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Caldwell Cigar Co. The T

Tony Casas — Mon, 24 Sep 2018 13:30:08 +0000

After a slew of working weekends, being without a computer, and having a crazy birthday I am back on track reviewing Caldwell’s The T. Paired with a bottle of Prairie Artisan Ales’ Consider Yourself Hugged.

The Good Stuff:

Caldwell’s The T stands for “The Truth” and is the result of an awesome collaboration of Matt Booth from Room 101, Robert Caldwell from Caldwell Cigar Co., and Abdel Fernandez from AJ Fernandez Cigar Company. The cigar was introduced to the world at least year’s IPCPR show in Las Vegas, then released in small quantities before being more easily available this year. The limited production run of just 100,000 total cigars are manufactured at the Tabacalera AJ Fernandez Cigars de Nicaragua S.A. in Nicaragua. The blend features an all Nicaraguan make up from wrapper to filler and is produced in five sizes: Robusto (5 x 52), Short Churchill ( 5 1/2 x 48), Toro (6 x 52), Toro Grande ( 6 1/2 x 56), and the Lonsdale 6 1/2 x 44) all packaged in boxes of 20 running between $11 and $12 a stick. We purchased ours over from our friends at Fox Cigar Bar in Gilbert, Arizona.

Size: 5 x 52
Wrapper: Nicaraguan
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Body: Medium/Full
Strength: Medium/Full
Price: $11
Pairing: Prairie Artisan Ales Consider Yourself Hugged (Imperial Stout – 11.9% ABV)

Prelight:

The T starts out with a gorgeous, super dark brown wrapper. The color is flawlessness consistent as the wrapper’s texture has some very large tooth while the gritty wrapper is laid seamlessly over itself. It very hard and very thick while the cigar itself is packed very tightly resulting in a cigar that feels as hard as a rock. The short, box-pressed body leads up to a round, double-wrapped cap and a brown band with 3 keys (which one would assume represent each of the contributing members to the cigar’s existence), Gold embossed “The T.” crest, and a secondary band with the initials of each of the people involved with the collaboration embossed in gold across the front.

The cigars wrapper gives off a very musky, spicy and sweet tobacco aroma while the foot is more earthy, and dirty. The cap cut clean and easily using my Xikar XO double bladed cutter. The cold draw produces some great spice, pepper, raisin, and natural tobacco flavors.

First Third:

The T. starts out with a great black pepper zing that left my lips and tongue tingling for a bit before it faded away allowing the cigar to release a ton of cherry, raisin, musk, and cedar flavors with light spice, moss, chocolate, and coffee. The draw as flawless as each and every little puff kicks out a great amount of thick, white smoke while the cigar release only trace amounts of stationary smoke as it rests in my ashtray. I’d like to add that I love how comfortably the box-press fits in both my mouth and hand. The burn line is razor thin and dead even leaving behind a trail of tightly compacted dark gray ash which held on for about an inch before falling into my ashtray.

Second Third:

Into the second third of The T. and the flavors have just been pouring in. The cigar leads with musk, dark chocolate, raisin, coffee, and cedar with some soft cashew, cherry, spice, and oat. The retrohale brings out a lot of the spice and cedar. The cigar is burning like a dream and I am feeling nothing in terms of nicotine. I close out the second third in the medium/full body arena while the cigar sites a medium strength.

Finish:

Into the final third of The T. And the cigar has now entered both medium/full in both body and strength. The flavor have balanced out a bit as the cigar leads with some great chocolate, musk, cedar, and spice backed by coffee and raisin. It took me an hour and a half to take the cigar down to the nub and I loved every second of it. I experienced no harshness, no extended heat, and the cigar burned perfectly, I never once had to reach for my torch to re-light or touch it up.

Overview:

So, you decide you want to put 3 of the more prominent, forward thinking cigar minds in the game in one room to create a single product. In a lot of cases, the hype is stronger than the cigar, but in the case of The T. The outcome was an incredible cigar. From start to finish this cigar was flawless. The burn, the construction and the profile were all exactly what I look for in a cigar. The price is slightly high, but what I would consider on-point for a cigar of this stature and I would gladly pay it for what the cigar delivered. My only gripe would be availability as I know sooner rather than later this cigar is going to become a whale.

Pairing:

Pairie Artisan Ales Consider Yourself Hugged is an Imperial Stout brewed with Peanut Butter and Coffee coming in at 11.9% ABV. The beer starts out with a ton of roasted malt, oat, chocolate, sweet peanut butter and brown sugar with a heavy mouthfeel before finishing even sweeter with more peanut butter, chocolate, coffee, and malt. The booze is dangerously well hidden. This beer paired perfectly with The T. Not because of similar flavors, but both the cigar and beer filled gaps in between their flavor profiles resulting in both of the elements raising the other.

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Illusione One Off

Tony Casas — Thu, 12 Jul 2018 14:04:29 +0000

While IPCPR is in our midst, I found time to cut away from the distractions and fire up one of Illusione’s newest releases, the OneOff paired with a bottle of Bruery’s Out of the Lunchbox peanut butter infused brown ale.

The Good Stuff:

If you were a cigar smoker in the early 2000’s there is little doubt that you have heard of, or smoked the OneOff brand. Originally owned and created by Andrea Molinari who was a tobacconist at La Casa Del Habano in Milan, Italy. Eventually the cigars made their way to the US market and were found in a variety of shops scattered throughout the company before disappearing just a few years later. A few years ago Cuban Crafters had purchased the brand with the intent to revitalize the cigar but it wasn’t until last year when Dion Giolito, owner of Iluusione, purchased the brand from Cuban Crafters that the revitalization dream came to fruition. The cigars are created at the TABSA factory in Nicaragua by Casa Fernandez. The OneOff sports a Honduran wrapper with both Nicaraguan binder and filler tobaccos. The brand has just been released in VERY limited quantities which will continue to ramp up as production continues on the cigars. OneOff will be produced in eight sizes: Cartuchos (3 7/8 x 52), Corona (5 1/2 x 42), Corona Gorda (5 3/8 x 52), Robusto (4 7/8 x 52), Super Robusto (5 3/4 x 48), Canonazo (6 1/8 x 52), Julieta (7 x 47) and Piramides (6 1/8 x 52). Each size comes packaged in boxes of 10 and will rung between $11 and $17.50 a stick. I purchased mine over from our good friends at Fox Cigar Bar.

Size: 5 1/2 x 42
Wrapper: Honduran
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Body: Full
Strength: Medium/Full
Price: $14.40
Pairing: Bruery Out of the Lunchbox (Brown Ale 7.3% ABV)

Prelight:

The Illusion One off starts with a beautiful, consistent, orangish brown wrapper. There is almost no color variation in the wrapper from foot to cap. There are very minor veins and webbing located through the cigar’s slender body. The wrapper’s texture is semi-toothy with a large amount of oils. The wrapper feels very thin and delicate, yet the cigar as a whole it packed tightly with no soft spots. The One Off is completed with a round, triple cap and a very different style orange bad with nothing more than a peace sign in the middle.

The Illusione One Off gives off a massive amount of sweet cedar aroma that you can smell before even taking the cigar out of the cellophane. The foot is a bit more natural carrying hints of spice, leather, and natural tobacco aromas. The cap cut clean and easily using my Xikar XO Double bladed cutter. The cold draw was much like the nose notes leading with sweet cedar, vanilla, spice, and natural tobacco.

First Third:

The Illusione One Off starts with an unexpected cayenne pepper zing that left my lips and tongue tingling for a bit. After the first few puffs the pepper wore off and I was left with some very heavy sweet cedar, cashew, nutmeg, musk, leather, and toffee. I also wasn’t expecting this cigar to start off just as bold as it did. The draw is awesome, releasing just the right amount of thick, white smoke with each puff with quickly dissipates in the air above me as the cigar releases only trace amounts of stationary smoke as it rests in my ashtray. The burn line is a bit thick, but pretty consistent for the most part leaving behind a trail of semi-flaky medium to light-gray ash which held on for an inch before falling into my ashtray.

Second Third:

As I venture into the second third of the Illusione One Off the flavors have become a bit more balanced. Oddly, the pepper is still there but in a very limited capacity, only present enough to tickle the back of my throat. The cedar is still the main dominant flavor backed by caramel, cashew, musk, and spice. I am really enjoying the flavor profile in this cigar. The retrohale really helps bring the spice and cedar to the forefront of the flavor profile. Th burn is still pretty thick, but also pretty even as I close out the second third with only a very minor nicotine kick.

Finish:

Into the final third of the Illusione One Off and I am really, really loving this cigar. It’s resting pretty comfortably in the full bodied, medium/full strength range which I didn’t expect. The cedar is still leading the charge in the flavor department backed by the spice, vanilla, caramel, and musk with the pepper peaking in and out of the experience.

Overview:

The Illusione OneOff is a fantastic cigar through and through and I couldn’t think of a better team than Casa Fernandez and Illusione to bring this brand back to life. While I haven’t smoked the original OneOff in years and years I do remember how much I enjoyed it which is similar to just how much I enjoyed this version of the cigar. It’s complex, bold from the start, has a wonderful flavor profile, and burned like a dream. While the price is a bit steep it’s not more than what I would personally pay to make sure I had this cigar ready and available in my regular smoking rotation. The 10 count packaging makes it much more manageable as well and I will go back on record for the thousandth time in saying the more manufacturers should follow that route.

Pairing:

Bruery’s Out of the Lunchbox is a PB&J inspired Brown Ale. Coming in at 7.3% ABV the ale is brewed with Peanut Flour, Lactose, Boysenberries and Salt. The nose of the beer is way more forward than the actual taste exactly resembling a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich. The flavor profile is a sweet-forward brown ale with great notes of boysenberry, caramel, malt, and a touch of salt with a very light mouthfeel before finishing crisp with more boysenberry, malt, and caramel with a great peanut aftertaste which lasts for quite some time. This beer went beautifully with the Illusione One Off. The nut, sweetness and malt married up very well with the existing flavors of the cigar while the cigar itself added an almost barrel aged dimension to the beer.

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