Cigar Review: Undercrown Shade by Drew Estate

• Vitola: Gran Toro
• 6” x 52 ring gauge 
• MSRP $8.25
• Provided by Drew Estate Rep

Background

This year’s “new big thing” from Drew Estate was the Undercrown Shade. It follows on the release of the original Undercrown several years ago, a Mexican-San-Andres-wrapped relative of the Liga Privada line, as well as becomes the first release blended by Willy Herrera, Drew Estate’s Master Blender, to not fall under his Herrera Estelí brand within the company. Willy said of the process of making the Undercrown Shade:

“…I chose to work closely with the rollers responsible for the original Undercrown blend, and challenged them to create a Connecticut blend that would satisfy my palate. It was a long road, taking more than a year to develop. In the end, it was a very rewarding process, as finding a Connecticut blend to fit my palate wasn’t easy. We finally found a marriage of Drew Estate’s unique tobaccos that we believe is really special, and we’re excited to share the new blend with everyone…”

This new blend features fillers from the Dominican Republic (Criollo 98) and Nicaragua (Criollo and Corojo), a Sumatra binder, and an Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper leaf. They released it in 6 different sizes at prices ranging from $7.50 to $9.95 per stick. While it’s not officially released as of this writing, I believe the sample I got during the Chattanooga Tweet-Up to be the final blend and that it has rested long enough in my humidor at home to provide a fair assessment of it. I had previously smoked a sample from the IPCPR show and found it a bit lacking in…well, in something.

Prelight

The look of the banding in white and gold mirrors the original in blue and gold, but looks even more striking, in my opinion. The “SHADE” denoting foot band is hardly necessary when you change the original band so drastically…and when you have a bright golden wrapper leaf, for that matter…but it doesn’t look out of place, either.

Speaking of the wrapper leaf, it was smooth and flawless in appearance, a touch of mottling in a couple places, but otherwise immaculate enough for some other white and gold-banded cigar. The aroma from the leaf was of clean, sweet hay with a touch of earth underlying it. The foot had a stronger earthiness and slightly barnyard aroma. The prelight draw was very good and had mostly sweet hay flavors, with just a minimal touch of pepper.

Flavor

Initial puffs on the Undercrown Shade featured lots of cedar, with earth and sharp red pepper notes also in abundance. A few puffs further in, I picked up some roasted nut flavors and a light grassiness. There was a touch of black pepper on the retrohale and the smoke was overall smooth and creamy. So far, this second experience with the Undercrown Shade was going along better than my first.

Before the first third was over, the body slackened off a bit from medium, where it started, to a mild-to-medium. As I burned through the second third, though, the body picked up again and I noted that earth was taking over for cedar, while the grassiness was fading a bit. The smoke was still creamy and there was a faint, but continual pepper burn.

The last third started with an increased nuttiness, followed by more earth and black pepper, ending the Undercrown Shade back at the medium-bodied level.

Construction

I saw the ash on this cigar burn up to an inch long before I forcefully tapped it off. The draw was a bit tighter than I would prefer, but it didn’t cause any problems. The burn line was perfect.

Value

The price point on the Undercrown Shade is in the sweet spot for sales and it delivers a very good experience.

Conclusions

I found the Undercrown Shade to be a good example of a medium-bodied, Nicaraguan-based Connecticut Shade cigar. It was bold and creamy, earthy and peppery. I would have preferred a bit more sweetness in mix, but there are sure to be many fans of this cigar. Bottom line for me: I liked this one, but didn’t love it…in the last 4 or 5 years a lot of companies have put their stamp on “mild-to-medium-bodied Connecticut Shade” sticks. For me, this one just doesn’t stand out from that crowd very well. Of course, that’s just one vitola…I reserve the right to change my mind if one of the other sizes smokes better!

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 3.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8.5/10