Cigar Review: Ezra Zion Tantrum

Originally published at Tiki Bar Online

Corona (Box-Pressed), 4” x 44 ring gauge / ~$9, approx MSRP

I picked this cigar up at the Chattanooga Tweetup as it was one of the cigars Ezra Zion sent as part of their sponsorship of the event. I heard that this cigar was a firecracker and that definitely piqued my interest. They come packed 28 to a box and are limited to 1500 boxes total production. They are comprised of Nicaraguan fillers and binder with a Cuban seed corojo wrapper. This was the only one of these I smoked.

The wrapper on this cigar was a milk chocolate brown in color with a slightly reddish hint. There were a few medium veins to the wrapper as well. The cigar is box pressed, but not very sharply. The cigar was fairly firm to the touch without any soft spots. Putting my nose to the wrapper I got notes of leather and hay with barnyard coming from the foot. After clipping the cigar and taking a cold draw on it I got notes of cinnamon and leather.

The cigar started off with a huge blast of spice on the tongue and retrohale. The retrohale had a red pepper like burn. After a few puffs I started to get some notes of leather and cream coming though. One thing I experienced with this cigar that I haven’t really experienced before (at least with my contacts in) is the smoke was so strong (not volume) that my eyes started to water from it. The cigar definitely started off full strength and body. While the draw was perfect the burn was slightly wavy.

As I moved into the second third the spice was still definitely the main component of the cigar. I started to get some leather and earth flavors from it. The construction continued as in the previous third.

The final third finished off with more of the same. The spice came back in waves. I started to get a slight nicotine hit from it as well.

Overall, while not the most complex cigar I definitely enjoyed it. I would like to see what some age would do to this cigar. I was tweeting with Kyle (@EzraZionCigars) while I smoked this cigar and I asked if this cigar was 100% ligero, and his was response was almost. So don’t let this little cigar fool you with its size.

Body: 8/10
Strength: 9/10
Complexity: 7/10

AFP Scale

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 1.5/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10