Cigar Review: Caldwell Long Live the King Harem

Vitola: Corona Gorda
Size: 4″ x 44 ring gauge
Price $6.00
Obtained From SmallBatchCigar.com as a review sample

Background

Today I’ll be looking at the latest shop exclusive for our sponsor SmallBatchCigar.com, the Caldwell Long Live the King Harem.  This is the latest in their line of small size exclusives from different manufacturers.  This cigar is slightly larger than their other exclusive from Caldwell, the Marble House.  Like that one it is a slight tweak of the blend, of a Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers, a Dominican binder and wrapper, to make the size work.  The cigars have an initial production run (and may be only production run) of 150 boxes of 27 each.  The cigar I got to smoke was a pre-release, but it only differed from the production run by the lack of the band, and a couple weeks less age.  This was the first one of these I got to smoke.

Prelight

The wrapper was a nice ruddy brown in color with some medium veins to it.  There was a good amount of oils to it, and some light tooth.  When I gave it a squeeze there was a slight amount of give without any soft spots.  It also sports a pigtail cap like the one found on the Marble House.  Putting my nose up to the wrapper I noted the aroma of leather, with leather and wood coming from the foot.  After clipping it and taking a cold draw on it I got a good draw with some sweet notes.

Flavor

It starts off with some spice on the tongue and some light spice on the retrohale.  After a few puffs the burn on the retrohale became more intense and more wasabi-like.  I also noticed the flavors of leather and green herbs and a sweet finish starting to come through.  The cigar starts off medium-full strength.  When I got into the second third the flavors changed slightly to wood and leather with the sweet finish still there.  The spice was still there but had decreased in intensity.  It stayed at medium-full strength.  The final third saw some earthy flavors added in with the spice building a bit.

Construction

The draw was perfect throughout.  The burn line was a little wavy but that might have been due to the breeze.

Value

It’s nice to see a limited run cigar that doesn’t break the bank.

Conclusions

I definitely enjoyed this tasty little cigar, in spite of not really liking the larger sizes of this blend.  Size does really make a difference.  I also liked that it had enough strength to be interesting, but not too much to be overwhelming.  The cigar did smoke fairly quickly but that could have been due to the breeze.  I will be picking up more of these to enjoy, and if you’d like to get some yourself head over to our sponsor and grab some before they’re all gone.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10