Vitola: Robusto- 5.25” x 50 ring gauge
- MSRP $10
- Purchased at Belle Meade Premium Cigars
Background
The Boondock Saints was released to the world nearly 20 years ago, a tale of two Irish brothers who exact vengeance on the truly corrupt in their city. It wasn’t quite the introduction of Norman Reedus to the world at large, but it was one of the first movies he got a lot of attention for.
The cigar named after the movie—the Boondocks Saint, to be exact, apparently just named after one of the brothers—was released in the second half of 2017 by Black Works Studio, a division of Black Label Trading Company set up to showcase the talent, technique, and tobacco behind Fabrica Oveja Negra, the boutique factory where the cigars are made. It is meant to be a balanced smoke…bold and complex with subtle flavors…strong, refined and elegant.
They use tobaccos from Nicaragua and the United States (Pennsylvania and Connecticut) in the filler, a Nicaraguan Habano binder, and a Pennsylvanian Broadleaf wrapper. I bought one of the Boondock Saint cigars when I was at Belle Meade Premium Cigars in Nashville a couple weeks ago for an event. That is the cigar I am smoking for this review.
Prelight
The band for Boondock Saint has the name written in an “urban decay” type font, with a gun and rosary to the right of the name. The grip of the pistol has an image of the Virgin Mary on it. So they’ve kept the Catholic and violent imagery so prevalent in the movie.
The color of the wrapper leaf was an even espresso bean brown with a notable amount of oiliness both to the eye and to the touch. The aroma from it was a mix of leather and cocoa powder and coffee beans. The wrapper extended to wrap around the foot, but unlike most closed foot cigars, this foot had a slight taper to it, almost like it was coming to a second head. The aroma from the foot was pretty much the same as from the side of the cigar since the wrapper curled around the foot.
The cold draw was very good and tasted of espresso bean, unsweetened cocoa powder and earth.
Flavor
When fired up, the Boondock Saint brought plenty of pepper spice and earthiness to the forefront, along with a somewhat subdued high-cacao dark chocolate note. It was very good, if not extremely complex right at the outset. After 10 or 15 minutes, the spice mellowed out a bit and the cigar took on a sweeter dark chocolate note overall, with some bready notes mixing with the earth.
The second third saw the flavor further change into a more leathery note with the dark chocolate sweetness taking a secondary role and earth and espresso bean provide more of a finishing note. The pepper spice had all but disappeared on both palate and retrohale.
Sweeter chocolate notes came back to rule the flavor profile in the last third, along with a slight pepper resurgence. The leather and earth notes still played a solid undercurrent along the way.
Construction
Build quality was great. I had a perfect draw, very even burn line and solid ash.
Value
The price tag of $10 seems very reasonable for a small-batch factory output, especially since it’s probably the best thing I’ve had from Black Label.
Conclusions
Boondock Saint was a very good full-bodied smoke with plenty of sweetness from the Pennsylvania and Connecticut leaf to balance out the earth, leather and pepper form the Nicaraguan. I enjoyed it from beginning to end and would definitely enjoy smoking it again.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9.5/10
