Vitola: Box-Pressed Robusto- 5.5” x 54 ring gauge
- ~$10.50
- Purchased from Burns Tobacconist
Background
It’s about time I got around to reviewing some stuff from Southern Draw, I guess. The brand’s not exactly “new” anymore and I did get a chance to try several of their sticks a few years ago when I worked at Burns in Chattanooga. But the shop didn’t start carrying them until more recently (I haven’t worked there in two years) and I just didn’t have a convenient place to buy them…so I never got around to it.
Southern Draw is owned by Robert and Sharon Holt and the company has been kicking for going on a decade now (somewhere between 5 and 10 years, anyway). The Rose of Sharon is named after Robert’s wife and business partner and was intended as a milder cigar in a line that was getting known for its more medium-and-full-bodied offerings like Kudzu and Firethorn. Rose of Sharon originally came out in 2016 with more widespread distribution happening in 2017.
Rose of Sharon is made in the AJ Fernandez factory in Nicaragua and uses Nicaraguan Viso and Seco, as well as Dominican Piloto Cubano Ligero in the filler, a Nicaraguan binder, and an Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade wrapper.
I first had the Rose of Sharon about a month and a half ago. Since then I’ve smoked 3 or 4 in a couple different sizes. I bought this review sample at Burns Tobacconist. If your local B&M doesn’t carry Southern Draw, you can find them on Small Batch Cigar, a Leaf Enthusiast sponsor. I got some background information from Cigar-Coop’s review of the Lancero vitola (which is also very good).
Prelight
The boxes for Southern Draw’s lines are very basic and unadorned. Almost too much so, to be honest…I missed seeing them in two different shops I visited. My eyes just skipped right over them. The bands are nice, though, using an almost “old west” motif to the look and feel, along with color-coding the design so you can tell what blend you’re looking at by just glancing. The Rose of Sharon is a soft pink color framed in black with plenty of gold foil for the type and decoration.
A couple things I noted about this Connecticut Shade-wrapped cigar…it’s quite unusual to see a box-pressed Conny. I remember having a conversation about the matter a few years ago and the three of us talking about it couldn’t find a single example of a box-pressed Connecticut Shade stick in the largest walk-in humidor in Tennessee. I also found this one to be quite oily as Connies go. It was smooth and smelled of clean hay, with just a whiff of earth underneath. The foot didn’t really have anything additional because it has the wrapper folded over it.
The prelight draw was slightly tight due to the closed foot, but it was for a good reason so I didn’t think it would carry through to the actual smoking experience. The cold draw flavors were of sweet hay, cedar, earth, and white pepper.
Flavor
Once fired up the Rose of Sharon was grassy and slightly earthy, with nice overtones of wood and more pepper than I would normally expect in a Connecticut Shade stick. While the first couple minutes featured a bit of a tight draw, it got better very quickly. The retrohale had notes of cedar and white pepper, with less heat than I was getting on my palate. As the first third continued I got slight notes of vanilla and maple in the mix, which was particularly delightful.
The Rose got more grassy in the second third, losing a bit of the sweetness it had displayed in the first. There was more earth and wood character to the flavor profile as well.
The sweetness came back in the final third in the form of a citrus zing, blending really well with the grassiness and underlying earth and cedar. There wasn’t much pepper left in the mix by this time.
Construction
I had an excellent draw, very even burn line, and solid ash throughout.
Value
The Rose of Sharon is at the top of the “average” price range for cigars these days, but it does provide a very good “milder” smoking experience, so it’s well worth it.
Conclusions
The Rose of Sharon is definitely a highlight of the Southern Draw catalog and it is the best Connecticut Shade cigar I have had coming from the AJ Fernandez catalog. It was mild-to-medium in body and had a really nice amount of complexity, keeping my interest from end to end.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9.5/10
