Black Label Trading Company Salvation

Smoked: Black Label Trading Company Salvation

Smoked at: West Chester, Ohio

Black Label Trading Company Salvation has a Honduran binder, Nicaraguan filler and a smooth, oily dark brown Ecuadoran Sun Grown Habano wrapper with almost invisible seams and veins. It’s adorned with a black and white band with hands held in prayer and a footer proclaiming “Salvation” in Gothic script.

Initially. spice – heavy pepper - explodes followed by the mellowing flavors of oak, caramel, chocolate, cream, and grassy/hay.and earth. Some roasted nuts, berries and leather notes plus cinnamon and nutmeg from the spice rack creep in during the second third. Add a hint of licorice and something akin to barbecue.

Pepper takes over as the dominant spice note along with a charred wood taste by the second third. Maybe it’s a product of the cold weather playing with my mind, but the chocolate in this cigar reminds me of a cup of hot chocolate by the last third. There are other flavors, but they are muted by the charred wood-pepper spice. So, there is complexity, but the balance is off. It’s medium-full bodied and medium strength until the final third when the strength kicks into another gear.

Construction: the draw was loose from start to finish, the burn line was quite wavy, the light grey ash held on fairly well, and the smoke output was reasonable.

Black Label Trading Company Salvation is dark, bold, and spicy. If only the draw had more resistance, and the burn line wasn’t so erratic – touchups galore. Both interfered with the enjoyment of the smoke. You add the lack of balance, and you have a rather mediocre experience. Too bad. I enjoyed the Black Label Trading Company Royalty and love the Porcelain. Their comeback might be “There are no bad Black Label Trading Company series, only bad cigar smokers” – to paraphrase Konstantin Stanislavski. Could it be me? If you’re into woodsy, spicy cigars you may like the Salvation.