Happy Monday, folks!
Exciting things are always happening at Small Batch, but this week a couple exciting things came together like a universal sign of awesomeness. In addition to Caldwell’s Blind Man’s Bluff Maduro landing, we also received boxed sets of our exclusive The Last Tsar Rothschild as well as another shipment of one of our first exclusives, the Eastern Standard Marble House!
Which brings me to today’s question:
Which Small Batch Exclusive is your favorite?
I’ll post a link to the Exclusive Sampler at the bottom, but here’s a quick rundown of our Small Batch Exclusives. Somebody shoot me if I missed one:
- Caldwell Eastern Standard Marble House
- Caldwell Long Live the Kind Harem
- Caldwell Long Live the King The Crowning
- Caldwell The King is Dead Sleeping Beauty
- Caldwell The Last Tsar Rothschild
- Davidoff Maxamar 15th Anniversary Exclusive
- Graycliff Black Prince
- Graycliff White Knight
- Guardian of the Farm Claude Le Chien
- Herrera Esteli Inktome
- Herrera Esteli Inktome Exception
- HVC La Rosa 520 Maduro
- Quesada 40th Petite Belicoso Clasica
- Warped La Colmena Reina
Until the last six months or so, I could’ve told you that La Colmena Reina was, hands down, my favorite Small Batch exclusive. I have so many fond memories with Reina, and it’s just a wonderful cigar to start any day with. As an added bonus, they're especially fun to keep around for the Montecristo No. 2 fans.
Then I was introduced to the La Rosa 520 Maduro and Guardian of the Farm Claude Le Chien. Both of these cigars blew me away, and I subsequently smoked entirely through my box of La Rosa 520 Maduro about two months ago. I’m still waiting for Claude to give me the signal to fire at will, but it’s showing hints of greatness after just a small amount of time in my humidor.
Both of these cigars are produced at Aganorsa Leaf (TABSA), and both have been influenced by one of my favorite blenders, Max Fernandez.
If I had to choose today, I’d choose HVC’s La Rosa 520 Maduro as being my absolute favorite exclusive made for Small Batch Cigar. It leans in with a particularly potent blast of pepper up front, then washes it away with this funky, earthy note that I can’t describe any better than that. Whatever it is that I’m tasting in that 520 Maduro is fan-freakin-tastic!
What about you? Don’t forget to drop a comment below for a chance to win a Small Batch gift card! And, if you haven’t tried any of these, feel free to search our Exclusives list and tell us what you’d be most excited to try.
DISCUSSION CONTEST DETAILS
One of the comments below will win a $25 gift card. The gift card will automatically be sent to the email address that you login to comment with, so please use your regular sign-in.
I’ll be randomly selecting a comment below this Sunday before sending out the Weekly Newsletter. The winner can expect a comment with his or her name in it, a congratulations email, and an email with the $25 gift card information. The actual gift card email takes some time to generate from the system and may lag behind by a couple hours.
Only available to U.S. customers.
Comments
I think I've had every exclusive listed excluding Claude! Need to get on that!
There seems to be a consensus forming around the Claude though so I'm going to go with that one.