Caldwell Lost & Found One Night Stand

Cigar Reviewed: Caldwell One Night Stand

Smoked at: West Chester, Ohio

Caldwell Lost & Found One Night Stand is a medium bodied stick made from a blend of 2012 vintage corojo tobaccos – something Caldwell picked up at a Dominican tobacco flea market. The band is typical Caldwell, like Andy Warhol designing a 1980s Swatch – a bedside table with a lamp on it. Chez cool.

It’s a nice September day with autumn in the air so I fired this up on the back patio. Weather and season contribute to an outdoor smoke so the experience is likely at least based on that backdrop.

The flavor notes include mild spice, wood and herbs. The wistful part is a mineral taste I can only describe as flinty, slate, chalk and vegetal, like autumn leaves just beginning to decompose in the flower beds after it rains The slate, chalk, flint taste reminds me of the minerality you might taste in some wines – Sauvignon Blanc or Syrah come to mind.

There’s good thick smoke output. The burn line was pretty consistent. The ash fell off twice. It didn’t seem to hold more than a half inch before falling.

I found this somewhat one dimensional. It really never transitioned or developed any new flavors. That usually loses my interest. This cigar is a few degrees better than meh – and yet it held my attention. I kept going back to try to fully identify the mineral and vegetal notes. I really haven’t eaten enough slate, flint and decomposing leaves to contrast and compare. Dietary restrictions, you know.

It’s like trying to explain the taste of Laphroaig single malt scotch to someone who has never experienced a dram. The “flavors” are more aromatic, olfactory. The best description of tasting Laphroaig is “it’s like licking a bandage from the inside of a chimney.”

I also kept coming back for the retrohale- some of this cigar’s more intriguing moments. There was the requisite pepper, but it was muted by the mineral, vegetal notes in the smoke.

Caldwell One Night Stand is worthy of a try. To fully appreciate it, smoke it outdoors in the fall – or listen to Autumn Leaves by Roger Williams while smoking