Vitola: Toro- 5.875” x 52 ring gauge
- $12.49
- Purchased at Burns Tobacconist
Background
When I heard that Mule Kick was coming back again in 2018, I was initially very excited. I had absolutely loved the 2012 and 2017 releases of the Mule Kick…essentially a limited edition of the Four Kicks blend, utilizing a slightly darker wrapper leaf and a slightly tweaked filler blend that gives the cigar just a little more kick (I usually referred to it as “Five Kicks”). I did think it was a little soon to release another batch of them, though, since they had just done so a year ago. Turns out, though the name is the same, this just isn’t really the same cigar.
2017 was the year of the second Mule Kick release, but was also the year of the debut of the Four Kicks Maduro. The 2018 Mule Kick combines those two things…the cigar is the same size as the 2012 and 2017 releases, and uses the same tweaked Nicaraguan filler and binder…but instead of a slightly darker Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, they used the Connecticut Habano leaf that is on the Four Kicks Maduro.
Regular Four Kicks was my first “cigar of the year” on the Tiki Bar (the blog that preceded Leaf Enthusiast). As noted before, I was a huge fan of both previous Mule Kick releases. And I did really like the Four Kicks Maduro…so how could this cigar be anything but great?
I smoked about 4 of these previous to my review sample. I bought all of them at Burns Tobacconist. A total of 3,000 boxes of 10 were produced at EP Carrillo’s Alianza factory in the Dominican Republic.
Prelight
The box for this release is black instead of the natural wood color of the previous Mule Kick releases. This is the first hint that something’s different. The bands, though, are the same as the previous Mule Kick releases…a regular Four Kicks band plus a secondary “Limited Edition” band, this time with 2018 designation. It’s a minor quibble, but since this is a spin-off of the Maduro release, I would have used the black-background band instead of the red. Again, kind of a non-issue.
The wrapper on this stick was dark chocolate brown with some reddish tinge showing up in the spots where the color was a little lighter. It was fairly lumpy, but really oily with a strong aroma of anise and leather, with just a touch of barnyard. The wrapper aroma is so strong that it was hard to pick up much else on the foot of the cigar, either, though I did get a bit of a stronger earthiness and some cedar.
I had a really good draw after clipping with my Xikar Xi. The cold draw had tons of that black licorice/anise flavor and some earth and cedar and a mild amount of chocolate sweetness.
Flavor
As I lit up the Mule Kick 2018, I got flavors of leather and dried fruit, with a bit of cedar and earth mixed in and a finish that was very strong on anise and baking spice flavors. There was a touch of pepper on the palate and a touch more than that on the nose. Mostly the Mule Kick 2018 was just full-bodied, leathery and sweet, though. The first third burned well and fairly straight, something I didn’t think would be possible after the first time I smoked one of these. They showed up to the shop a little wet still and were difficult to keep lit and burning anywhere close to straight. A few extra weeks in my humidor at home helped immensely. As I got to the close of the first third, the flavor profile was much more earthy, with the dried fruit sweetness providing a nice counterpoint and the anise more of an accenting note.
The sweetness morphed into a more chocolate note during the second third. I got undercurrents of dark roast coffee and earth, while the anise stayed around to punctuate the proceedings.
The flavor of coffee came up in the profile even more during the final third, balancing well with the chocolate. Earth continued underneath with a little more anise and pepper.
Construction
This sample of Mule Kick 2018 had a fantastic draw, very even burn line and a solid ash up to an inch or so. As noted before, earlier samples were not so good in these respects, but that seemed to be a result of them shipping a little on the wet side.
Value
Very good cigar and very good value.
Conclusions
The 2018 release of the Mule Kick is truly something different from the two earlier releases; the rich Maduro wrapper sees to that quite definitively. I’m normally more attracted to Maduros, but this particular blend I find better balanced with the Ecuadorian Habano. Still, I really did enjoy this cigar and will buy a few more to see how they age. My advice: if you like the Four Kicks Maduro, you will enjoy this Mule Kick 2018, so buy as many of them as you can afford while they are available. If you like the regular Four Kicks release more, maybe get a few of these to tide you over until they decide to do another release of the “regular” Mule Kick.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10
