Company Overview: Black Label Trading Company, Part 1

Black Label Trading Company was founded in 2013 by James Brown. Before deciding to start up a cigar company, Brown spent the last four-plus years guiding 4×4 adventure tours through some of very remote places in Central America. He was also a cigar enthusiast, enjoying Padrons and VSGs, among others. When starting up Black Label (BLTC), he went in with a few core philosophies, among them to define unique flavor profiles not seen in cigars everyday, and then to stick with the sizes that make sense…if the cigar works well as one size, why bother with 5 other sizes? They concentrate on making small batches with a small team based in Estelí, Nicaragua, and making them all great. (The information here was adapted from an interview featured on the BLTC website…you should read the whole thing.)

One unusual thing about BLTC was their number of blends at the start. Most companies will start with one or two blends and try to grow from there. Brown and Company felt strongly enough about all six of their original blends that they decided to release all of them right from the beginning, each in 2 sizes: a 5 x 54 Robusto and a 6 x 60. Last month James got in touch with me through Facebook to see if I’d be interested in trying some of their cigars. Did I mention…lots of blends! I could have asked for 3 to 5 samples of each cigar then taken an entire month to smoke through them and determine what I thought (hey…I know about bloggers who have done that!), but I decided it might be best to take the “company overview” tactic with this many cigars.

BLTC sent me one each of their six blends, in the Robusto size. I’ll be talking about 3 today and the other 3 next week at this time. Then based on what I find in my “overview” we will be talking to James again about possibly getting some “full review” samples for one or more of the other reviewers on this site. So…let’s dive in!

About the packaging part…it’s all very similar so I’ll talk about it once instead of for each cigar. The main bands are large white on black, featuring a skull with a crown, surrounded by some filigree ornamentation and the name of the company. The secondary band, around the foot, has the name of the blend. Two cigars in the collection are reverse images of this, with black on a white background.

Redemption

Filler: Nicaragua
Binder: Nicaragua
Wrapper: Aged Nicaraguan Maduro

I’m a sucker for a Nicaraguan puro, even moreso for a Maduro, so this seemed to be a great place to get started with this adventure in cigar smoking (sorry, I won’t be signing up for any “No Limits” tours…exploring the world of cigars is my adventure!).

So first…the name…Redemption is a term often associated with theology, meaning deliverance or rescue…from sin, hell, Satan. It’s also talked of in a non-religious sense when people turn their lives around and seek to atone for past mistakes. This makes for a great plot device in movies and TV shows. I’m always looking for a little redemption for things I’ve done wrong in the past (there doesn’t seem to be a shortage), so if I can get Redemption in a cigar…sure!

This was the only BLTC cigar I got that was box-pressed and it’s a nice press, too, with softly rounded corners and a little more width than height. The wrapper was the color of dark chocolate and had a velvety oiliness under my fingers. Giving it a sniff, I got notes of earth and leather; the foot was earthy with notes of cedar. After cutting, I picked up earth, chalky cocoa powder, coffee, and a bit of dried fruit sweetness.

Once lit, the Redemption served up more dark roast coffee flavor than anything else, although there were lesser hints of dark fruit, leather and cocoa powder. Through the first third, the cigar was medium-plus in body and strength, and the flavor trended earthier as the leaf turned to ash. As I continued I noted the cigar getting stronger, darker and a bit more bitter with espresso notes and a little cedar.

By the end, the cigar was solidly full in body, dense and smoky with tons of espresso and earth notes and just a bit of sweetness I like from a Maduro. Good cigar, but I wondered how this blend might fair with a little Broadleaf added for some extra sweetness…maybe as the binder, maybe as a couple filler leaves. Regardless, fans of strong smokes might have found a winner right here.

Benediction

Filler: Nicaragua
Binder: Nicaragua
Wrapper: Aged Nicaraguan Habano

So another Nicarguan puro here, this time with a Habano wrapper leaf. The color was a touch lighter than milk chocolate and there was just a hint of red in certain light. The smell from the wrapper was wood and earth and sweet hay; the foot had more earth with a touch of cedar.

The name on this one–Benediction–refers to a short blessing, invoked at a public worship service, usually right before the conclusion.

The cold draw had flavor notes of earth and berries. Once lit, I experienced a medium-bodied smoke that had flavors of earth, tea, hay, and cedar on the palate; the retrohale had more tea and just a hint of pepper spice. Through the first third, I found the Benediction to be a very pleasant cigar with plenty of flavor and a medium amount of body and strength, not challenging me on a day when I really didn’t feel like being challenged by a cigar. It was just easy to enjoy.

Construction was top notch, as well, with the ash hanging on for the entire first third before I tapped of so I wouldn’t have to worry about wearing it. A little more pepper spice found its way into the nose of this smoke as the first third disappeared into the second, and on the palate it was still tea and cedar notes mostly.

In the end, Benediction was a nice blend that I certainly wouldn’t mind trying again.

Lawless

Filler: Nicaraguan
Binder: Nicaraguan
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano Rosado

Almost another Nicaraguan puro here. To be completely honest, I was trying to figure out how to separate the six cigars into two groups. When I saw that 2 were Nicaraguan puros and I third Nica filler and binder, I decided to do those as one group and the rest as another. This time we get a Habano Rosado wrapper that is the darkest “Rosado” wrapper I can ever remember seeing. From what I can remember “Rosado” is a coloration term for wrapper leaves and usually denotes something slightly darker than Claro, but much less dark than Oscuro. This particular Rosado was between milk and dark chocolate in color with some medium sized veining that showed up slightly lighter. The leaf had a very leathery feel to it and smelled of earth, wood and leather; the filler had a more earthy and grass aroma. The prelight draw tasted of cocoa powder, coffee and cedar.

Once I got the Lawless going, I tasted bountiful earth notes, along with espresso bean, cedar, and a little anise. The retrohale was nutty with a small, quickly disappearing pepper hit. One thing I noticed about the cigar early on was that it seemed to be having a small draw issue. The draw itself seemed open, but it didn’t cause the cigar to burn evenly (I had to do a touch up within half an inch) and it didn’t produce a great deal of smoke. Maybe the leaf was too wet? Maybe just a one-off construction issue? Hard to say, but it would bear keeping an eye on as I continued smoking.

Before hitting the second third, I got a more serious canoe, but once I passed it, the burn seemed to go back to its normal, very wavy and somewhat uneven pattern. The body was full and the flavors of coffee and anise were most prominent, with a growing pepper burn at the back of the palate.

As I started into the final third, I had pretty much decided that despite a few construction issues, this was my favorite of this first group of three cigars from Black Label. It had a body and strength similar to the Redemption, but flavor that appealed much more to me. This one I would definitely like to try again, even if to see if the build issues I had were an anomaly and to see if they impacted the flavor.

Next Monday we’ll be looking at the other three blends BLTC produced in their initial wave.