Cigar Review: Headley Grange by Crowned Heads

Originally published at Tiki Bar Online

Eminentes (Petite Corona), 5.25” x 44 ring gauge / approx. $8, Burns Tobacconist

When Headley Grange was released in one size last year, I seemed to be one of the few not blown away by the experience. I liked it, but I didn’t fall in love with the blend the way I had Four Kicks, Crowned Heads’ first release. “To each his own,” I thought, followed by, “Maybe it will hit me better in one of the sizes to be released later.” Fast forward to the first quarter of 2013 and the release of the four new sizes. My first move was to the Eminentes, basically a Petite Corona…and I suddenly got it. This vitola popped in this blend. (I tried the Corona Gorda, too, soon after and found it better than the original vitola (Estupendos) but not as flavorful as the Eminentes). I decided to throw a stick in my review humidor, although it took me over a month to actually get to it…I did smoke a couple more of this size in the meantime. For the sake of complete information: Headley Grange is made by EP Carrillo Cigars (Tabacalera La Alianza) in the Dominican Republic and is sold by Crowned Heads. It uses Nicaraguan filler and binder along with an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper. I bought the stick for this review at Burns.

Some say great cigars will sell themselves even without a band or box…I have to respectfully disagree: a great salesman can sell anything while they are standing in a shop, but for the cigar to sell itself, it has to have something that gets the attention of the consumer. The Headley Grange box is a traditional paper-covered affair, a throwback to a traditional box style in the same way their earlier Four Kicks unadorned wooden box was a throwback to a classic style. The banding steps away a bit in ornateness as compared with the logo shown on the box lid. Instead of repeating that logo, “Headley Grange” and “República Dominicana” are rendered in a thin, condensed font style. More of the heavy lifting in the area of style is done here through the use of embossing. Taken all together, it gives you a sense of an homage of sorts to an earlier time when bands were not so fussy, and the ornateness of the box was because of what was printed on it, not because it was cut or molded into some bizarre shape. The cigar itself is a mildly box-pressed stick that ships without cellophane (another traditional thing, but one I can live without when I see how many un-cello’d sticks get damaged in the humidor at my local cigar shop). The wrapper leaf was pleasingly oily to the touch, although not so much to the eye. It was a dark tan color with slightly lighter color around the veins and it had a slightly sweet, slightly barnyardy aroma to it. I didn’t get much aroma from the foot…a little black pepper, maybe. After clipping the prelight draw was excellent; it had flavors of sweet hay, earth, and a little bit of pepper spice.

After sparking up the Headley Grange, I got a dry cocoa powder note, along with a mild sweetness, and a metallic, mineral note that I often associate with Sumatran wrapper. Through the nose, the smoke was nutty with a bit of red pepper. With any flavors found in any particular cigar the key is balance…just enough sweetness, just enough bitterness…and this vitola seems to me to be very well balanced.

Moving into the second third, the sweetness increased a bit and the metallic note faded some. The red pepper on the nose had changed to a less biting note, more of a black pepper. Construction was excellent so far; the draw was great, the burn line was mostly even, and the ash held on solidly for over half an inch.

In the last third, the Headley Grange Eminentes got creamy and smooth, tasting mostly just of sweet, refined tobacco. There was a little pepper spice still, a bit of cedar, and a hint of metal, but overall it was a fantastic balance of flavors. I found body to be in the medium-plus area, bordering on medium-to-full, and the strength was about medium. The takeaway here: if your senses don’t get fired up from one particular vitola of a cigar, you owe it to yourself to try a different one and see if it hits you better. I did and it turned out to be fantastic.

Body: 7/10
Strength: 6/10
Complexity: 7/10

AFP Scale

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9.5/10