Cigar Review: Surrogates Satin Glove by L’Atelier

Vitola: Box-pressed Churchill
Size: 7” x 47 ring gauge
MSRP $8.75
Purchased from Burns Tobacconist

Background

The Surrogates line from L’Atelier debuted in wide release about two years ago, just after the 2012 IPCPR trade show. L’Atelier itself is a somewhat odd offshoot of Tatuaje Cigars, not related in name, but co-owned by Tatuaje founder, Pete Johnson, with cigars made by My Father, who make all the Tat lines as well. The original line-up included the Tramp Stamp, Skull Breaker, Bone Crusher and Crystal Baller…4 different sizes of cigars and reportedly 4 different blends (2 had Connecticut Broadleaf wrappers, two had Habano Ecuador). Last year they were joined by Animal Cracker, another Habano Ecuador-wrapped vitola. This year, Satin Glove was introduced and for the first time on a L’Atelier product, they used a Mexican San Andres leaf as wrapper.

I picked up a Satin Glove at Burns recently and decided to save it for the “full review” process. This write-up is based on my first smoking of this blend.

Prelight

The Surrogates line has a reputation for offbeat and humorous names, along with the pictograms that illustrate the different names. Tramp Stamp has a butterfly, and is a sly reference to the original Tatuaje line. Skull Breaker and Bone Crusher reference the Viaje Skull & Bones line. Satin Glove has a glove that looks very much like a red Mickey Mouse glove with too many fingers. And for me the name made me think of Spinal Tap and their apocryphal album “Smell the Glove.” Bottom line, if you liked the previous Surrogates banding, you’ll like this…if not…well, this is unlikely to change your mind.

The San Andres wrapper leaf was rough in texture and a dark chocolate brown in color. The cap wasn’t securely attached, peeling up on the back side. The look of the leaf could have fooled me for some Connecticut Broadleaf, but when I took a whiff of it, I could detect the earthy aroma of San Andres right away (yea, I did just “smell the glove”). The foot had a sweeter earthiness and a slight woodiness to it. Cold drawing was very good and tasted of mildly bitter earth, pepper and cocoa powder.

Flavor

After lighting up the Satin Glove, I immediately picked up on the Mexican bitter earthiness, but there was more to the flavor profile that helped balance it…some cedar, some herbal notes, some semi-sweet chocolate, as well as a healthy dosing of red pepper flake on the retrohale. Through the first third that’s pretty much how the flavor profile sticked…lots of earth and bitter notes, which is to be expected with this wrapper, but also some really interesting sweeter notes to balance it out.

In the second third, more herbal notes came to the fore, breaking through the earthiness to become somewhat the major flavor. A sweeter chocolate note was apparent, as well, and the pepper diminished considerably.

At the end there was a resurgence of the bitter cocoa and earth notes, with less sweetness than before, making the flavor more like some of less favorite Mexican wrapped blends.

Construction

Most Maduro wrappers have a problem burning straight, but this one did so with no touch-ups through the first half. The draw had just the right amount of resistance and the ash was solid for almost half an inch at a time.

Value

At about $9, I’d call this one a good value.

Conclusions

This wasn’t my favorite San Andres wrapped cigar, but it wasn’t my least favorite, either. Fans of the earthiness and bitter aspects that this wrapper brings into play will probably like this a lot. I enjoyed it for most of the journey, appreciating the full body and medium strength, as well as the complexity brought on in the first couple thirds. It’s not a cigar I would buy often, but I would smoke it again.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 1.5/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 3.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8/10