The Good Stuff: As I stated, El Pimer Mundo’s Criollo Maduro actually made it’s debut in 2006. Sean Williams, founder of El Primer Mundo told me over twitter the other day that despite the Criollo Maduro being his first release, he still enjoys the blend. El Primer Mundo is an Atlanta based operation, blended by the Plasencias in Esteli, Nicaragua and is distributed by the Blancos. All the tobacco used in the blend comes from Placensia’s farm. The blend starts out with Honduran and Nicaraguan filler, bound by a Jalapa, Nicaraguan binder, topped off with a Havana-seed maduro wrapper. These cigars retail for about $7 – $8 a pop and come in four sizes, Robusto 52 x 5, Toro 52 x 6, Torpedo 52 x 6 ½, and  Gran Toro 60x 6 1/2.

Size:  – 6 x52  –  Wrapper: Nicaraguan  –  Binder: Nicaraguan  –  Filler: Honduran/Nicaraguan

Prelight: Now this is a pretty looking Maduro. Lets start with the wrapper on This El Primer Mundo Criollo Maduro. This should be nicknamed the black beauty. The wrapper is a crazy dark, dark brown with a few lighter spots around the upper body, and darker, almost black splotches towards the foot of the cigar. The wrapper only bears a few smaller veins running to the round, double cap. Outside of the wrapper the next stand-out characteristic of the cigar is the firm, perfect square box-press format. I’m a sucker for box press. This cigar feels incredibly firm, and I can only hope that it’s not packed too tightly. The band carries the same design style all the previous cigars in the line. It’s a dark maroon with gold and black embossing of the “El Primer Mundo” crest along with “Criollo Maduro” “Hecho A Mano” “Nicaragua” and of course the white map in the center.

I am getting a really floral, musky, sweet aroma from the wrapper. At times its very sharp and actually burns my nostrils a bit. The foot lets loose a very spicy, earthy, coffee-esque aroma.  As I do with most box-presses I used a standard V-Cut to easily clip away the cap. I am greeted with a crazy chocolate and coffee flavor as soon as I put the Criollo Maduro up to my lips for the cold draw. Once I take it away from my lips I am left with a nice pepper tingle.

First Smoke:  I was right one the money with the cold draw as the first flavors to hit me across the face is crazy amounts of chocolate and coffee. I really thought there would be more pepper in there that there was. Only enough pepper and spice to subtly backup the stronger flavors. I kept getting some nice leather and floral flavors throughout the first third as well, but they would just come and go. The draw is much looser that I though it was going to be, and it actually takes me a few puffs to get the right amount of smoke in my mouth. The burnline is razor sharp and only slightly wavy leaving behind a nice white and light gray ash. The ash held on for a solid inch before giving way.

Halfway There: Into the second third of the El Primer Mundo Criollo Maduro and the cigar’s roots have really taken over. The sweetness has began to subside as well as some of the coffee and chocolate. They are still there but now there is a rich tobacco, oaky, and grassy flavor mix up taking center stage. The spice is almost non-existent at this point. The retro hale is to die for. Each little puff coats my nasal passage with what tastes like straight up bittersweet chocolate. I love it. The burnline is now perfectly even and still razor sharp and I am feeling almost no nicotine.

Finish: As I suspected, the Chocolate and Coffee weren’t done in this El Primer Mundo Criollo Maduro as they made a triumphant, and dominant return in the final third. Along with the Coffee and Chocolate, the floral/leather notes I picked up in the first third have also stepped up while the spice and tobacco subdued. There was absolutely no harshness built up even down to the numb. Usually I find that looser, box pressed cigars developer much more harshness, but not in this case.  It took me about an hour and a half to take down this cigar and it finished just as smooth as it started.

Overview: It’s evident that this is a good cigar. I have had quite a few of these and each one was the same story. Great flavors, good construction and a solid cigar at a good price. This cigar is a perfect maduro containing sweet and complex characteristics as most of the more modern maduros while staying true to form with more traditional maduros.

Pairing: The first time I smoked this cigar I paired it with 1554 which went absolutely perfect. The flavors are almost identical and the cigar seems like it was made for the brew. But that’s not my thing. I really want to make sure that my pairings compliment, but also help me pull things from the cigar that I normally wouldn’t. That being said I went a completely different direction with this particular Criollo Maduro and paired it with some of Blue Moon’s Agave Blonde Ale. Blue Moon’s newest summer seasonal offering is this crazy citrus rich, orange, Agave Cactus infused wheat ale. It’s a perfect summer ale. The beer starts out very sweet, very light, and finishes incredibly smooth. Some of the agave notes really elevated the awesome floral notes that I would pick up in the cigar while the citrus paired perfectly with the chocolate-rich flavors in this Primer Mundo not to mention this 95 degree weather is perfect for a beer such as this. Another pairing success!

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The Good Stuff: Drew Estate’s Double Signature Reserve has an interesting little story. As most of you know, Drew Estate sponsors what they call “The Cigar Safari”. The Cigar Safari is basically a 5 day long tour of Nicaragua, and many of the high end cigar factories hosted by Drew Estate. One of the interesting activities on the tour is one where you actually get to blend your own cigar, rolled in the Drew Estate factory. I’ll be the first to admin I’d totally bomb this, and probably make the crappiest cigar ever. But some people have made cigars using tobacco they absolutely love, and become very partial to the blends they put their names on. One of these lucky Safariers (I’m sure that’s not even a word) is Tobacco World owner Robert Wachtel. He created a blend that he fell so in love with, that he actually commissioned Drew Estate to create a mass of these sticks (100 boxes of 24 to be exact) that would be sold only at Tobacco World. These babies went FAST! So as I continue this review, bear in mind that Drew Estate did not blend these cigars, it was created by the mind of Robert Wachtel from Tobacco World in Atlanta, Georgia.

Prelight: Let me just start out by saying, this is a crazy looking cigar. The Double Signature Reserve has such a crazy, toothy wrapper. I even wrote the words “Stupidly Toothy” in my review notes. It feels almost like sandpaper. And to go with it, the wrapper is VERY hard, and gives off such a shine that it actually looks like it could be made form plastic. Outside of the crazy wrapper characteristics, the cigar carries the same orange, and dark chocolate colors as the Liga Privada T-52, in fact it’s the same wrapper as the T-52. The Double Signature Reserve itself is a very beefy, heavy stick. The thick body leads up to a nice, huge double cap before banded off with a dark brown, orange, and gold embossed band. The Front of the band shows the Double Signature Reserve name, by Drew Estate. While the only other markings are the “Dual Signatures” of the cigar blends creators, both Jonathan Drew and Robert Wachtel.

There are no soft spots or any misconstruction on this cigar what so ever. If anything, this cigar is so hard, heavy, and tightly bound that I could probably use it to break into a car of some sort. It seriously has no give to it, no matter how hard I squeeze it, within reason of course. The wrapper had a very nice floral, and cedar scent. The foot however had mainly a  strong barnyard and cedar scent.

Probably due to the tightly packed tobacco, the thickness, and the strength of the cigar’s wrapper, The Double Signature Reserve was really tough to clip using my Palio double bladed cutter. Once it pierced the wrapper though, the cut was perfect and clean. The cold draw kicked out some really interesting strong floral, and cinnamon flavors.

Size: 6 x 54 (estimated) –  Wrapper: Stalk Cut Connecticut Habano  –  Binder: San Andreas Mexican  –  Filler: Dominican Pilito Seco, Brazilian Mata Fina Viso, and 2 different Jalapa-grown (Nicaraguan) Criollo Habana Leaves –  Body: Full

First Smoke: As expected, the Double Signature Reserve starts off with a butt-load of pepper, and surprisingly a lot of rich, dark chocolate flavors. I didn’t get the floral taste I was expecting, in fact, the cigar starts out a little flat in the flavor profile, but after a while a bit of grape decided to slip in, brightening up the flavors a bit. Despite the tightness of the tobacco, the draw was extremely loose, but it kicks out a huge cloud of thick, white smoke, as well as a heck of a lot of cedar scented stationary smoke. You would think, due to the cedar aroma the smoke gives off that the cigar would carry more of a cedar flavor. The burn-line has been dead even right off the bat, and produced this awesome tight, white, consistent ash that held on for almost two inches before giving way.

Halfway There: And there it is! The cedar that I have grown to love from the Liga Privada T-52 has finally shown it’s happy face in the Double Signature Reserve. Along with the cedar, there is still quite a bit of pepper, as well as some more dark chocolate, and even a bit of orange peel coming it. I know that sounds like some sort of dessert, but I swear those were the flavors I started pulling out of this. Outside of the flavor change-up I really started to feel the body from the cigar as well. The retrohale was a little too harsh for me, so I didn’t find myself doing it too often. The burnline was still absolutely perfect well into the second third.

Finish: After all was said and done, the Double Signature Reserve took me about an hour and a half to take down. Keep in mind, I am a faster smoker. The final third actually started getting a bit bitter, sadly. But on the plus side, some of that floral taste I picked up from the cold draw started to sneak into the mix, masking a lot of the harshness. The cedar was still in full effect, with the dark chocolate backing it. I got a nice little nicotine kick from this cigar.

Overview: All in all, this was a pretty good cigar. Would I consider it over a Liga Privada? Not in a million years. But when you take in consideration that Robert isn’t someone that comes up with new cigar blends for a living, he did a hell of a job. This cigar was good, but the flavors seemed to fall flat at times. The harsh build up early into the final third was a big turn off for me as well. I really wonder what this cigar would be like in a corona. I think it would be damn good actually. Would I buy it again? Maybe, but not by the box, if they weren’t already sold out, which they are. Would I recommend it? Honestly, not to everyone. Maybe people who love the Liga Privada lines and are interested in a departure from the norm.

Pairing: I paired this cigar with some Obsidian Stout from the Descutes brewery in Oregon. What a wonderful, full bodied stout this is. It’s seriously like drinking cold coffee in beer form. The chocolate, coffee, and malt notes really gave another dimension to a cigar that otherwise wouldn’t have held my attention as much as it did. This cigar would pear perfect with any stout, porter, port wine, black coffee, tea, or something flavorful that would really help bring that little something extra to the cigar.

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