Smoked: Caldwell The King Is Dead

Smoked at: West Chester, Ohio

Caldwell The King Is Dead Premier is a Dominican puro cloaked in the rarely-used Negrito wrapper. Well, rarely, if your name isn’t Robert Caldwell. Some of his Lost & Founds also use the Negrito tobacco. The cigar is medium body and medium strength all the way.

In my experience, consistency is not one of Caldwell’s general attributes, including construction. This stick has a super tight draw. The Perfect Draw opened it up a bit, but the draw was still too tight by my standard. There was precious little smoke output. I needed to puff too often to get any volume of smoke. The ash was firm and held pretty well. Eventually a few toothpick pokes and probably burning past an overly packed foot on the cigar, the draw opened up for the remainder of the smoke.

The cigar has a unique flavor profile – even by Caldwell norms. Aged tobacco, earth, mineral, pepper, saltine crackers, a touch of cocoa and wood – a combination of oak and hickory and an occasional hit of cedar. Quite interesting. Faint spiciness emerges during the 2nd 3rd along with a bit of cream and biscuit, like a honey graham.

The King Is Dead is one of my favorite Caldwells. Despite the construction issues with this particular cigar I still have to give it high marks for the flavor and body.