Vitola: LC54?
Size: 5.5″ x 54 ring gauge
Price $9.70 MSRP
Review Sample from SmallBatchCigar.com
Background
Crowned Heads introduced the Las Calaveras cigar in 2014 and has been a pretty popular release from the start. The cigar was inspired by the zinc etching of La Calavera Catrina by José Guadalupe Posada. This year’s release will again be produced by My Father Cigar Company. This year’s cigar is comprised of a filler and binder from Nicaragua with an Ecuadorian Habano maduro wrapper. It comes in three regular sizes LC46 (5.625″ x 46), LC50 (5″ x 50), and LC52 (6″ x 52). They come packed 24 to a box and range in price from $9.75 to $11.75. They are also making a 4 count sampler box with one each of the above cigars with one of the ones I’m reviewing here. There were only 3,000 of the sample boxes produced. I smoked one LC46 and one of these sizes for the review.
Prelight
The wrapper on this sample was a mottled dark and medium brown with some golden streaks to it. It exhibited a good amount of tooth and there was some oil to it as well. The band is definitely different than the previous releases having a black background instead of a white or off white one. When I gave it a squeeze there was a slight amount of give but without any soft spots. When I put my nose to the wrapper I got the aroma of leather, with some barnyard coming from the foot. After clipping it and taking a cold draw I got notes of sweetness and wood.
Flavor
As you might expect from a My Father product the cigar starts off with a good amount of spice on the retrohale and the tongue. After a few puffs the flavors of wood, leather, earth and coffee started to come through all with a sweet finish. The cigar starts off at the upper end of medium strength. Moving into the second third saw the spice mellow out, but not go completely away. I tasted lots of earth, wood, coffee, and tobacco with a very slight sweet finish. The cigar moved slightly up into the medium-full strength range. Once I got into the final third the spice did strengthen, but didn’t get to the same level as the first third though. The strength of the cigar built though and I did get a slight nicotine hit from it. The flavors in the final third were pretty similar to the previous two thirds; wood, cocoa, earth and coffee.
Construction
The cigar burned and drew perfectly throughout.
Value
I’m glad to see a company that is able to come out with a reasonably priced limited edition cigar.
Conclusions
This might be the Las Calaveras release that I’ve enjoyed the most. It is stronger than what I remember from previous releases so it may not work for everyone. I would like to see how some age treats these cigars and I’ll be picking a few up. If you’d like to give them a try SmallBatchCigar.com has them in stock right now.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10
