Originally published on Tiki Bar Online
The idea is so crazy, you might almost think it came from the lunatic genius writings of someone like Nikola Tesla, but I have it on good authority that it was Michael Giannini who decided that for its second year of production the Foundry Cigar Company should release about 78 different blends. I exaggerate…in reality, it’s only about 20 different blends…in a single year. I’m pretty sure there are no people on the planet besides Mr. Giannini who has smoked every blend, and I’m pretty sure he couldn’t identify every one of them if he was made to smoke them blindfolded. I’m willing to be disproven on that, though…
So Foundry’s “regular” release this year is the “War of Currents,” celebrating the AC versus DC battle that raged 100 years ago between Tesla and Thomas Edison. Tesla’s AC won that battle, but Edison conned everyone into thinking he was smarter…now we have AC delivered by “Edison” branded power companies. Blasphemy.
Back to the cigars…”The Inventions” are a 4-vitola line that will be permanent in the War of Currents line, while “The Laboratories” is a 2-vitola small batch release with a funky little widget metal band over the regular paper band. I smoked one of the “Laboratories” a couple weeks ago and enjoyed it much more than the original Foundry release…so I might feature it in a review at some point.
The other part of the Foundry 2013 release is the Compounds, Elements and Musings series. There are 6 different brands released to catalog and internet retailers only, with Plutonium containing 4 different blends in one package, so a total of 9 blends.
Then there are an additional 6 Compounds, Elements and Musings releases that will be released only to brick and mortar stores. Burns got these in a few weeks ago and I decided to bring a few of them to you here. Of the B&M cigars, Uranium and Carbon are classified as “core line” cigars so we will see them for some time. The others are Titanium (with 2 distinct blends in a box) and H2O (containing 3 different blends, one for each letter)…and the two I’m tackling today.
By the way, I got my background info from Cigar-Coop.com, where Mr. Will Cooper has spent an ungodly amount of time gathering up all the pertinent details on all these different blends. Seriously, Foundry just released more blends in one year than Padron has released…ever. I will direct you to the “B&M Compounds, Elements and Musings” post on Coop’s site and let you find the rest of the stories from there (there are 4 separate stories covering these 50 kagillion different blends).Also check out the company’s website for other information (although they are short on actual blend info).
HYDROGEN: THE GREMLIN
Let’s start with number 1…on the periodic table of elements, that is. Hydrogen is a 6.5” x 46 x 56 pyramid whose blend is described as “Nicaragua, Ecuador, Mysterioso.” Judging from the creamy-coffee-colored wrapper leaf I’m going to guess that the wrapper is Ecuadorian Habano. Why is this cigar called “Hydrogen: The Gremlin”? I don’t know. I Google’d that exact term and came up with Hydrogen-powered AMC Gremlins, but I’m pretty sure that wasn’t what Giannini was shooting for with this release…that’s more “70s punk” then “steampunk.” What I did discover is that Hydrogen has the lowest atomic mass and that it is the most abundant element in the universe (although the cigars are a limited release, so if you like them, buy quickly). It is widely known that bombs are made using a rare isotope of hydrogen (Tritium), but I couldn’t find any rules about not feeding it after midnight or not getting it wet. Very odd.
The Hydrogen cigar’s wrapper had a clean hay-like aroma, while the foot was earthy and sweet. After cutting the cap, the cold draw was excellent and I picked up flavors of sweet hay, natural tobacco, earth and a bit of pepper spice. Lighting up, I got earth, leather, grass and pepper spice notes. Not far into the smoke, the ash started to alligator-mouth on me; when I tapped it off, I got a few hot cinders blowing out of the cherry of the lit stogie, causing a moment of panic as they headed toward my lap, my shirt, my computer…that kind of behavior is usually seen (in my experience) with cigars that have been dropped, breaking the tobacco inside a bit. I didn’t drop these, but it’s conceivable that some were dropped along the way…production, shipping, whatever. It doesn’t have an impact on flavor, but it does make one paranoid about burning holes in one’s clothing.
I enjoyed the Hydrogen. I found it to be medium-bodied with a nice sweetness and just enough pepper spice to keep the proceedings interesting. The price was relatively low for a small batch cigar, so I might end up buying a few more of these.
HELIUM: THE BURNING AIRSHIP
Helium is also a “small batch, limited production” cigar. Helium is the second most abundant element in the universe and it is probably most widely known as the gas you suck on to make your voice sound funny. It should be noted that the box and band artwork features an exploding dirigible not unlike the Hindenburg, although that ship used Hydrogen as it’s buoyant gas. Modern-day blimps use Helium and the federal government even decided in 1925 that the element was important enough to establish a strategic reserve near Amarillo, Texas. They believed that warfaring airships would need to use it at some point. That day never came to pass, but the government has held tightly onto the “National Helium Reserve”…or perhaps it’s more about government employees holding tightly to a job that will perhaps never die. The Helium cigar has “Honduras, Nicaragua, and Mysterioso” tobacco and is a Toro(esque) cigar measuring 6.25 inches by 54 ring gauge.
The Helium had a wrapper the color of milk chocolate with a fair amount of oils to it. The smell of it was cocoa powder and earth and I got just a faint earth on the foot. The cold draw was good but the flavor was muted…a bit of sweetness, but nothing that stood out. Helium took a fair amount of fire to get it lit, unlike the airship on the band, but once I got it going, it delivered a mellow, sweet smoke that had a good amount of chocolate and less notes of cedar, earth and pepper spice. After a couple minutes of puffing, I got a slightly more intense pepper spice on the nose.
Helium had a great sweetness, continuing to have plenty of chocolate notes as well as dried fruit. The cedar faded a bit and more leather and earth notes came through. Of the 4 different Foundry blends I’ve had so far (original, War of Currents, and Hydrogen being the others), this is definitely my favorite and I will make it a point to pick up more before they disappear from store shelves.
The preceding article was written with tongue firmly planted in cheek…if any parties were offended, the best recommendation is to lighten up, turn on your humor and sarcasm detector and try again.
In all honesty, I do applaud what General Cigar, Foundry, and Michael Giannini have done with respect to issuing entirely separate blends for B&M and Online retailers. This is a great way to not let B&Ms feel like they are being cheated when they see the same cigars they have on their shelves selling for deep discounts online. And while I was skeptical of the plethora of blends released simultaneously, I have already seen that some time and effort was spent to craft these into unique and enjoyable cigars. From the standpoint of someone who works part-time in a B&M is to have the releases staggered…maybe once a month or so. It is difficult for the customers to absorb so much new information at one time AND it is hard to find good shelf space for so many new cigars at once.