Sunday, December 16, 2007

Drew Estate Natural Dirt

Drew Estate Natural Dirt maduro
$4 (B&M), Size: 4", Ring: 43

Drew Estate's Natural Dirt cigar is made in Esteli, Nicaragua from a bouliabasse of international tobaccos.

Dirt's maduro wrapper is a toothy, veiny chocolate color, and gives an aroma of cocoa and faint spice. The wrapper started to unravel an inch into smoking the cigar. And watch out for the cap, it's entirely too sweet.

One reviewer, to circumvent the overly sweetened cap on the Dirt, suggested turning the cigar around and lighting the cap and smoking from the foot. Hmm, sounds like an interesting idea. So, I turned the cigar, punched the cap, and toasted it.

The draw from the foot was medium, not very loose, and the cigar tasted surprisingly good, even without the sweetened cap. The cigar is fairly short, so it doesn't have a lot of time to evolve. The flavor was a basic nicaraguan tobacco, a light woody flavor, underneath a strong cocoa note, likely from the wrapper. It was a well balanced combination of sweetness and traditional tobacco flavors.

Dirt isn't a bad cigar, if you can get around the super-sweet cap. Still, the B&M's price is too steep for how short this cigar is.

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