PROLOGUE
I've been washing my dishes by hand recently. Some added meditation. You know what's a good way to never get caught up on dishes? Hand washing. Anyways, I'm looking now at meditation of a different sort:
THE CIGAR
Drew Estate
Liga Privada
Unico Serie Dirty Rat
5 x 44 Corona flat pig/fan-tail
w. Connecticut River Valley Stalk Cut/Cured Sun Grown Habano
b. Brazilian Mata Fina
f. Nicaraguan & Honduran
"At this point, we have made 200 or more Liga Privada blends…There are probably nine or 10 of them so far that are exceptional….They’re cigars that work as a particular size, such as a lancero or Corona, with the blend being unique to that particular vitola. The Dirty Rat is a great example of this, so we have decided to introduce this as the first cigar in the Ünico line." Steve Saka
Thus I s'pose this could have in a sort, been a Redux. But nah. Executive decision and all. Humsover, I shall be telling its tale in a two-part format, given it's format.
PRE-LIGHT
A tight and toothy lil thang, this. Complexion is a Full City roasted bean with a burnt sienna under-hue which comes up higher in some spots than in others. Aforementioned tooth pokes through a decent oil sheen. Some darker marbling is somewheres betwixt. Seams are somewhat uneven but nada egregious. Veins are there, sure. Foot tobacco peeks out at a lively auburn with ticks up and down to dirty blonde and brunette. More of the former, less of the latter. -Full density to the eyeballing. Cap is, as stated, a flattened and fanned pig-tail. A stiff one, at that.
Hand-feel is tooth. -Firm and even packing. Rough and ready. Not largess 'nuff to worry about balance. Oils get to fingers upon fumbling the thing. Very sweet cream and fruit schnoz along the shaft; cedar, cinammon-led not quite red -- pink spices, say. Lots of earthiness with a pepper under-belly on the foot. I pull the piggie, and take a somewhat airy cold pull. pink to red spices. Cinnamon. Some dusty chocolate. A complicated earth with inherent sweetness that just might heat into complexities. Fruit vibe. Cedar comes on more apparent as we progress through cold draw to cold finish -- sweet and kinda oily.
LIGHT
I love the Drew Estate smoke-bomb theatrics. Toasting the foot gives off a sweet fruity wood aroma. Lots of rich earth, as well. Some smttering of spices. First hot pull is black pepper with a green pepper under-note that smacks ya a bit. Then toasted apple wood. Then spices with a dusty chocolate addition which lasts to the finish. More earth... dark and rich topsoil. There's almost a butterscotch vibe. Oily mouth-feel. Second hottie is retro-haled To a citrus-laced pepper and a apple drop to palate. Earth note gets toasted. Some espresso lies therein. Third hot one has a new note coming in, epis! A chocolate malt. Apple is more.
Lit in the windy outside with a Djeep, the line ain't bad at all. Ash is white to pale grey and coming on loosely. Draw isn't as airy as when cold, but it's at most a medium tension. Pack softened not an iota off'a light. Smoke pours. Smoke-hole is 95% satiated. Room-note is an oily spiced tobacco with loads of earth and hit of espresso. Pace of burn is rather fast. And as I Charmin again, there is a notch of softening about an inch from burn.
ACT I
Earth toasts to nigh sharp nigh harshly, but oily tobacco eases this. Very apple and apple wood. Verily more that earthy bit. Peppers are high on the retro-hale, but not over-poweringly so. Citrus has felled off. Spices are red rack, cinnamon falls back and they step up. Chocolate malt keeps almost a-comin'. Sometimes at immediate draw; sometimes at end of finish. Finish is medium+ and quite the apple-y affair. Near juicy. Chocolate malt is nicest when there.
Ash lilts. Peppers dial substantially back. I roll off a slight inch of powdery stuffs. Line is a tick wavy, but we shall see, gentlepersons. Smoke POURS. Draw is a medium now upon more tightening. No hint of resistance, but no longer open. Coffee and cream comes in and we are fairly complex as there a boundary enforced minglings. Earth very much leads from the front, but everything else is nipping at its heels. Too, Earth wraps around to in turn nip at everything else's heels. Apple is baking. Cream pulls not out, but ahead of coffee and boom goes the dynamite. Spices and cream soar in tandem. Retro-hale is ouchy-mama like a mo-fo.
Spices and cream are primary. Earth becomes a bulging core. Pace slows. Apples are high upper-middlings. Coffee is under that. Chocolate malt is just underneath a dat. Malts. A few of them... they are there. I have been warned not to go there. Those that know, shall know upon smoking -- plus, those notes are not full-on. Peppers play in the lower-middlings with a new red cousin addition. Oily tobacco is the under-belly. Oh, you Dirty Rat. I'm digging ya.
Packing has re-firmed. Line stays wavy but needs no aiding. Profile is a medium+ and strength a -medium. I have a nice warm boozey zetz in my chest as notes toast some more. A separate cinnamon finds the baked apple. Oily tobacco gets a supple and bracing leather vibe. There's a nigh harsh bit of toasting on the now extended finish. Opening act ends with the burn going dead-even and the ash darkening a tick, but in tightened ladder-rungs. Chocolate malt is falling off.
ACT II
The first, say inch of the second and final act was unchanged and quite nice. The chocolate alters, now -- loses its malt addition and dries to a cocoa powder. Coffee sweetens and is now black, as all the cream has went to the spices. Mouth-feel is and has been of perfect moisture with a nice tingle. Profile and strength stay put. Ash cracks a bit. Rye bread and dark roasted nuts come into the middlings in swirls. Now raisins. The raisins are standing on the shoulders of a floral note. Sheesh. I ain't re-listing all this, gentlepersons. I'm a busy boychik, I am. Tons of notes, yet not a 'flavor-bomb,' per se -- more refined than all that. Refined yet flirting with harsh. Hmmm.
Seams hold. Burn stays even, as does packing. Typical DE quality of construction.Smoke out-put is satiating my smoke-hole and carport completely+ meow. Ash re-pales.
I will say that a retro-hale is only needed if you're the type that pays extra to have the call-girl step on yer gonads in red stilettos. In that case, carry on Senator, sir.
Chocolate goes to the coffee and finds new cream. Cappuccino, verily. Some cinnamon from the apple goes there. The complexities, gentlepersons. Earth sweetens and moistens to a nigh compost. Oils ooze. I need prettier words than ooze and moist and compost. Apple core is the apple note. At the band, I swoon at a strength up-ticking to medium+. Balance in the profile. Balance in the notes. That there is pretty.
I love a Corona, because I too, like to leave you wanting m
I love a Corona, because I too, like to leave you wanting m
SMOKE TIME
60mins
NOTES
I wish the malts lasted. Wish it was a tick smoother. Too, wish it smoked longer. Here's a great example of complexities not always being kind -- but always being interesting. Great stick to dissect, this Dirty Rat.
PAIRINGS
Is it just me or do nearly all Drew Estate offerings beg Manischewitz? This time, Blackberry or perhaps Concord Grape. Sarsaparilla. Dr. Pepper. Coffee drink.
K A P L O W I T Z SCALE
Appearance OConstruction I
Combustion W
Flavors/Body I
Strength W
FINAL GRADE
****B+****
EPILOGUE
That final grade there -- some's are trickier than others. Here. Watch some Sabbath Smoker videos on the play-list I just created. Upcoming play-list? ...
BIG NEWS
We discussed it on the latest Radio Herf (check yer local listings); but not yet anywheres else. Gentlepersons, Radio Herf is moving to YouTube. Look for its own play-list soon. This coming Sunday May 15th at the usual time of 3:30 to 5:30pm Pacific. Please to be there. More info to follow.