Vitola: Toro- 6” x 50 ring gauge (or pretty close)
- $?????
- Samples provided by Drew Estate
Background
Drew Estate always has something going on…this week it’s “Freestyle Live” where they put together a bunch of packs that they distributed to certain stores around the country so those stores’ customers could participate in a special event, live on social media tomorrow night, May 6. One of those stores happens to NOT be the one I shop at and used to work at…and at least one person there was not happy about being excluded, but I guess that’s not important right now. Drew Estate sent me one of the packs, ostensibly to review before the big show…which will feature a “big reveal” of what the cigar included in the pack actually is.
The pack is a 5-count travel humidor, cutter, lighter, lanyard, and 3 unbanded cigars. The cigars are described as “ultra premium” for the record, but no blend details were shared and no price tag was given…so this is truly a “blind review.” I know it’s Drew Estate…from the description and smoking one previously, I highly suspect it’s a new entry into the Liga Privada lineup…other than that, I know nothing.
Prelight
“I know nothing” may not be entirely true, either. The wrapper leaf of this cigar was a dark chocolate brown with tons of oiliness, a slight toothless, and an aroma of earth, espresso beans, unsweetened cocoa powder, and anise. I believe it to be a Connecticut Broadleaf (again, also based on having smoked the blend before)…although some have posited that it’s Mexican San Andres, and I can’t completely discount that possibility. The foot of the cigar had notes of earth and cedar mostly, along with a slight sweet chocolate note.
Once the head was clipped, the prelight draw was very good and featured flavors of semisweet chocolate, dark fruit, earth, and hay.
Flavor
The Freestyle Mystery Cigar fired up evenly and fairly quickly. It started off with deep earthy flavors and espresso bean bitterness, countered by chocolate and cherry sweetness, and finished with a little black pepper on the palate. The retrohale had more dark roast coffee and red pepper flake, along with a touch of cedar. From the very beginning this cigar was very full bodied and produced an amazing amount of thick, oily smoke.
As I got into the second third, I picked up notes of anise to go along with coffee and semisweet chocolate notes. By this time I was fairly convinced this was Broadleaf and not Mexican San Andres…but could it be Nicaraguan-grown Broadleaf? That’s an intriguing thought.
The last third had a surge of coffee and earth flavors, leaving the sweeter flavors as faint background notes. There was tons of pepper and some cedar in the mix, as well.
Construction
I had a good draw and fairly even burn line. The ash was a little flaky, like the cigar had been dropped at some point. It happens, but I did end up wearing a lot of ash flakes. Not something to count against the construction score.
Value
Being called “super premium” and being pretty sure this is a Liga Privada blend of some type, I am going to guess this will retail for $18 to $20. If you like other Ligas at that price, you’ll find it worth the price. I would tend to agree.
Conclusions
So my prediction as to what this Freestyle Mystery Cigar will be revealed to be is…another Liga Privada with a Broadleaf wrapper of some type. It’s more full-bodied than pretty much anything I can remember in the line, making me think of the reaction I had to the LP #9 back when it was a new line…remember, back then we all thought it was really full and strong. I would say it’s a worthy addition, whether it’s a new regular line or a new Unico release that we’ll only see once or twice a year…although not as good as my favorite, the Velvet Rat. I’ll add some additional notes after the big reveal…and, who knows?, the score could change!
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10
P.S.
I was right…and wrong…Drew Estate revealed this to be the Undercrown 10, celebrating 10 years of the Undercrown Maduro.
Technically, the Undercrown series is a “Liga Privada” cigar line. I wasn’t thinking about it being an Undercrown when I predicted the mystery cigar as an LP, though. I thought it was a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, but it is not…the wrapper is a very high priming Mexican San Andres and the binder is a Connecticut Broadleaf…which explains why I couldn’t quite place the wrapper, but thought Broadleaf was a probability. I was way off on price point, with these ranging from $10 to $13, instead of the expected $17 to $20. And they will be available all the time…at least they will be when DE is able to catch up with production, hopefully later this year.
