Cigar Review: Drew Estate Undercrown Dogma

Vitola: Box Pressed Toro
Size: 6″ x 56 ring gauge
Price $9.95
Obtained From Drew Estate as a review sample

Background

I didn’t really know anything this cigar until I saw posts on Twitter with people trying to win some of the cigars from Cigar Dojo.  This cigar is a commemorative cigar produced by Drew Estate and sold by Smoke Inn.  According to the Cigar Dojo website the blend on this cigar is very similar to the Corona Viva! with a little extra punch than the regular Undercrown.  It is also lightly box pressed which hasn’t been done on the Undercrown line before.  Drew Estate was kind enough to send me two of these cigars for this review.

Prelight

The wrapper looked a little darker than I remember seeing on the other Undercrowns I’ve smoked.  It was a nice dark chocolate brown in color with some almost black mottling to it.  The wrapper also had more oils to it than I remember seeing.  There were some scattered medium veins as well as some tooth to the wrapper.  When I gave it a squeeze it was fairly firm without any soft spots.  I detected the aroma of barnyard from the wrapper with a more intense barnyard aroma from the foot.  After clipping and taking a cold draw on it I got a good draw with notes of cocoa powder and wood.

Flavor

The cigar starts off with a blast of red pepper spice on the tongue and retrohale.  After taking a few puffs on it the flavors of chocolate, coffee, leather and cinnamon started to come through.  Towards the end of this third I started to get a slight creaminess on the finish.  The spice did die down quite a bit by the end of the first third.  I would say it was pretty firmly in the medium range to start.  As I moved into the second third the flavors were very much the same, chocolate, coffee, leather, and cinnamon, as the first third.  The spice started to come back as well as the strength started building slightly.  The finish changed from a creaminess to a sweet and salty flavor.  The final third brought more intense flavors of chocolate and coffee with some cinnamon and leather thrown in.  The final third was squarely in the medium-full range with a slight nicotine hit.

Construction

The draw was perfect throughout.  I did notice a tunnel starting to develop in the first third, but it went away and didn’t cause any problems.  The burn line was slightly ragged in the first third, but by the start of the second third throughout the rest of the cigar the burn was almost perfectly straight.  I will also say that I like box pressed cigars a lot and and this one didn’t disappoint.

Value

While it is a bit more expensive than the regular Undercrown line I don’t think that they have priced it too high at all.

Conclusions

I really enjoyed this cigar so thank you Drew Estate for giving me the chance to give it a try.  If you like the regular Undercrown line I do think that this is something you should try if you are able to.  It looks like the first shipment is out, but Smoke Inn is taking pre-orders on their next shipment here.

By-The-Numbers

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