full of colorful blends and is a best-selling brand.

Despite the success of ACID, Drew Estate Cigars still needed to prove itself as a capable maker of top-shelf handmade premium cigars. Completely against the grain of its flagship ACID brand and other flavored brands like Tabak Especial and Ambrosia, 2007 saw the release of the traditionally styled and always in-demand Liga Privada No. 9.

Initially developed as the personal blend of Drew Estate Cigars’ then-president Steve Saka, Liga Privada No. 9 proved to be too good to be kept away from consumers. Blended with rare, top-quality tobaccos, Liga Privada No. 9 became a cult classic and won the palates of seasoned aficionados across the country and silenced the haters. Spinoffs of Liga Privada like T52, covered in our T52 cigar review, and Unico Serie are also aficionado favorites.

Liga Privada was a resounding success, and with the high demand, Drew Estate had to ask its employees to quit smoking so much of them. Disappointed, the workers decided to blend themselves an alternative with different primings and vintages. What they came up with just could not be kept to themselves, and in 2011 the best-selling Undercrown brand was introduced.

Now encompassing several extensions such as the Undercrown Shade, Undercrown Sungrown, and the top-rated Undercrown 10, along with an approachable and affordable price, Undercrown has become a popular favorite for aficionados across the country.

Today, there are dozens of exceptional brands and blends in the expansive Drew Estate Cigars portfolio, with a something to please the palate of any aficionado. We've pulled together a list of our top 5 Drew Estate Cigars on the Blending Room. But you can find the right blend from Drew Estate Cigars right here at JR Cigar and at some of the best prices on the web!