As part of my tour of the Miami Cigar powerhouses, I couldn't miss the famed Camacho, the father and son team that brought back the Corojo for our enjoyment. Dylan Austin, Assistant Marketing Director, and the artist who designed the boxes for the famed Camacho Liberty series, invited me for a tour of the place. Once there, I had the opportunity to chat with Angel Diaz, Marketing Director, and Christian Eiroa, President of Camacho, whose birthday celebration we managed to catch at the tail end. After Dylan showed me the goings-on of the marketing department and a tour of their giant humidor, where the Camacho cigars sit till they are ready for delivery to the cigar shops, we got a chance to seat with the Birthday President himself. (Yes, the 07/05 in the Corojo label stands for Christian's birthday) We talk for over an hour while I enjoyed my 11/18 Corojo (that's Christian's mom's birthday) and then have some pictures taken. After an amazing conversation, it was time to go and let Christian go back to the task of getting ready for the RTDA while moving his office to another section of the building. Afterwards, we got to hang out with Dylan for a little longer at the dock waiting for the truck bringing the latest arrival of Camachos to finish delivery so I could get my car out of the parking lot. And yes, the thought of hijacking the loaded truck and drive non-stop to Mexico did cross my mind but I managed to contain myself and behave properly.

"The quality and colors are like never before." That’s the assessment from Christian Eiroa, President of Camacho Cigars of the 2004 (harvest year) crop of Corojo tobacco grown on the company’s farms in Honduras. "My father, Julio, has called this crop his best Corojo harvest so far."

Because of the richness of the crop, Camacho will now offer its Camacho Corojo and El Legend-Ario cigars with Honduran-grown maduro wrappers instead of using Mexican-grown wrappers on its Diploma (5 inches by 50 ring) or Monarca (also 5 x 50) sizes. In fact, all of the Camacho Corojo sizes will be offered with maduro wrappers instead of on just two sizes.

The El Legend-Ario series debuted last year and will now be offered with maduro wrappers in addition to the Honduran-grown wrappers offered so far. In fact, Camacho may be the only manufacturer offering maduro wrappers not grown in Connecticut (Broadleaf), Mexico (Morron) or Brazil (usually Mata Fina).

Camacho grows tobacco on about 1,000 acres at Tabacos Ranchos Jamastran in Honduras, but harvests about 600 acres annually, gathering about one million pounds of tobacco. The creation of maduro wrappers – maduro means "mature" or "ripe" in Spanish – is often achieved by leaving the plants on the stalk longer, or by curing them longer. Camacho does both.

"For the Maduros, we use the fourth and fifth priming," noted Camacho marketing director Angel Diaz. "The tobacco stays out in the field a couple of extra days.

"Then they ferment an extra 90 days, give or take. The tobacco itself determined the amount of time for fermentation. It is not uncommon for it to extend itself to 90 days."

The result is now only a very dark wrapper, but one which can have extraordinary sweetness. It will be interesting to see how the blend of the well-known but powerful and peppery Camacho Corojo is matched with a maduro wrapper.