Vitola: Toro- 6 x 52 ring gauge
- ~$6.75
- Cigar provided by J.C. Newman
Background
Late last year, J.C. Newman Cigars sent me some samples of the Brick House Maduro Mighty Mighty. I’m really not a fan of the 60 ring gauge format, but did find myself enjoying these…and wrote about it with a beer pairing. This year Newman is a sponsor of Leaf Enthusiast and also decided to send samples of many of their brands for review. While I didn’t look forward to the Mighty Mighty size of this blend last year, I actually did look forward to smoking this Toro size after enjoying the larger one.
As a reminder, Brick House Maduro is made up of the same Nicaraguan filler and binder as the classic Brick House, to which they add a Brazilian Arapiraca wrapper leaf. It is made in the J.C. Newman factory in Nicaragua and distributed alongside Arturo Fuente Cigars in the United States.
The Brick House being an inexpensive, ubiquitous, and “ordinary” cigar, I elected to pair it with a Bourbon that fit the same bill: Four Roses…yeah, the one referred to as “Yellow Label,” even the label isn’t yellow anymore. Four Roses has two mash bills for their bourbons…”B” uses 60% corn, 35% rye, and 5% barley…”E” has 75% corn, 20% rye, and 5% barley…Yellow Label (and all the Small Batch branded ones, for that matter) uses a mixture of E & B.
Our can buy Brick House cigars almost anywhere that sells fine cigars in the country, but if your local shop doesn’t carry them, check out our sponsor, Small Batch Cigars.
Notes
Brick House Maduro’s wrapper is that classic dark chocolate brown you may have come to expect from a Maduro wrapper leaf. It had a little veininess, but wasn’t as oily as I would like to see. I got notes of earth and anise and espresso bean from it, while the foot was much earthier, notes of manure overlaying some cedar and cocoa powder. The cold draw was very easy and had coffee and cocoa powder notes mostly.
Once I fired it up, I got strong earthy flavor, along with leather and espresso bean, followed by a little pepper spice. The retrohale had more leather and a fiery red pepper burn. As I progressed through the Brick House Maduro I was pleased by the balance of earth and chocolate, leather and coffee, along with just enough pepper spice to keep me on my toes.
The Four Roses proved to be a more than adequate Bourbon to stand with the Brick House, although with a cigar that was more complex and rich, it might be easily overshadowed. As it was, though, both are in that “solidly good” category…pleasing and inexpensive enough to enjoy on a regular basis, while saving something better (think “Diamond Crown Black Diamond” and “Stagg Jr”) for times more special.
