Tabacalera Tropical is the quiet giant of the cigar business. The company grows vast amounts of tobacco in Nicaragua via its Aganorsa arm and employs tobacco men from Cuba to turn it into cigars meant for a serious palate. Arsenio Ramos, who once worked for Cubatabaco and always seems to have a cigar crammed in his jaw, calls his Casa Fernandez "a man's cigar." It's a nearly flawless lancero fitted with a dark oily wrapper and pigtail cap and characterized by gutsy, powerful notes of hickory and chocolate on the palate.