The Good Stuff:

Last year Dunbarton Tobacco & Trusts’ founder Steve Saka began shipping the Connecticut-wrapped Sobremesa Brûlée. This new line was made to create a bit of an old-school experience from cigars of the past. This year, Dunbarton added a new tweaked version of the Brûlée blend. Enter the Brûlée Blue. Released in a single 6 1/4 x 46 format this cigar features an Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper over a Mexican binder and Nicaraguan fillers.

Within the Sobremsa line, there is quite a bit of controversy over if this cigars in fact, feature a sweetened cap or not. While it’s not clear which do, if any, in my humble opinion this particular cigar does in fact feature a sweetened cap. The cigars come packaged in boxes of 13 with only 1,000 boxes being produced. Each cigar runs $14.95 a stick and I purchased mine over from our fiends at Cigars Daily.

• Size: 6 1/4 x 46
• Wrapper: Ecuadorian Connecticut
• Binder: Mexican Matacapan negro de Temporal
• Filler: Nicaraguan
• Body: Medium/Full
• Strength: Medium
• Price: $14.95
• Pairing: Bottle Logic Ghost Proton (Imperial Stout 13.34% ABV)

Prelight:

The Sobremesa Brûlée Blue starts off with a very consistent, light yellowish-brown wrapper. The wrapper itself feels very thin and delicate as I carefully inspect it. The wrapper is very smooth with only light oils, very minor veins, and minor tobacco webbing in the leaf. The cigar as a whole is packed well and there are no soft spots whatsoever. The wrapper is laid seamlessly over itself leading from the foot up to the round, pig-tail style cap. The Brûlée Blue is polished off with a light blue and gold version of the crowned Sobremesa crest on the main band, and the addition of a similarly designed foot band with the words “Sobremesa” embossed on the front.

The wrapper on the Sobremsa Brûlée Blue gives off only slight cedar and dirt aromas while the foot of the cigar carries more sweetness, cedar, and earthiness. The cap cut clean and easily using my Xikar XO double bladed cutter. The cold draw produces lots of cedar, earthiness and soft spice. I can taste the sweetness from the sweetened cap instantly when the cigar touches my tongue and lips.

First Third:

The Sobremsa Brûlée Blue starts out with a very mild black pepper punch which completely fades after the first draw leaving me with a ton of woody-cedar flavors over pecan, honey, soft spice, and a nice earthiness at the flavor’s base. Again, that sweetened cap is very evident and I know people have mixed feelings on it but I absolutely love it. Long after the draw I can still taste it on my lips. Outside of the sweetness on my lips though, it doesn’t really translate to the cigar’s actual flavor. The draw is absolutely flawless and each little puff kicks out clouds of thick, white smoke which really take some time to dissipate while the cigar itself releases very small amounts of stationary smoke while it rests in my ashtray. The burnline is dead even leaving behind a trail of tightly compacted white and light gray ash which held on for almost an inch before falling into my ashtray.

Second Third:

Into the second third of the Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Sobremesa Brûlée Blue and the cedar and pecan have taken dominance over the flavor profile backed by honey, vanilla, earthiness and spice. I am really enjoying this profile and its a departure from cigars I have smoked recently. The retrohale really pumps out pecan and I find myself doing it quite often. The burnline is dead even and razor thin as I close out the second third with nothing in terms of a nicotine kick.

Finish:

Into the final third of the Sobremesa Brûlée Blue and the flavors haven’t changed up much from the second third, and I am totally ok with that. Lots of cedar and pecan over vanilla, honey, spice and earthiness. The cigar took me an hour and forty five minutes to smoke down to the nub and I enjoyed every second of it. I never once had to reach for my torch to touchup or relight the cigar, experienced absolutely no harshness nor any extended heat, and closed out with a very minor nicotine hit.

Overview:

It goes without saying that I thoroughly enjoyed this cigar. And any Connecticut-wrapped cigar that can product enough flavor to be paired with a bold pastry stout without being overpowered by the beer demands attention. The flavors were incredible and a great change of pace for cigars I’ve smoked recently. They were complex enough, yet smooth and balanced. This is really a cigar for all occasions and something I would like to get quite a few more of before they are gone.

Pairing:

Today’s paring is a good one. Brewed at Bottle Logic Brewing, Ghost Proton is a 13.34% Imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels brewed with jet puff marshmallows, cocoa nibs and graham crackers. The Ghost Proton leads with a whole mess of bold marshmallow sweetness over strong chocolate and caramel notes and a touch of cinnamon. The beer has a very heavy and sticky mouthfeel before finishing with more marshmallow and chocolate over toffee and soft cinnamon. The sweetness is what drew me to this pairing as it compliments the Brûlée Blue very well while adding quite a bit of complexity with the added pastry flavors.

The post Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Sobremesa Brûlée Blue appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

The Good Stuff:

By now, you should all be familiar with master blender Ernesto Perez-Carrillo and his works. Over the past few years Carrillo has produced quite a few different versions of the Inch, a cigar blended with a larger ring gauge in mind, 60+ to be exact.

Fast forward to 2019 and E.P. Carrillo showcased the first Limited Edition addition to the Inch portfolio which made its debut at the 2019 IPCPR show in Las Vegas.

Rolled at the Tabacalera La Alianza in Santiago, Dominican Republic the beefy cigar contains a blend of U.S. grown Connecticut Habano over Nicaraguan binder and fillers. The cigar comes in a single 6 1/8 x 64 format which come packaged in boxes of 10. There are only 2,000 boxes produced and the Inch Limited Edition 2019 runs $15 per stick. We got ours over from our friends at Fox Cigar Bar who have them in stock now with free shipping, no minimum.

• Size: 6 1/8 x 64
• Wrapper: Connecticut Habano
• Binder: Nicaraguan
• Filler: Nicaraguan
• Body: Medium
• Strength: Medium
• Price: $15
• Pairing: Fair State Part:1 (Imperial Stout 13% ABV)

Prelight:

The E.P. Carrillo Inch Limited Edition 2019 starts out with a very deep, rich, reddish brown wrapper which is extremely consistent in color. The wrapper’s texture carries a good amount of gritty tooth along with a whole ton of oils coating the cigar’s body. There are a few larger veins running through the cigar’s massive body along with a good amount of natural webbing in the tobacco leaf. The cigar is capped off with a round, double wrapped cap before being dressed with a silver and red version of the Inch band, and a dark blue, silver, and red foot band with the E.P. Carrillo crest along with the words “Limited Edition 2019” embossed across the front.

The wrapper on the E.P. Carrillo Inch Limited Edition 2019 gives off only a faint aroma of cedar while the foot of the cigar is a different story boasting bold scents of earth, musk, and natural tobacco. The cap cut clean and easily using my Xikar XO double bladed cutter. The cold draw produces a ton of deep oak, earth, and musk flavors.

First Third:

The E.P. Carrillo Inch Limited Edition 2019 starts out with a nice little pepper punch that last only the first few puffs before fading away allowing the cigar to showcase some bold dark chocolate flavors over oak, cinnamon, musk, black cherry, and mossy/earth. The draw is a bit loose at first which I expected with such a large ring gauge, but after the first four or five draws, when the huge ass foot is completely lit and burning freely then the cigar really comes alive pumping out a whole mess of smoke after each little puff. The burn line is smooth except for one massive area where it looks like the filler wasn’t packed properly resulting in the wrapper burning faster than it should. Two notes here, this didn’t happen on any of the other cigars from the same box I smoked, and once I got past that point the burn was on point. But I thought it was worth mentioning since I can see the result in the following picture.

Second Third:

Into the seance third of the E.P. Carrillo Inch Limited Edition 2019 and the flavors have began to mellow out a bit. As they balance out and come together the dark chocolate is still leading the charge backed by pecan, cinnamon and musk with light notes of earthiness and oak. I’m really enjoying the flavor profile here and the retrohale seems to really bring that oak to the forefront of the experience. The burn line is now running much more smoothly without any help from my torch as I close out the second third with only a minor nicotine kick.

Finish:

Wow, both the body and strength have really ramped up in the final third of the E.P. Carrillo Inch Limited Edition 2019. The dark chocolate and oak are in the front backed by bold notes of cinnamon and musk along with minor notes of pecan and earthiness. I’m impressed with how often this cigar has changed up. It took me two hours to smoke it down to the nub and I experience no harshness nor extended heat. It did leave me with a little more of a nicotine kick than I expected though.

One thing to note, and maybe its just me, but with a cigar with such a wide ring gauge I found it easier to accidentally inhale the cigar. This may just be my dumb throat but I figured it was worth noting.

Overview:

Just about anything Ernesto Perez-Carrillo touches is gold, and the E.P. Carrillo Inch Limited Edition 2019 is no exception. All honesty here, I am not a fan of large ring gauged cigars, and I am still not. But there are certain exceptions to that rule and most of the Inch series seem to test that. The flavors were great, and bold since this cigar was blended with the larger ring gauge in mind. Not to mention I really enjoyed the flavor profile. Outside of the first half inch the cigar burned like a dream and outside of the occasional inhalation mistake the draw was perfect. This is very limited, and if you like larger ring gauged cigars, or are interesting in trying them out its a perfect place to start, until they are gone.

Pairing:

Fair State Part:1 is the first part of the pastry stout series. This version is a 13% ABV S’mores inspired as its brewed with marshmallows, graham crackers, cacao nubs, vanilla and honey. The beer starts with a very heavy molasses sweetness with bold notes of honey and cocoa backed by cinnamon, malt, and hints of vanilla with a very heavy and sticky mouthfeel before finishing with more cocoa and honey. It’s interesting just how bold the honey is in this beer. The similarities with the E.P. Carrillo Inch Limited Edition 2019 are evident as the cocoa, cinnamon and sweetness paired up perfectly with the cigar.

The post E.P. Carrillo Inch Limited Edition 2019 appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.