Cigar Previews, Part 9

SPECIAL CRAFT SERIES by Perdomo

Apparently hoping to tie in with the “craft beer” fad that is sweeping the country, Perdomo’s 2015 line addition is the “Special Craft Series.” In typical Perdomo fashion the blend has 3 wrapper options, although this time they are keyed to what type of beer you should pair the stogie with…Pilsner, Amber, and Stout taking the place of the normal “Connecticut Shade,” “Sungrown,” and “Maduro” appellations. I was able to try out a couple of these sticks recently. (some info from Cigar-Coop)

The Pilsner was gifted to me by one of my customers who won a box of them during the Chattanooga Tweet-Up. He was really happy to win these because he smokes primarily milder cigars. The wrapper here is U.S. Connecticut Shade and it features Nicaraguan fillers and binder with a pairing goal of cream ales, golden lagers, pilsners and white ales. The band on this thing covered literally about 3/4 of the cigar…a little much…so much that you can’t really tell what the wrapper leaf looks like.

Once I removed the band I saw a golden Shade wrapper leaf with a slight tinge of green to it. It had an aroma of clean hay, while the foot had a nice earthiness. I lit it up and right off the bat, I got a solid earthiness to the smoke. I would call it mild-plus in body at the start, with a touch of creaminess and a decent amount of nuttiness…almost a toasted almond note. There was a nice pepper burn on the nose, as well.

As I got to the heart of the cigar, I got a stronger toasted almond note, some dry cedar, continued earthiness and creaminess, and a better-defined white pepper note on the palate, with black pepper on the nose.

The “Stout” features a Nicaraguan Jalapa Maduro wrapper leaf, a binder from Condega, and fillers from Esteli. It is meant to be paired with dark beers like stouts, porters, or brown ales.

When I removed the large sleeve from the cigar and took a whiff, the wrapper had a strong, heady earthiness and it felt quite oily under my fingertips. The cold draw had notes of earth and raisin.

I lit it up and was greeted by flavors of earth and bittersweet chocolate. Further puffing brought out some minor oak notes and a bit of pepper on the retrohale. One thing that was remarkable was the short, clean finish, which isn’t seen often on Maduro cigars.

The Special Craft Series Stout started off quite enjoyably, but it didn’t remain that way for long for me. By the midway point I was getting more dry cocoa powder than anything else, without much in the way of the sweetness that usually characterizes Perdomo’s Maduros. Maybe it would go better actually with a Guinness…but I didn’t have that option while I smoked it, so I ended up discarding it soon into the second half.

As far as bringing these into a shop…I guess I’m not completely sold on the idea of the “craft beer” tie-in, although I can see the advantage if you had a store where craft beers were available. It’s an interesting concept on its own, but without the possibility of cross-selling beer and cigars, it just might not be a great fit for a shop.

CLE PLUS

When I got the CLE booth tour, I was handed a CLE Plus with the explanation that it had been changed. I went looking for information when it came time to write about it and Cigar-Coop came to the rescue again. I’ll say this right now…if you are looking for the best, most consistent course for cigar industry news, you should be looking at Will Cooper’s site.

So…the CLE Plus has a new blend and some new sizes and is made at a new factory. The wrapper is described as “Colorado” (no country) and the binder and filler are Honduran. I had the Robusto, which is the only size that the revamped CLE Plus has in common with the previous version.

I lit this one up as I was working a few days ago. I found the Honduran-heavy blend did muddy up the earthiness in the blend a bit, but I got some pepper and spice from the Corojo in the blend. I picked up a little bit of sweetness and found it to be medium-plus in body right at the beginning.

About halfway through, I found myself really enjoying the CLE Plus. It wasn’t a flavor powerhouse, but it was very good and I would rate it above the other “regular” CLE lines like the Cuarenta, Corojo, and Connecticut (but beneath the Special Selection). The price will probably be more in line with those regular line smokes so I would say this is something to bring in if a store is already doing well with CLE’s other cigars.

CORTO by Warped Cigars

Corto is a new annual limited production stick from Warped that is being called their strongest cigar to date. It’s a Nicaraguan puro, made by the Casa Fernandez folks and will come in one size, a 4.5 x 50, this year. Each year’s release will be a new size. (Cigar-Coop)

I found this to be a neat, well-constructed softly box-pressed cigar with a sweet hay and honey aroma to the wrapper. The cold draw had earth and wood, as well as more light sweetness to it. Without even lighting, I was already enjoying the cigar. Initial puffs revealed a lot of cedar and earth, as well as tons of pepper on the nose and more pepper on the finish.

After a third, I was still getting lots of cedar…typical of natural-wrapped Casa Fernandez blends for me…there were some sweet notes as well. At this point I realized that I liked this blend…but I really didn’t love it. I would smoke it again, but I can’t see springing for a whole box of them.

Bottom line: Warped fanboys are going to go crazy over this and buy them out. Those who aren’t already Warped fans probably aren’t going to be swayed by the Corto.

PSYKO SEVEN MADURO by Ventura Cigar Company

Falling squarely into the “new to me” category is this Psyko Seven Maduro from Ventura Cigar Company. I had heard of Ventura’s cigars before but never got a chance to try one until recently when I burned a Project805 Maduro. I found it to be quite a compelling smoke and it made me want to make sure to include this Psyko Seven as part of my “preview” project.

The band on this stick was unique, to say the least. The outer band was modeled on a prescription pad showing the size and exact tobacco makeup (Mexican San Andres wrapper, Ecuador Hybrid binder, Nicaraguan Ligero, Peruvian Pelo de Oro, Honduran Holancha Seco, Dominican hybrid and USA Pennsylvania Ligero fillers) and signed by “El Diablo Blanco” (The White Devil). The tagline is “Medicate Your Mind” and plenty of refills are indicated.

The dark brown wrapper had an earthy sweet aroma, while the foot had notes of barnyard and ripe fruit. Once lit I got chocolate notes right off, with raisin, Cuban coffee, and earth following closely behind. The retrohale was spicy and nutty.

As you would expect from such a varied supply of tobaccos that are included (a seven! country blend), the Psyko Seven Maduro was a complex and layered cigar. Combined with its unique packaging and moderately high amount of social media buzz, I would call this a perfect candidate to bring into almost any shop.