Brand Overview: Sindicato

Originally published at Tiki Bar Online

Quite a few cigar shops have “house blends” or “exclusives” made by big companies specially for them. Some others actually have taken the next step of investing in a brand and a blend they can carry themselves and sell to other shops. Sindicato Cigars seems to be an extension of these ideas. Take a few dozen cigar shop owners, pool some resources, get the former executive from one of the largest cigar companies in American to run it for you, and produce a line of distinct blends…and try not to upset the manufactures who you normally buy from in the process, because now you are competing with them. I don’t really have any insight into what manufacturers feel about this venture because I haven’t had the opportunity to ask, but I’m sure there are some who are less than happy about yet another competitor.

Spearheading this new company is Abe Dababneh from Smoke Inn; he is their Chairman of the Board and probably the most vocal retailer in the group. The President and CEO of Sindicato is Jim Colucci, formerly of Altadis. I didn’t know until a couple weeks before the retail show, but my home shop (Burns Tobacconist) is one of the retailers in the group, so I would expect to see these show up on our shelves at some point in the near future. Sindicato sent me 2 samples of each blend and one of each went to Keith, so he may be publishing full reviews at some point in the future. For myself, I decided to just do a “company introduction” type of post…some general notes on all 3 blends. Let’s get smokin’…

CASA BELLA

I decided to start at the shallow end of the pool. And by shallow end, I mean cheap. Casa Bella is a Dominican-made bundle-level stick with a MSRP between $1.65 and $2.10 per stick. It has Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers, an Indonesian binder and an Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper. Their sell sheet says it will “deliver a smooth, flavorful mild to medium bodied smoke.”

They sent the Churchill size in the Casa Bella, not the size I would have picked if I had bought it myself, but the 52 ring gauge should be “medium-sized” enough to get a good sense of the blend qualities. At $1.95 a stick, I do have to admit that the price is fantastic. The band looks like a bundle cigar band, but that’s to be expected…you have to save money wherever you can to offer cigars at this price. And honestly, it looks better than the bands on some sticks I could name with price tags 3 to 4 times as high. The wrapper looked surprisingly smooth and blemish-free for this price point and the aroma from the leaf was sweet hay and a little graham cracker. The scent from the foot was odd…a little earthy, but more of that graham cracker note along with a bit of cinnamon this time. Suddenly I’m hungry for Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal.

One of the ways to save money in cigar production is to use short filler or mixed filler. There was no indication saying the Casa Bella does so, but there’s also no “long filler” declaration, so I suspect it to be short or mixed. Therefore, I took a punch cutter to the end of the cigar. The punch pulled a clean plug from the head and I took a cold draw: more of that cinnamon and graham cracker flavor! After lighting, I got more traditional mild cigar flavors: some sweet hay and grass, a bit of cedar, a touch of earth. The smoke was fairly thin but the draw was easy and the flavor was quite good. There was a touch of pepper spice on the retrohale, but it dissipated very quickly.

As I smoked through the first third and into the second, Casa Bella defied my expectation that it would be just another bundle stick. It was actually quite tasty. Not the best Connecticut Shade cigar I’ve ever had, but almost definitely the best sub-$2 stick I’ve had…definitely the best I can remember.

AFFINITY

Next up I’ll look at Affinity, a cigar that Abe says “will be enjoyed most by those who enjoy a mild cigar but are looking for some flavor and body.” It uses Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers again, a Nicaraguan binder, and an Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper. It will retail for between $6 and $7.50. The sample I smoked was the Belicoso. The wrapper leaf was a beauty, with no visible flaws. The cigar was a bit lumpy, but that was the shape created by the bunch and binder underneath the wrapper. The wrapper had a sweet hay aroma, while the foot was sweet and earthy smelling. Giving it a pre-light test, I found the draw easy and the flavor a mix of grass, earth and cedar.

After lighting the Affinity, I got initial flavors of hay and cedar on the palate, along with a sharp pepper spice on the nose…sharp, but not necessarily intense. The pepper burn hit for a few seconds, then faded quickly. In the first few minutes of puffs on this cigar, I found myself enjoying it quite a bit. As I finished the first third, I still found the Affinity to be a pleasant smoke, but it seemed like it was lacking in something…I just had the sense that it didn’t bring anything new to the table.

Late in the second third, I did get something new, though; the overall sweetness increased quite suddenly at one point. It imparted a graham cracker and milk chocolate note that paired very well with my coffee, though it didn’t lose the pepper bite from the Nicaraguan leaf. As I got into the final third, there was a lessening of the sweetness and an increase in earth and darker coffee notes, but it all balanced very well.

Again this is based on a single stick, possibly to be designated “pre-release,” and in a vitola I would not have chosen, but this is my take on Affinity: it started off with promise, got a bit dull toward the middle, then picked up steam and interest as it pushed toward the end. Overall not a bad cigar and I’ll be interested to see how it performs in a different size and with a bit more time to rest and for flavors to marry.

HEX

Hex is said to be Abe’s favorite of this initial release, and is supposed to be a “refined medium to full-bodied cigar.” It is made in Condega, Nicaragua, using Nicaraguan filler and binder, along with a “Select Dark Ecuadorian” Habano wrapper leaf. MSRP on this line is between $7 and $9 per stick. Looking at the spec sheet, I see that they have put these in what I would call a very, very narrow segment of the market with ring gauges of only 52 and 54 spread among the 5 sizes. It’s possible they just found the size that works for this blend or maybe they are planning to expand to smaller (because a lot of us like those) and bigger (sadly, yes, the big ring gauge sticks will sell) ring gauges after they can gauge how these sell.

Appearance-wise, the Hex is cool. The paper looks textured at first, but looking closer, I didn’t see any texture under the silver foil decoration on either side of the word “hex” or in those letters themselves, so it made me realize that the texture was all just part of the embossing / debossing process. Very clever. The wrapper was a shade darker than milk chocolate in color and quite oily to the touch and to the eye. The pigtail was wound tight on the head and there were no veins larger than medium-sized. on the wrapper I got an aroma of earth along with more minor notes of wood and cocoa powder. The foot was more aromatic, with sweeter chocolate and coffee aromas mixed with the pungent earthiness. The prelight draw was slightly snug, but didn’t feel so tight that I wouldn’t enjoy the stick. The flavors were predominantly cocoa powder, with some earthiness.

At the outset, the Hex was leathery with quite of bit of earth and sweet chocolate coming through as well. The draw was a bit tight as I had expected, so the smoke production wasn’t exactly chimney-like, but what smoke there was was oily and fairly full-bodied. The retrohale was nutty with hints of dark roast coffee and just the slightest bit of pepper spice. As I smoked through the first third, I got a bready note of sorts. Odd, but nice.

By the halfway mark, I had a pretty good idea of where this cigar was going. The Hex was definitely on the full side of medium-to-full bodied, though I didn’t consider the strength to be very high. The flavors were very good, but not exceptional. It was leathery and earthy with cocoa powder and coffee notes. In other words, I solid Nicaraguan stick, but not something that made my palate get up and dance for joy. I think this bears revisiting at some point in the future, preferably when they decide to product something in the way of a Corona or Corona Gorda vitola.

IN CONCLUSION…

I think the Sindicato brand has started off with some serious potential. While I wasn’t bowled over by any of the blends, you do have to remember that they were pre-release and have to be judged on that basis. All do have some unique aspects to them and may benefit from some resting and aging time, and possibly a few minor tweaks. It occurs to me that the first order of business in bring out these new lines might not have been to cater to the hard-core cigar enthusiast, but to produce something that a wider audience could enjoy, and maybe that’s just what we have here…something that can be a step up in terms of flavor, body and artisanal quality from the best-selling cigars in the country. I look forward to seeing where this experiment goes.