La Gran Fabrica Drew Estate / Caldwell Cigar Company - "All Out Kings"

So I haven't done a cigar post in a long time, mostly because blog readers looking for cigar reviews are few and far between (yet somehow it's what people seem to remember most when I tell them about the blog...) Granted, it's not my main focus, nor is something to which most people can relate, but I've been enjoying the hobby for over 12 years now and like to include them here because, just like beer or wine, there's a world of different flavors, techniques, and strains of tobacco out there. Plus sometimes they can be as rare and desirable as a fancy wine!

During my trip I spent a few days out in Inverness, California before returning to San Francisco. I packed this cigar as one of the highlight smokes of my trip; I grabbed it at the Cigars International store in Pennsylvania back in February and have been looking forward to smoking it since.

This cigar is a three-way collaboration between Drew Estate founder Jonathan Drew; Drew Estate master blender (and El Titan de Bronce alum) Willy Herrera; and Caldwell Cigar Co. tsar Robert Caldwell. These three guys are known for their bold, in-your-face cigars, and I got a chance to meet each of them at the Connecticut Barn Smoker event I attended back in August of 2016, at which they announced the release of today's cigar. They even raffled off a few boxes, which of course I didn't win.

So what's under the hood? The innards are made from Dominican and Nicaraguan longfillers, paired with an Indonesian Sumatran binder, and finished with a stalk-cut Connecticut Habano wrapper.

I know from previous experience that the Sumatra leaf is known to be spicy and a touch sweet, and in general Connecticut tobacco is much milder and softer. A note about "longfillers" - you may see this term used to describe the filler of a cigar. Longfillers are essentially long strands of tobacco used as filler for a cigar. This gives the cigar body and consistency and progress, as opposed to shortfillers which are chopped-up bits of tobacco blended together and may be a mix of many kinds. Common wisdom is that longfillers are better, as it's one long strand of the same leaf, therefore providing more consistency.

So given the ingredients I listed above, I'm expecting a somewhat-lighter and more-refined version of a Liga Privada "T52" or a "No. 9." Some of these special-edition smokes are surprisingly light, though, so while I won't be expecting a massive, dark nicotine bomb with sweet, oily flavors, I still think there will be some weight to it. The color of the cigar is a bit lighter than something like the T52 (or a Nica Rustica, for that matter) but that's to be expected - this is a Connecticut Habano, not some dark-as-night Mexican wrapper.

I pre-cut it before my trip with my Colibri V-Cut, intending on smoking a month or so prior. But I saved it once my vacation was planned, and in the interim, the capa cracked a bit, unfortunately, so I had to peel a bit of it off.

First light is a bit tough; it takes a few "turns" of the cigar to get it fully lit. The first third of this cigar is quite surprising. There's a lot less flavors than I was expecting; as noted above I was totally expecting this to be an uppercut of a smoke, but it's really surprising me. As it warms up and I smoke it a bit, I realize that it's not that there's no flavors, but they're very subtle... there's some wood / hickory in there, with some roasted bit salty and minerally...kind of like the red peanut skins inside of the peanut shell. That's the best way I can describe it, and these flavors - although a bit hard to find - are noticeable and begin to build throughout the second third of the cigar, and keep holding on through the final third. This stick, for what it's worth, lasted almost down to the nub. Lots of flavor fidelity here, which is great. I could taste the same (or very similar) flavors from the end of the first third through the end of the final third - not a common occurrence, I tell you.

In terms of price - probably at the higher end of what I would pay. On CI.com they are $265.99 for twenty cigars, or $73 for five. At $14.50 a pop, not cheap. There are some smaller vitolas available - for example, their 5.7x46 corona sized named "Give Me Your Lunch Money" - costs $61 for 5 sticks.

So I think if you're into cigars with softer flavors, and enjoy more mineral notes, this might be a cigar to seek out. Sure, it's expensive, and not something you'd have every day, but it's a good example of a very nuanced cigar made by expert blenders and craftsmen.