Cigar Review: Sawtelle Cigars Inkwell

Vitola: Box-pressed torpedo
Size: 6.5″ x 52 ring gauge
Price $7.00
Purchased From SawtelleCigars.com

Background

I “met” Steven a few months ago on Twitter through a group DM that someone setup.  He told us that he would be coming out with a cigar and when he released them for sale I purchased a 5 pack of them to give them a try.  Their purpose statement from their site sounds like a good one:

Founded by Steven Sawtelle and blended in collaboration with HaVé Cigars, Sawtelle Cigars is a premium cigar company that is committed to bringing you the finest cigars at the lowest possible prices.

He has been holding the blend info close to the vest so I don’t know much more than the wrapper is a maduro.  They are hand-rolled at ‘The Smokers Hut’ in Alamogordo, NM.  For the moment they come in one size and a box has 25 cigars.  This was the second cigar I smoked.

Prelight

The first thing I notice on this cigar is the band.  It looks almost like a parchment style paper with a hand drawn S on it.  If you didn’t know anything about the cigar you’d be hard pressed to figure it out by this basic band, but I know they are just starting out.  The wrapper was a nice medium brown in color with some golden and darker mottling to it.  It also had some light oils and tooth to it as well.  The cigar had a good box press to it, but it wasn’t too sharp.  When I gave it a squeeze there was some give to it but there were no soft spots.  I got notes of wood from the wrapper and barnyard from the foot.  After clipping it and taking a cold draw on it I got some hints of raisins with an ok draw.

Flavor

The cigar starts off with a nice sweetness on the tongue.  After a few puffs I started to get some spice on the tongue and retrohale as well.  After a few more puffs I started noticing some wood and leather with the sweet finish still prevalent.  The cigar starts off at medium strength.  The cigar’s flavors didn’t change much as I moved into the second third.  The spice did die down so it was barely in the background now.  The cigar stayed at medium strength.  Once I got into the final third the flavors started to intensify and I noted flavors of coffee, cinnamon, earth and leather.  The spice did come back as well.

Construction

The draw was a little tight to begin with, probably a little too much tobacco in the tapered part of the cigar.  This by the was is the reason I prefer straight sided cigars.  A couple of holes in the filler with my MTX fixed that problem.  The burn was slightly wavy but nothing that needed correction.

Value

A house blend, what this really seems to be, for $7 is a good value in my opinion.

Conclusions

The two samples I smoked of this cigar didn’t really hit me.  The first one seemed kind of young and this one didn’t really come into its own until the final third.  I do know some of the other people who ordered some really liked them.  So I don’t know if these cigars just don’t hit my palate, or there is some inconsistency in the rolling of the cigars.  I’m going to let the other ones I have sit and see how some age affects them.  If you’d like to buy some of your own and see what you think head over to SawtelleCigars.com and they’ll take care of you.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 3/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8/10