Alec Bradley Prensado

I went through three of this sticks before formulating this review, two from trades that I had just resting in my humidor, and one was provided by one of our great sponsors Bonita Smoke Shop. All three were similar in vitola (Box Pressed Robusto), but oddly all of which changed up in color, from a dark, almost maduro to a soft light, creamy brown.

The Good Stuff: Alec Bradley’s Prensado was one of a number of much anticipated releases that went public during 2009′s IPCPR event in New Orleans this past year. It is create from a complex structure from  Honduran,  corojo wrapper, a Nicaraguan binder from Jalapa,  and a mixture of Nicaraguan and Honduran fillers. It is also said to be Alec Bradley’s strongest cigar to date. 

Size:Robusto 5 x 50 boxpress  -  Wrapper: Honduran corojo  -  Binder: Nicaragua  -  Filler: Nicaragua/Honduras  -  Body: Medium/Full   

Alec Bradley Prensado

Prelight: The Prensado carries with is a very unique, and enticing band. The band itself is white, and gold embroidered with hints of black, brown, and an odd but pleasant mixture of teal. The band is is very large and has an image of what looks to be a medieval leather chest plate (not to be confused with a football). The color of the wrapper is very consistent, and a light, creamy brown. The cigar itself is very firm and only soft at the bottom-most foot portion. There is a very large vein running down the entire length of the cigar, and I’d be very surprised if this vein didn’t offset the burn of the cigar. The Prensado has a very sweet, organic tobacco smell around the wrapper, and an almost fruity cedar smell coming from the foot. The cap is rounded off with the triple cap that I would love see as a set standard on all my cigars.

Alec Bradley Prensado

First Smoke: This cigar was cut using my Palio double blade cutter, and lit up very easily under even my single flame torch that I hate, and hardly ever use. Alec Bradley’s Prensado started out with a slight hint of pepper, that only tingled my tongue for a few seconds before quickly diminishing. As the pepper faded flavors of cedar, cocoa, and tobacco became present. Despite giving off a massive, and very thick draw, the Prensado give off little to no stationary smoke. The stationary smoke is extremely pleasant, and smells of lightly burning cedar. The cigar is starting off extremely smooth. The ash is a very flaky, dark grey. The burnline is extremely sharp, but as expected it is burning a deep, offset crevice due to the massive vein running through the body of this cigar. Surprisingly enough, the ash held on for about an inch and a half before it gave out.

Alec Bradley Prensado

Halfway There: The Presando just keeps getting smoother, and creamier the further I smoke into it. The main flavor is that of cedar. It seriously tastes as if I chopped up my humidor and wrapped it in corojo. To me, this cigar reminds me a lot of Camacho’s 2009 Liberty, only at less than half the price. As stated in my introduction, this is supposed to be Alec Bradley’s strongest cigar to date, but oddly enough I am getting absolutely no nicotine buzz. I am drinking a pretty high alcohol content beer too and not feeling anything off this smoke, amazing. After a big touch up to the foot, the cigar is finally burning dead even, and just as sharp as when I began smoking it.

Alec Bradley Prensado

Finish: Wow, just wow. The smoothness of the Prensado is overwhelming. I usually enjoy robusto, or smaller vitolas, but I would be quite curious to see how a churchill of these bad boys panned out. I smoked this one incredibly fast (about 1.25 hours) to finish, and there were no signs of harshness all the way down to the nub. The flavor stayed very consistent with smooth cedar being the prominent flavor backed by a creamy, milky, cocoa. I had no problems with the burn after the touch up after the first ash and took this bad boy down until I could no longer hold it. My hands never got too warm which was incredible due to the loose draw.

Alec Bradley Prensado

Overview: Overall I was very impressed with this cigar. I loved the Camacho Liberty 2009, just hated the price tag and exclusiveness of it. Alec Bradley’s Prensado is a perfect replacement for an everyday rotation. The price is somewhere in between $7 and $10 and well worth it. All three that I smoked took a touch up or two, but not anything serious, and the overall experience made up for it. This is a perfect, everyday smoke for the experienced, and even casual smoker. Now I just need to get my hands on a few more.

Alec Bradley Prensado

This cigar was paired with one of my favorite beers, Chimay White Tripel. The strength, bitterness, and fruity undertones were a perfect pair for such a smooth cigar.

Alec Bradley Prensado

Drew Estate Egg Maduro

This is a pretty interesting cigar. Unlike most standard cigar shapes, Drew Estate’s “egg” actually bubbles out in the middle to form an egg looking vitola.

Drew Estate Egg Maduro

The Good Stuff: If you can look past the extremely strange shape of the Natural Egg Maduro you will notice that it, alongside all cigars produced by Drew Estate sports flawless construction, as well as a complex blend of only the finest natural tobacco leaves farmed in Drew Estate’s own tobacco farms in Esteli, Nicaragua. I am not entirely too sure why on earth they came up with this cigar, maybe just for novelty? I’m not convinced outside of a “different” experience that there is actually any science in the shape. Drew Estate is the king of  different and unexpected.

Size: 6 x 42/70/42  -  Wrapper: Natural Maduro  -  Origin: Esteli, Nicaragua

Drew Estate Natural Egg Maduro

Prelight: The first thing I noticed what the weight of this cigar. I expected it to weigh a lot more than it actually did due to the massive build up of tobacco in the center. But alas, it weighed slightly more than a similar length standard cigar. Hopefully this means it’s loosely packed and will have a nice, wild draw. The wrapper is a very dark, creamy chocolate color. The head and foot sport an extremely small ring size. There is no doubt on my mind that this will be an interesting smoke. The wrapper smells very natural/dry/leathery with a touch of cocoa. The cold draw is VERY loose, with slight tastes of mocha, and caramel spice.

Drew Estate Natural Egg Maduro

First Smoke: I’m pretty excited about the EGG, its not every day that you get to smoke something as interesting as this. I’m also a big fan of Drew Estate’s Natural line, so if its anything similar, it won’t be less than stellar. The foot of the cigar took to my flame rather well, lighting up really quickly. Getting the first draw off the EGG however was a chore in itself. I had to hit the crap out of this cigar to get my first draw. You could actually hear the wind ripping through the center of the EGG. Once the draw came however, it was on! The EGG produces a massive freakin’ draw with plenty of lingering thick smoke. Retrohaling this cigar was a breeze. The EGG carries with it a very sweet, natural taste, with hints of cashew, coffee, graham cracker, and leather. The cap is extra sweet on this one. I enjoy sweet caps, but I know a number of cigar smokers do not. The burn line is extremely wavy straight from the start, but with a construction such as this you can’t expect it to burn perfectly. This is a pretty tasty cigar, it resembles the “Natural Root” to a tee. The EGG smokes more stationary than any other cigar I have ever seen. Not to mention each time I go in for a draw the front of the EGG blows smoke rings. It’s actually pretty interesting. The smoke isn’t bad smelling at all. Very creamy tobacco/coffee scent.

Drew Estate Natural Egg Maduro

The picture above is entitled “the dying crane”. There has been rumors going around that you can actually make it through a whole EGG without the cigar ashing. As you can see above almost instantaneously I am having an ash issue. The foot of the cigar is already trying to break free. We’ll see how the rest of the cigar holds up.

Halfway There: As soon as I started to actually hit the “egg” part of the EGG I am smacked in the face with a strong, spicy, pepper taste. It literally comes out of no where. It’s accompanied by a subtle citrus flavor. Each time I put the EGG down it takes about five to six extremely strong puffs to get my first draw. This is semi-annoying but it comes with the territory, and the massive draw almost makes up for it. Because you have to hit the cigar so hard you can feel it heat up VERY early on a lot more than it should, not to mention the EGG is already pretty awkward to hold. Just after I passed the center of the cigar the pepper flavor balanced out and almost disappeared. We are back to natural/graham cracker/ coffee. This cigar is incredibly smooth.

Drew Estate Natural Egg Maduro

The above picture is entitled “the elephant and the empty bottle of Chimay”. I am really surprised that the ash is still holding on. Even the foot that was giving me problems is hanging in there.

Finish: Oddly enough, there was no plugging, no tar build-up nothing. The cigar smoked creamy, smooth, and consistent all the way though. There was little no signs of any aftertaste. What resided was only that of a faint cardboard taste. And with cigars, a soft cardboard after-taste isn’t bad at all. I felt little to no signs of nicotine. The coffee notes carried all the way through, but the consistent graham cracker, natural taste is what won the flavor war. One of the most interesting characteristics of this cigar is this:

Drew Estate Natural Egg Maduro

That’s right, the ash actually lasted the ENTIRE length of the cigar. Pretty interesting, even the troubled foot is still on there. About 3/4′s of the way through I stopped resting the cigar on the ashtray. I really just wanted to see how far this thing would go. Very surprising.

Overview: Drew Estate’s Natural Egg maduro is a fun smoke. It’s very smooth, sweet, and pleasantly scented. The cigar itself too about two hours and ten minutes to smoke, so prepare to ge acquainted with this cigar. I would smoke another one for sure if I happen to stumble across it. This cigar is really just the novelty. You can get similar draw, tastes, and burn out of the Natural Dirt Torpedo, and the Natural Root. I would recommend this to a seasoned smoker looking for something a bit different to have a some fun with. But I don’t see this becoming part of my regular rotation anytime in the near future.

Natural Egg Maduro and Chimay Blue

This Natural EGG maduro was paired with a nice bottle of Chimay blue, trappist ale.