North vs South! Crowned Heads’ Mason Dixon Project

Vitola: Toro
Size 6” x 52 ring gauge
MSRP ~$9.85
Bought Dixon, was gifted Mason

Background

North vs. South has been something that has seemed to follow my life. I was born in Tennessee, raised in California; since I moved back to my birth-state, I’ve been accused of being a “Yankee” at times since I lived in Cali. I believe freeing the slaves was the right thing to do; but I also feel like the federal government should leave us alone as much as possible. As a graphic designer I worked for several years on the program layout for a Southern California football program for the annual “Orange County North-South All-Star Football Game” (North County vs South County). So when Crowned Heads decided in 2014 to play up the issue of North vs South in the cigar world, I was intrigued.

Really, 2014 has been the “Year of the LE” for Crowned Heads. Yes, probably the biggest news for the company has been the release of their new regular line, Jericho Hill; but they have had an extraordinarily busy year with limited releases, as well. First was Las Calaveras, what will be an annual release and the first project the company did with My Father Cigars. Then The Angel’s Anvil was released exclusive to Tobacconist Association of America member stores. Tennessee Waltz was exclusive to retailers within the state in the brand name. And, finally we come to the Mason Dixon Project, dividing the country in half, shipping one blend to the northern half (I will call that “Mason”) and one blend to the southern half (“Dixon”). And before someone calls me out…I didn’t count the store-exclusive LEs that Crowned Heads released.

The Mason Dixon Project is another project the Crowned Heads company has pursued with My Father Cigars. Both blends use Nicaraguan filler and binder (although I saw nothing that would indicate that filler and binder are the same on both), with the Mason employing a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper and the Dixon using an Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade leaf. My home store (Burns) got plenty of Dixons in; the store owner gave me a Mason that he had received. I decided to go for the cigar double-header on a chilly autumn Sunday, starting with Dixon and some coffee.

Some background came from halfwheel’s news article on the project.

South (Dixon)

The Dixon (Southern Edition) had a nice, although not perfect Connecticut Shade wrapper. It was golden in color with some dark streaking and shading in places. Like I said, not perfect in color, but for this project I would think this gives the cigar some extra character…never let it be said that we don’t have some real characters in the South! The aroma from the leaf was sweet hay and I got a combination of rich earth and coffee from the foot. The cold draw had notes of grass, earth and molasses sweetness.

At the start the Mason Dixon Southern Edition had some definitely earth and cedar notes, along with a bit of characteristic Don Pepin pepper spice, probably even more than the My Father Connecticut that came out earlier this year. The smoke was thin, wispy and fairly mild in body; it found it to have a very nice flavor profile—sweet, spicy and well-balanced—with a short finish, which is just about everything I could want from a Connecticut Shade stick. As I progressed through the first third, I noticed two things: first, the body started to increase from mild to medium fairly rapidly; second, it went very well with my sweetened black coffee.

The Dixon was excellent until near the end when the profile showed more of a grassiness and bitterness that sometimes comes through with Connecticut Shade leaf. For the most part, though, this was a very good entry into the Shade segment in the cigar market, standing up well beside such stellar entries as the Camacho, My Father and Oliva Connecticuts.

North (Mason)

The Mason (Northern Edition) wrapper was the color of rich, dark chocolate with a little bit of lighter mottling in the mix and some Broadleaf-typical big veins. It didn’t look very oily, but when I touched it, I could feel the oil under my fingertips. Giving it a sniff, I picked up mostly earthiness with a touch of natural tobacco. Cold draws revealed semi-sweet chocolate, earth and red pepper notes.

Once I lit it, the Mason exhibited more unsweetened cocoa than anything else, but there were some cedar and peppery notes underneath, along with a medium amount of pepper on the retrohale. My Father Cigars makes quite a few blends with Connecticut Broadleaf (including some of my favorites: Tatuaje Noellas Reserva, Avion 13 Reserva, La Dueña, the original La Sirena, and Crowned Heads’ own Tennessee Waltz) but this blend seemed different from all of those right from the start. It was probably the touch of cedar that made that difference, but as things went on, I got a note of citrus in the mix, too, adding to the interest. This stogie started off as medium-plus in body.

The Mason was a more mellow expression of Broadleaf cigar, never rising above the medium-plus range in body, and giving off very little in the way of pepper spice after the first few minutes. I got a really nice semi-sweet chocolate flavor much of the way, along with a good earthiness and continued subtle notes of citrus and cedar. It was an excellent counterpoint to the milder Dixon I had earlier in the day.

It’s hard to miss with either of these cigars, depending on your preference. I enjoyed both and would definitely put them on the list of cigars to have on hand for different times of the day and different situations.