Vitola: Toro- 6” x 52 ring gauge
- ~$15.50
- Sample provided by Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust
Background
StillWell Star is the newest line of cigars from Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust. Brand owner, Steve Saka, went into this project with the specific intent to blend the experiences of pipe and cigar smoking at a higher level than had previously been executed. He worked with Jeremy Reeves, the head blender for pipe tobacco maker Cornell & Diehl, to get the best results from the four different StillWell Star blends. In previous installments of this series, I looked at the Aromatic No, 1 and English No. 27 blends.
Today I’m taking a look at the Bayou No. 32 version of StillWell Star. Like the others in the series, it uses a high-priming, Grade A Ecuadorian Habano wrapper over a San Andres Negro binder. Bayou No. 32 uses starts with a medium-bodied Nicaraguan filler and adds Bright and Red Virginia leaf, along with “select St. James Parish Perique pipe tobacco.”
Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust provided me with a single sample of each blend in this line, so this is the first time I’ve smoked the Bayou No. 32. If your local shop doesn’t carry them, check out our sponsor, Small Batch Cigar.
Prelight
All the StillWell Star blends look the same except for the foot band that declares the blend name. As I’ve noted before, it’s a good look and I wouldn’t change it, unless it would to be the practice of color-coding each blend so it’s more easily recognizable at a glance. Maybe that was tried, though, and they could’t find four colors that worked well.
The wrapper was smooth and slightly oily, smelling of earth, hay, and a touch of leather. The foot had grass, earth, and citrus sweetness on the nose.
I clipped the head and got an excellent cold draw that had flavors of orange and mint for a little list of a cooling sensation. There was a little earth and cedar in the mix, as well.
Flavor
Once fired up the StillWell Star Bayou No. 32 had a lot of grassiness and citrus, both light lemon and sweeter orange flavor. The main secondary note was of cedar, with some white pepper and leather coming through on the finish. The retrohale was a little more peppery with notes of leather and roasted nuts. Throughout the first third, I definitely got a cooling sensation in the smoke, not quite a mint flavor, but the same type of sensation of artificial cooling in the mouth. It carried more citrus and grassy notes than anything else, really.
As I got into the second third, I continued to get citrus, but the grassy flavors came more to the front of the profile, accompanied by an increase in cedar and a little more pepper than I was getting in the first third.
Pepper increased as I worked my way through the last third, but it wasn’t so much the white pepper or even a black pepper that was burning. It was something closer to cinnamon, but not quite…”cedar spice” is probably the best description. There was earth, too, and a little of the citrus sweetness left over, but really none of the grassiness.
Construction
I had a great draw, very even burn line, and solid ash.
Value
As a very good mix of pipe and cigar tobacco experiences, I would call this a good value, even at the slightly higher than “average” price tag.
Conclusions
The StillWell Star Bayou No. 32 was a very good mix of Virginias and Perique with Nicaraguan leaf, and provided an interesting and complex smoking experience, although one that didn’t quite hit my palate in all the right ways. If you are a fan of pipe tobacco sprinkled with Perique, you’ll probably really enjoy this blend, though.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 3.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8.5/10
