Subculture blends are born from the ultimate expression of craft and art. These limited edition cigars are granted to only the most deserving and devout retailers across the nation who spread our call. Each Subculture is one onto it’s own, so seek them out and be rewarded with the fruits of our labor of love, creating the most fantastic cigars the world has ever seen.

You can find a listing of Subculture cigars HERE.

Cory Grover, Digital PR Specialist over at Famous, provided some additional background on their Acid Subculture cigars:

Only premium cigar retailers that have been appointed expressly by Drew Estate can stock ACID Subculture cigars, and each Subculture blend is created specifically for their appointed retailers respectively. Famous is lucky enough to have 3 Acid Subculture cigars (Progeny, Mantra, and Tri-Borough)  Before we were able to carry this cigar some of our team members visited the Drew Estate in Eseli to work with JD and his team to blend this cigar. Testing out various different cigars that have been produced using Drew Estates unique infusion process to come up with the Famous Exclusive Acid Subculture line.

The Progeny is an infused cigar featuring a Mexican San Andres wrapper over undisclosed binder and filler tobaccos with an additional year of aging.

You can purchase the Acid Subculture Progeny from our good friends at Famous Smoke Shop. 

The Facts

Samples Provided by Famous Smoke Shop
Price: $5.96 per single | $22.99 per 5-pack | $45.99 per 10-pack | $109.99 per box of 24
Vitola: Cuban Corona
Size: 5 ½ by 46
Wrapper: Mexican San Andres
Binder: Unknown
Filler: Unknown
Smoke Time: 1 Hour and 15 Minutes

Pre-light

Acid Progeny is dressed in a light to medium brown wrapper with a greenish hue that has a flat appearance. There is an extremely fine tooth along the bumpy leaf that is full of small veins webbing all over the place. You don’t even have to get the cigar close to your nose before the potent aromas greet you. Big aromas of clove, cinnamon, and sugarcane are found on the wrapper. The closed foot hides any aromas the filler tobaccos might have brought to the table.

 The cold draw is much more toned down than you would expect, but still full flavored. A straight-up potpourri, berry, and cedar is on the dry draw. Licking my lips, I find a sweetened cap applied to the cigar.

First Third

An infused clove, cinnamon and floral flavor is up front in the profile, but closely behind are the more traditional flavors of pine and earth. There is not a whole lot of sweetness in the profile, but a licking my lips every few puffs solves that problem. A spice leaves a lingering heat at the back of my throat. As the Acid Progeny burns along evenly, a white, toothy ash is being formed.

Middle Third

As I burn farther into the cigar, the light colored ash is now flaky with pieces dropping all of my keyboard. I don’t know if my palate has adjusted to the infused favors, but I am having a harder time pinpointing them in the profile as they mesh with the other flavors. The spice is now jalapeno-like, but the heat remains level with earlier. The finish has a bitterness to it, but not off-putting and easily countered by taking softer/shorter draws.. The burn is off track as I close out the second third of the Acid Subculture Progeny.

Final Third

As I moved into the final third of the Acid Subculture Progeny, the bitterness is no longer constrained but pushing off the clove, floral, pine, and earth. After a few minutes, the profile rounds out again. Woodsy notes are heavy as I push the smoke through my nose accompanied with a decent amount of pepper. The profile is much more meaty than it was early. The ash continues to drop and the burn self-corrected for a bit, but finally required a touch-up so I could get a few more minutes out of the cigar.  

Wrap-up

I am a complete newbie when it comes to Acid cigars so I have really nothing to base this cigar on other than the experience itself provided. From the time you remove the cigar from the cellophane all the way to the very nub, you don’t forget you are smoking a flavored/infused cigars, but at the same time the flavors in the Acid Subculture Progeny never become tiresome. The Progeny edges on full in the flavor department throughout the entire cigar with the strength never topping medium. Overall, the cigar delivered a nice combination of infused and traditional flavors that worked well for the most part. At times, the bitterness took the show, but never long enough to take away from the cigar as a whole. The cap was a little too sweet for my taste, so I attempted to smoke the cigar as dry as possible. However, the sweetened cap also helped out when the bitterness would creep in. Performance wise, the smoke production was satisfying, ash flaky, and burn wavy. I am not sure how other Acid cigars smoke, but if you are looking for a more manly infused cigar, the Acid Subculture Progeny may be the way to go.

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So the Subculture ACID cigar line is made by Drew Estates and promotes itself as an Aromatic cigar experience with cigars infused by botanicals and herbals. The “Subculture” reference here is a slight addition to the regular ACID line. The Subculture series is a somewhat limited blend and are slightly similar to some core lines in the Drew Estates inventory. You can tell the Subculture versions apart from the regular ACID cigars by it’s unique gold/orange/red gradient band.

In this case, the Toast is a balanced blend of the Herbal and Botanical infusions from the ACID lineup. A lot of the other ACID cigars tend to be either Herbal or Botanical, but not both. All of the tobacco leaves used in ACID cigars are cured in a large room called the Cuarto Aromatico (Aroma Room) for a period of many months. Only after being in this top-secret room are the leaves rolled into a finished cigar.

The ACID cigars have made a large impact in the cigar world and have quickly grown to some of the top selling cigars in the industry. The appeal here is that the infused flavors offer a little more appeal to people who aren’t regular cigar smokers. On the flip side, Drew Estates tried to strike a balance that even regular cigar enthusiasts could pick up one of these cigars and still enjoy them since they contain some premium Nicaraguan tobacco.

I used to enjoy the odd infused or flavored cigars way back when I first started getting into the hobby but they fell off my radar quite awhile ago. I happened to have a couple ACID cigars left from a sampler tin I purchased roughly 3 years ago and probably have not smoked many infused at all since that time. I had a few bad experiences with flavored and infused cigars that I decided to stay away. But here I am going in for a full review on a popular infused cigar line. Will my opinion of the infused cigars change? Read on to find out!

Cigar: Drew Estate Subculture ACID Toast
Drink: Hockley Valley Brewery Dark Ale
Vitola: Toro (6 x 50)
Wrapper: Nicaragua
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Nicaragua
Price: About $6 (Got mine in a sampler)
Burn Time: Almost 2 hours

Construction:
• The construction of the Subculture ACID Toast is clean and smooth with very few veins running along it
• The wrapper is a deep chocolate color with a few dark brown splotches
• The double cap atop this cigar is very clean and neatly finished
• On the other end, the foot shows signs of a full and neat filler
• The cigar has some spring to it when squeezed and is a bit softer just below the cap
• The cigar clipped cleanly and easily without much effort
• I’m happy to say the draw feels just a tad open but mostly in a good range

Burn:
• The toasting of the “Toast” was even and fairly quick, leaving me with a nice glowing foot
• First impressions of the burn are positive as I truck through the first inch with a nice tight line
• I’m happy to report that the burn has been great going through the first half, sharp and clean without any need for touch-ups
• The burn was fantastic right to the end without the need for a single touch-up

Smoke & Ash:
• This Subculture ACID Toast is a smoke machine at the start, pumping out a ton of smoke from each draw and matching that with a ton of smoke while resting
• The ash seems to be presenting with some nice white and light grey colors, starting out fairly clean and strong without any flaking to worry about
• It’s very easy to get a good mouthful of smoke on this cigar with little effort
• First ash lasted nearly 1.5 inches and it fell as I was snapping some pictures. At least it hit the floor and not my lap! lol
• The ash continues to produce some clean lines and a nice white color
• The clean ash continued to surpass the 1 inch mark each time although I somehow managed to make it fall off while taking pictures all the time…

Tasting Notes:
• The wrapper aroma on the Subculture ACID Toast has a strong dirt and earth type of smell, along with a bit of floral notes
• The foot has similar aromas of dirt and floral notes but with less intensity, there’s definitely no secret that this is an infused cigar
• There is a ton of sweetness when this cigar hits your lips, it’s like putting candy in your mouth. In this case it still tasted sorta earthy and now some herbal notes too
• The pre-light draw brings just a bit of earth to the table, not much else
• Despite all the sweet, dirt, earth and floral notes on the pre-light there is surpringly few of these elements left on the first few draws
• The initial draws brought mostly woodsy notes and a bit of sweetness, but I think that could be from my lips touching the wrapper and not from the actual smoke
• Within the first inch I actually started picking up a touch of spices, maybe a slight white pepper thrown into the mix along with more smooth cedar flavors
• So far the finish has been somewhat dry and flavorless and the body is mostly in the mild to medium range
• The retrohale has a very light bite to it and a woodsy yet dry finish
• The spicy notes died out shortly after they appeared and I still have a nice balanced woodsy flavor going
• Every once in awhile I get hints of other flavors like cooking spices, leather, earth a,d even some grassy notes but they seem to come and go
• The dryness on the finish settled down a bit and the sweetness of my lips is adding an interesting dimension to the whole mix
• The flavors definitely began to intensify near the end, some more of the spice came back and the woodsy notes are still there. The sweetness on my lips is still around as well which helps balance it all out
• The intensity continued to build into the final inch and started turning just a bit harsh while the cigar also started burning a bit hot

Final Thoughts:
I came into this cigar with a bit of fear…haha. The last few infused cigars I had that I can remember were bad experiences and so I had a negative preconception going in. I’m happy to say the Drew Estate Subculture ACID Toast was not the terrible cigar I was bracing myself for. It’s different and unique, but not terrible by any means. The strong aroma and sweetness on the lips is something to get used to but if you accept it I found they added to the flavor profile quite nicely. The flavors on the cigar were not overly complex or too deep but they were fairly enjoyable. Probably my biggest gripe here was some of the dryness this cigar was giving me. Sometimes a nice woodsy cigar with a sweet touch is exactly what you are looking for, and if that’s the case you would probably like these! I can’t speak to how the 3 years aging in my humidor affected these though so take that into account as well. This may have dulled the infused flavors but I’d have to try a fresh one to be sure, just a thought…

Pairings:
Today’s pairing comes from another local brewery called Hockley Valley Brewery located in Orangeville, Ontario. They pump out a variety of Traditional English brews and in today’s case we have a Dark Ale. I’ve also paired their “Black & Tan” with the La Aurora Preferdidos 1903 Ruby and their Stout with the My Father LE 2010. Now, the can doesn’t say “Award Winning” for nothing, this is a smooth and tasty dark ale with a hefty helping of malt and slight espresso notes. The whole thing is balanced, and tasty and goes down super easy. I wasn’t exactly sure what to pair this cigar with so I took a guess and I think it worked out ok. Next time I think I would vouch for a lighter ale, something blonde or amber instead. Maybe even a soda or some sparkling water would go well here.

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Drew Estate ACID Subculture Def Sea Perfecto

If I am not mistaken the only place you can get these are through Cigars International. They’re awesome, and provide super quick shipping out of Pennsylvania.

I would imagine most other subculture blends will be equally hard to find. I have been blessed to have stumbled across 2 other subculture cigars. One was the largest cigar I have ever had. The ACID Hawg. This one was found in my hometown of El Paso, Texas at Kern Place cigars. The place is great, and Brad, the owner is an amazing conversationalist. They have two locations on the West side, one in the Cincinnat Entertainment disctrict and the other a bit further down mesa. They also have one (in which I frequent most often) snuggly hidden just off Lee Trevino on the east side.

The other is the ACID Toast. This I was lucky enough to receive in an infamous Acid Tin. Contents of these tins vary, but they are incredibly easy to find.

The Good Stuff: The entire subculture line boasts “taking cigar manufacturing to new limits”. Each small batch cigar is not only aged an extra year, but is also the most intuitive of infused blends. The ACID Def Sea is no exception. The Def Sea is a smoothly blended cigar wrapped in Sumatra seeded tobacco leaves and infused with the insane blend of flavors from honey water, to jasmine.

Size: 6 x 52  –  Wrapper: Sumatran  –  Strength: Medium  –  Shape: Perfecto  –  Country: Nicaragua

Prelight: The ACID def sea is a perfecto shaped cigar. This means it holds a torpedo shape at both the foot, and the head. Torpedos have to be my favorite shapes as they burn almost perfect every time. The cigar holds a very oily, creamy, dark Sumatra wrapper. It’s very close to a maduro, but no where near as sweet. Sadly from the picture above you can see that my cigar didn’t come in the best condition. Not only does it have a few cracks but the head of the cigar looks like its been smashed one time too many. Outside of that the cigar is great in construction, I can’t image how hard it is to roll one of these.

First Smoke: Kinda funny, but every time I smoke a cigar my wife takes the shaving from the head left on my cutter and sucks on it. Since she isn’t a cigar smoker this is how she bases her reviews. Oddly enough she looked at me with a sad face. She obviously gave this one a thumbs down. Being a man, I felt my review would be much different. The first hit was enormous. That had to be the best part of this cigar outside of the shape. It sports a very large, thick draw. Not nearly as big as the Ambrosia Kaya I reviewed recently, but large none the less. The taste. This is what caught me by surprise. Maybe I’m not a Jasmine fan but I really didn’t like the flavor produced by this cigar. It was really sweet (a good thing), with hints of honey, jasmine, pine, and cedar. The cigar itself wasn’t that flavorful at all and actually felt more like I was smoking a traditional cigar than an aromatic. The cigar was very easy to light, and burned very clean.

Halfway There: Another surprise was the fact that shortly after the first few draws not only did the cigar ash off (not even a half inch in, this may be due to the condition the cigar was in), but the burn seemed to have a mind of its own as you can see here:

Drew Estate Acid Subculture Def Sea Perfecto

One minute its burning great, the next its powerful on one side, then the other. It was kinda interesting to watch. Also note in the picture you can see the wrapping beginning to come undone.

The flavor is still there and hasn’t increased as of yet. As much as I would like it to. The draw has increased a bit and again, its the best part so far.

Finish: On a good note, outside of the image above there were no further defects in the wrapping. The cigar finished very smooth, but still lacked in flavor. I didn’t take it to the nub, but close enough to call it quits. This cigar just wasn’t as “Action-Packed” as I was hoping for. The cigar was still very smooth, and did not increase in strength as I smoked along.

Overview: Would I try this cigar again? Probably not. Would I suggest it to anyone else? Yes, especially if it is someone that solely smokes traditional cigars, or has a fear of infused cigars. I’m not at all unimpressed with this cigar. A lot of work goes into the subculture line and it clearly shows. The flavors in this guy just wasn’t my cup of tea. I still have the “Toast” in my humidor, and the “Hawg” was one hell of a cigar. It actually took me two days to smoke that one down (thank god, and my wife for my Cigar Savor).

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