If you’ve read our FAQ: Do Cigar Sizes Matter, then you already know and appreciate the dynamic flavor changes that affect cigars as they’re blended for different sizes. Today we’d like to highlight five cigars that are outside the usual spectrum of vitolas and offer something unique for your palate. And, if you haven't tried them yet, we're including a sampler at the bottom of this post.
Sampler subject to change according to availability
RoMa Craft Neanderthal HN
We’ve talked about RoMa Craft’s Neanderthal in the past, particularly about their flat cap. But if you look closely, that’s not all that’s interesting about the Neanderthal HN. It also features a figurado foot, lending it a bell-bottom appearance right before curving inward again.
Both the cap and the foot accentuate the experience of a very powerful cigar. Blended for maximum strength and flavor, the Neanderthal HN shapes the experience from beginning to end. With a flat cap, it’s harder to use a punch or shallow v cut with precision. It’s possible that Skip or Mike wanted to encourage us to remove more of the cap (instead of less) so that we’re not concentrating the smoke further.
LFD Double Ligero Chisel
We couldn’t have a conversation about interesting shapes without including Litto Gomez’s creation: the chisel! Conveniently designed for an on-the-go lifestyle where it’s permissible to forget your cutter, this style also allows for multiple cut variations to fine-tune your experience like a musical instrument.
The chisel shape was also the first cigar size to receive a patent, earning La Flor Dominicana a spot in the Cigar Hall of Fame. Coupled with LFD’s deceptively smooth profile and notorious strength, the chisel allows for easy smoking and a unique mouth-feel that you can’t find anywhere else.
Arturo Fuente Anejo Reserva No. 888
Take a terrible act of mother nature, extract a shortage of crops, stir in the essence of Opus X, spike the bowl with aged Connecticut Broadleaf, and add a finger or two of cognac. Now what have we got? A story of epic proportions that brought us the first Fuente Anejo Reserva line.
The No. 888 features a unique torpedo tip that remains unfinished at the top. The 44 ring gauge already highlights the Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper aged in cognac barrels, but the No. 888 torpedo makes this size unforgettable as it ages over the years. And the best part is, you can adjust the draw to your liking by simply cutting more or less off the cap.
Black Label Trading Co. Deliverance Nocturne Salomon
When it comes to innovation and creativity, James Brown isn’t new to the scene. If you’ve followed the Black Label/Black Works story for a bit, you’ll recognize that he marches to the beat of his own drummer. Among other things, a few years ago he gave us the Deliverance Nocturne in a one-of-a-kind shape that he’d go on to dub the Salomon Snub Nose.
This vitola also gives us a concentrated blast of Pennsylvania Broadleaf, with an extra dose in the thick portions of the body as filler. This shape carefully threads the needle with full-bodied and full flavor smoke without overpowering the senses, producing a unique experience that fans of Black Label have come to expect.
Herrera Esteli Inktome Exception
If you smoked the first Small Batch exclusive Herrera Esteli Inktome, you’ll appreciate the interesting changes brought about by box pressing the Exception. In addition to using a higher priming wrapper leaf, the same 6 x 46 size was box-pressed to the max. And, when you consider the amount of pressing that this took, this was no easy feat logistically.
The box-pressed (flat-pressed?) Inktome Exception feels strange in the hand at first, but much like the chisel it feels right at home in the mouth. Combined with the darker wrapper, the Exception provides a decidedly bolder, more adventurous experience for our second iteration in the series. If you’re able, we suggest smoking one now and then again later in year – this is one of those cigars that you can practically taste the potential waiting to explode over time.
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