Cigar Review: Year of the Rat by Drew Estate

• Vitola: Corona Gorda
• 5.5” x 46 ring gauge 
• MSRP ~$16
• Samples provided by Drew Estate

Background

In another “it’s hard to believe” moment, it has been 10 years since Drew Estate introduced the Liga Privada Ünico Series with the Dirty Rat. Ünicos were always intended to be “unique” cigars that worked outside the regular Liga Privada #9 and T52 lines, although they did share some characteristics with those core blends, including keeping the basic wrapper varieties used on them. The Dirty Rat and Ratzilla use the T52 Connecticut Sungrown Habana wrapper, while releases like Velvet Rat and UF-13 use the #9’s Connecticut Broadleaf.

One of the blends that was very hard to find for a very long time was the Year of the Rat, originally released in 2016 and available only at the Drew Estate Lounge when the Florida Panthers NHL team played, then available for a time after that at specific events where Jonathan Drew was making an appearance. At the 2020 Tobacco Plus Expo (TPE), DE announced that they would be making a wider release, available at any Drew Diplomat event. I’m not sure how that all turned out since cigar events from all companies were canceled for most of March and all of April and May this year. At any rate, they recently sent me some samples for review so here we are.

The Year of the Rat has Nicaraguan and Honduran fillers, a Brazilian binder, and a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, making it a little more closely related to the Velvet Rat and UF-13 than the original Dirty Rat. They are presented in 10-count boxes with a per stick retail price of about $16. Each Drew Diplomat event was supposed to be able to order a maximum of 4 boxes.

Prelight

In 10 years, the presentation of the Ünico Series has changed little. The box has a little more decoration on it than the original Dirty Rat release, but is still mostly naked wood; the band is still the Liga Privada “hand-written” motif, but they have added a foot band reading “2020” and covered the majority of the cigar with gold foil. I can’t find fault with any of the “upgrades,” just as I couldn’t really find fault if they had just left the upgrades off. At least the “bling” is done tastefully in this case.

Like many other Ünico releases, the Year of the Rat has a cap finished in a fan tail. It’s still a cool look and sets the brand apart from most other cigars on the shelves. The wrapper leaf in this case is that beautiful dark chocolate brown that you get from DE’s Connecticut Broadleaf Darks. It smelled of earth and dark roast coffee beans and unsweetened cocoa powder. The foot had a more barnyardy aroma with cedar mixed in.

After clipping, the draw was very good and open. I got cold flavors of tea and coffee, earth, bell pepper, and a slight unsweetened cocoa powder.

Flavor

The Year of the Rat started off with cocoa powder and earth right up front, followed by cedar and black pepper  The retrohale had a stronger pepper note, along with espresso bean. After a few puffs, notes of tea and coffee started emerging on the palate, as well. It started off medium-to-full in body. Before long mildly sweet notes started making themselves known, too, giving up a mocha note. As the first third burned along I picked up on a more substantial coffee note that rivaled the darkest Starbucks roast, charred wood, and unsweetened cocoa powder.

The second started of the same way, with strong espresso roast coffee and unsweetened cocoa powder over earth and black pepper. As it went along a little sweetness crept back into the mix to give a better balance.

The last third of Year of the Rat had dark chocolate semi-sweetness riding at about the same level as espresso bean. There was a little pepper underneath with earth, wood, and leather notes on the finish.

Construction

I had a great draw, very even burn line, and solid ash the entire way.

Value

This is an expensive cigar for the vitola, but if you are a Ünico fan, you’re already used to that. And if you like what Liga Privada blends generally provide, it’s worth the extra coin on occasion.

Conclusions

So after all the hype and anticipation—even after they threw my treasured Connecticut Broadleaf on as a wrapper—Year of the Rat was a little disappointing. Make no mistake, it was very good, but whatever differences there are in the blend here from the Dirty Rat and Velvet Rat make it not as good to me. I did enjoy it, but I would pay an extra couple bucks for a Velvet any day off the week.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10