Cigar Extra: Liga Privada #9 Drew Estate Lounge Edition

• Vitola: Cuadrado
• 6” x 50 ring gauge 
• $14.40
• Provided by Drew Estate

Background

There’s nothing all that new about the Liga Privada #9 from Drew Estate. As the story goes, Steve Saka worked through 8 blends before coming to the ninth one that was released in 2006. The cigar employs Honduran and Nicaraguan fillers, a Brazilian Mata Fina binder, and a Connecticut Broadleaf “#1 Darks” wrapper.

What is new is the Drew Estate Lounge Exclusive version made for Corona Cigar Co. in Orlando, Florida, a box-pressed Toro that is only one in a line of six exclusives, all of similar size and al box-pressed. Recently Drew Estate sent me a “care package” that included one of each of these new vitolas and I decided to present them in the Cigar Extra format.

To get your own, you generally have to visit Corona Cigar in Orlando. Their website shows the cigars along with a message to the effect that Drew Estate has prohibited them from selling online for the time being.

Notes

The box press on this Liga #9 extends to the cap which is boxy in a way I’ve seen only on the CAO Flathead and the Drew Estate/Rocky Patel Java. For this reason, I elected to punch this stick rather than apply my regular straight cut. It also made me realize that it is past time for me to get a new punch cutter…Xikar makes some really nice ones.

Other than the boxy aspect, the appearance is in line with other LP #9 sticks, with its dark, oily Broadleaf wrapper and faux-handwritten label. A secondary label declares “Corona Cigar Co.,” “Exclusivamente Drew Estate Lounge,” and “Orlando, Florida.”

Prelight draw was sweet and earthy. Initial puffs revealed a much better draw than most LP #9s I’ve had in the last few years. Most of the time, the blend tends to be fairly firmly packed, but apparently the box pressing on this one loosened it up…or required that the packing be looser to begin with.

With the looser draw, the flavor exploded fairly immediately. I got earth, cocoa powder and pepper spice on the palate, along with more pepper on the nose. The sweetness comes in pretty quickly behind that. That natural sweetness is one of the things I love best about a Broadleaf wrapper.

The better draw on this vitola really was a revelation. I enjoyed this stick more than almost any LP #9 I’ve had before…and I really liked the blend before! I’d love to get my hands on more of these, or even better…I’d love if all the vitolas smoked like this one. I might try some more of the regular sizes we sell at Burns and see if they smoke better if I dry box them a bit…or maybe my earlier impressions of them having a tight draw were just based on one particular batch.