Vitola: Toro- 6” x 50 ring gauge
- $9.99
- Purchased at Burns Tobacconist
Background
Seems like it’s been about 10 years since the Camacho Connecticut made its debut. Davidoff acquired Camacho in late 2008 and the Connecticut was the first new line made after the buyout. It was 2013 when they rebranded and redesigned the entire Camacho line, though, with the bright colors and bold fonts still seen today. In 2014, I reviewed the Camacho Connecticut and gave it a “Perfect 10” score. It ended up in the “Honorable Mentions” category for my 2014 Cigar of the Year honors, but remains one of my favorite Connys to this day.
Recently Camacho took their Connecticut classic blend and aged it in used Bourbon barrels for 6 months as part of their “Distillery Edition” series (they also did this with Corojo and Ecuador blends). According to my review and other sources, the Camacho Connecticut uses Honduran Generoso and Dominican Aleman Ligero fillers, a Honduran Corojo binder, and an Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade wrapper. Days after the end of this year’s trade show and the cigars actually showing up in shops, there has apparently been no official announcement of these cigar and no sites have mentioned its existence. I believe these Distillery Editions are the same blends as the original, but I may have to amend this review if further information comes out later.
Something else I don’t do often anymore is review a cigar the first time I smoke it. I’ve smoked a lot of “regular” Camacho Connecticuts, as well as the Box-Pressed version of the blend, but this is the first time I’ve had the Distillery Edition version. I bought it at Burns Tobacconist where I work.
Prelight
The box and banding for this release is kind of a mashup of the regular Connecticut release with the style used for the “Barrel-Aged” releases. The gold and black colors are the same as the Connecticut and Conny Box-Press cigars, while the main band is a little smaller than normal with extra verbiage printed on the back like the barrel-aged band. There is a foot band, as well, which is something we’ve seen on the American Barrel-Aged, Nicaraguan Barrel-Aged and Imperial Stout Barrel-Aged cigars.
The wrapper looks typical of the Conny line, with a gold hue and a smooth, lightly oily feel to it. It had an aroma of wood and hay, while the foot was a little earthy with a touch of booziness mixed in.
Once clipped, the cold draw was very good and it had flavors of hay and vanilla, oak and just a little white pepper.
Flavor
Lighting up, I got a nice sweetness on initial puffs, with notes of honey and hay up front, and vanilla. There was some mild pepper heat and more woody notes on the retrohale. The Connecticut Distillery Edition was mild-plus at the outset. It developed more sweet vanilla as the first third progressed.
The second third saw plenty of that sweet vanilla flavor along with an increase in pepper on both the palate and nose. There was also a corresponding increase in body as it got to be a straight medium-bodied smoke.
In the last third, I got more creamy notes with sweet hay and vanilla leading the charge as pepper spice stayed in the mix. The smoke got hotter as I got down to the end of the stick.
Construction
I had a great draw, very even burn line and solid ash.
Value
Very good cigar for a price that is straight up average, so good value.
Conclusions
This Camacho Connecticut Distillery Edition is definitely an interesting twist on the original blend, but I can’t say I enjoyed it as much as the non-barrel-aged version. It was sweeter, but lost some of the smooth creaminess along the way. I appreciated the notes picked up from the Bourbon barrels, but I really don’t see it as a replacement for the original in my book, so much as an occasional alternative.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10
