Monday, December 12, 2011

Drew Estate Undercrown Toro Review

Wrapper: San Andres Maduro
Filler: Brazilian Mata Fina and Nicaraguan
Price: $7.50

Last month was my birthday, and for my birthday I wanted to spend the day in Center City Philadelphia. While I was over there, I had to go into Holts. As I’m browsing around like a kid in a candy store, I came across the Undercrown. There were a few boxes there, so I grabbed two toros: one for review, and one to enjoy while walking around the city.

The San Andres wrapper is a dark brown shade. The wrapper is rough and oily. There is a nice shine to the cigar. The stick is very solid from the cap to the foot with not a single soft spot. The cap appears to be two layers, both of which are perfectly flush.  There is also a sweet chocolate-like smell coming off of this cigar. The cap cut very clean and the cigar was very easy to light.

As soon as I lit up this cigar there was a nice sweetness and a little bit of spice. The sweetness subsides quite quickly and leaves the spice as a main player. Then there is a nice earthiness that comes out strong. By an inch into this cigar, the flavor is very earthy. There are some slight wood notes mixed with a little bit of leather. That little bit of spice that was there continued to mellow out.

The middle portion of this cigar becomes very creamy. Along with the strong creaminess, the earth is strong as well. The leather flavor starts to build on the palate with a little bit of the creaminess. Just about halfway into this cigar I was getting little notes of coffee and of chocolate. The coffee was a little stronger than the chocolate, but both were a nice change of pace. Just shy of the last third, the spiciness picked right back up.

The last couple inches were still very creamy and the coffee flavor picked up quite a bit. The spice even continued to pick up. These three flavors were very prominent in the last couple inches which lead to a great finish.

The ash was almost marbled with light gray and brown spots. The ash was also very strong, it held on until right after the band. The burn was a little wavy at time, due to the thickness of the San Andres wrapper, but it seemed to even itself out. The draw was very easy and produced a ridiculous amount of thick smoke. The smoke gave off a very earthy aroma.

This is a great cigar through and through. Since these are easier to get than the other Liga Privada lines, you should pick one up. I could see myself having these as a regular in my humidor. I give it a 9.25 out of 10.

Enjoy,

Zack the Stogie Man

3 comments:

  1. This is in my top 5 cigars. It has an amazing flavor and a dense, creamy smoke that I really enjoy the aesthetic value of in addition to the flavor.

    I live in Lancaster and visit Philly regularly, but never had the chance to stop by Holt's - looking at their website, that seems that I'm missing out! Have to make that a stop sometime soon.

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    1. Awesome. If you come in soon, let me know. Ill meet up

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  2. This is still one of my favorite cigars, despite the hype and hate. I always smoke them to the nub. I definitely pick up on the creamy/earthy flavor you mention and the spice in the smoke. It has always seemed to hint at a coffee flavor for me, but it might just be because I'm not a big chocolate person. Great review as usual.

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