Drew Estate: MUWAT Kentucky Fire Cured "Swamp Rat"

I alluded to the candela wrapper in my November post about the Cigars International store in Hamburg, PA, and it's about time I dive into an explanation. Today's cigar is one of the ones that I picked up during that visit, and in fact purchasing this (along with its Drew Estate ACID "Kuba Kuba Candela" cousin) is one of the main reasons for visiting the store.

Here we have the brand new "Swamp Rat", which is a 6x46 cigar from Drew Estate's Subculture Studios / MUWAT Kentucky Fire Cured line. It was announced at the 2016 IPCPR trade show and launched at the October 2016 Kentucky Barnsmoker event.

Yes, this cigar is partially green. That's the candela wrapper, or at least a segment of it, and a very interesting addition to the cigar indeed. Sometimes called double claro, candela is a name for tobacco leaves that are picked while still young and quickly dried. The result is a very mild and light cigar, basically the opposite of a maduro.

This is actually nothing new to the cigar world - in fact, according to Cigar Aficionado magazine, candela cigars were so popular in the early 1900s that they were called "American Market Selection." They seemed to have lost popularity but are now "boomeranging" back into vogue; it was very common in the 1920s, went out of favor, and now is starting to see a comeback. Last year I smoked a rather-large Arturo Fuente "8-5-8", which had a candela wrapper, and it was just so-so. Aside from the Drew entries, an ACID cigarillo, that Arturo Fuente, and some Al Capone cheapo machine-mades, I can't recall seeing any other candelas in the stores or online. But they are coming back, I promise.

Despite this being a tad dry, it cut OK. There's still a nice campfire aroma to the unlit cigar. No cracking along the wrapper or serious issues with the parejo capa. I'm smoking this alongside my brother Dan, who is also smoking one for reference.

Cigar lights up nicely; despite the cold it burns evenly. First reaction is positive - certainly it's lighter than the normal Kentucky Fire Cured cigars, lacking some of the sweeter and smokier flavors. That's an immediate observation. The earthy flavors - pine wood, grassy, slightly vegetal - are in contrast to the usual KFC flavors of firewood and charcoal. It doesn't generate huge clouds of smoke, but that's probably on par with this format and size, and perhaps a function of the cold.

Midway through: smoke still going great...some mottled pale gray ash. Dan is liking it, in his words, "100% better than a normal KFC." I happen to love the normal KFCs, so I disagree, but I'm also liking this quite a bit. Lots of grassy and light flavors here, without some of the more disagreeable "young tobacco" notes that I experienced when I tried the Fuente I mentioned before. The flavors are keeping fidelity well, and as the cigar winds down, I end up getting that telltale sweet, heavy nicotine flavor that I get when I push a normal KFC too hard.

I'm actually quite impressed; the cigar (to me) is almost unrecognizable as a KFC entry. I guess this shows the importance of the cigar's wrapper, and how much flavor is derived from the thin - yet critical - layer of exterior tobacco. (I've included a photo below of the cigar without the band, to see where the candela meets the maduro wrapper.)

Overall, Dan and I were impressed with the quality and the taste and is probably my favorite candela cigar to date.This cigar cost $7.50. I also grabbed a ten-pack of the larger variant, the 6x52 "Swamp Thang", for $66. If you're looking for a mellow cigar with nice flavoring, you may want to give this a try!