Drew Estates Natural "Root Deluxe"
Tonight’s smoke was gifted to me by Dean, from The Beer Journals. I’ve never had this cigar before, and you can check out the Drew Estates website here for more info.
Size: 6 X 50
Price: $6 – $7.00
Pre-Smoke:
The wrapper was dark, oily and rugged looking. When squeezed, it was somewhat soft and bounced back when released. The smell of the unlit cigar was unusual. I don’t know how to describe it, but it reminded me of pipe tobacco. It was a pleasant, unique smell.
First Third:
There is no warm up period for this cigar. Immediately after lighting, I was mainly getting a “Tobacco” taste, along with slight earthy notes. The tobacco taste is similar to the pipe tobacco smell I had during the pre-smoke. A strange, almost floral taste stood in the forefront as well. Towards the end of this third, a mocha/chocolaty flavor crept in. The burn remained perfect, with a nice firm white ash with black lines running through it. The body was in the upper light, to lower medium range.
Second Third:
The body remained in the upper light to lower medium range. The “Tobacco” taste remained in the front, and woody notes came in to the picture. An ever so slight mocha and coffee note remained in the background. This tobacco flavor I keep mentioning continued to have a floral, almost perfume tint to it. The flavor left on the lips also mimicked this strange tobacco flavor, and the smoke easily passed through the sinuses. Again, the burn was perfect, and the ash held firm for such a soft feeling cigar.
Last Third:
The last third pretty much remained like the last one. The body crept into the medium range (maybe). The woody notes increased slightly, and the coffee remained in the background. The mocha flavor kicked up a notch, but the strange tobacco flavor remained dominant. A slight harshness developed with about 1.5 inches to go, so I figured it was time to put this stogie down.
Conclusion:
The prominent floral, perfumy, tobacco taste isn’t really a favorite of mine. I generally prefer more traditional premium cigars. But… With the additional flavors this cigar offered, I have to admit I enjoyed it over all. I probably wouldn’t buy any, but if I was at a herf or cigar event, I’d gladly smoke these. I would have to suggest that you try one of these, and judge for yourself.
As always, here is the amazing slide show.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 at 3:12 pm and is filed under Cigar Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
