Tag Archives: undercrown

by Craig Vanderslice | June 18, 2022 · 8:43 am

News: Drew Estate’s Flying Pigs Set for Spring Release

The site has been down for a couple days for maintenance, but I’m back and catching up! Here’s some news from Drew Estate. They aren’t going to mention it, but the FLying Pig vitola was Steve Saka’s idea when he was president of Drew Estate. It’s a cool size, I have a few floating around one of my humidors someplace, maybe I’ll pull one out this weekend!

Drew Estate’s Flying Pigs have been cleared for take-off for their annual Spring release!!! One of Drew Estate’s most popular vitolas, the Flying Pigs (100mm x 60) are now available.

Based on a photograph in an 1895 cigar salesman’s size selection catalog, the Flying Pig vitola’s unique size and signature pigtail requires specialized training for buncheros and rolleras at La Gran Fabrica Drew Estate in Estelí, Nicaragua. Only a few of La Gran Fabrica’s employees are certified to make the cigars, limiting Flying Pigs to two annual seasonal releases in the Spring and the Fall. Kentucky Fire Cured, Undercrown Maduro, Undercrown Shade and Undercrown Sun Grown Flying Pigs will be available to all premium cigar retailers. Liga Privada No. 9 and Liga Privada T52 Flying Pigs will only be available at participating Drew Diplomat Program partners.

Featuring a double wrapper of a fire-cured Tapa Negra leaf at the head and a Mexican San Andres Maduro leaf at the foot, the Kentucky Fire Cured Flying Pig is a smoky and savory treat with a filler tobacco blend of Kentucky seed tobacco, grown and fire-cured in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and rich Nicaraguan and Brazilian tobaccos. Kentucky Fire Cured Flying Pigs are presented in 12-count boxes and have an MSRP of $131.40 per box.

“Born on the Factory Floor” at La Gran Fabrica Drew Estate, Undercrown has been the peoples’ champion for more than a decade, and the Undercrown Flying Pig vitola is available in three expressions: Maduro, Shade and Sun Grown. The original Undercrown cigar, Undercrown Maduro boldly showcases the deep, rich complexity of the famed San Andres Maduro leaf. With an Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper, Undercrown Shade is more mellow but offers an equally expressive flavor profile that’s lush, smooth and creamy. Undercrown Sun Grown adds a touch of spice that grabs the palate’s attention without masking the underlying Nicaraguan tobacco’s zesty and earthy characteristics. All Undercrown Flying Pigs are packaged in 12-count boxes and have an MSRP of $171.60 per box.

The famed wrapper leaves cultivated in the Connecticut River Valley breathe life into the Liga Privada No. 9 and Liga Privada T52 Flying Pigs, which will be available exclusively to Drew Diplomat Program participants. A broadleaf bully with a dark, rugged and flavorful wrapper, Liga Privada No. 9 is dense, hearty and intense, yet surprisingly smooth. Utilizing a Connecticut Habano stalk-cut and stalk-cured seed variety that’s grown exclusively for Drew Estate for its capa, Liga Privada T52 is full-bodied, spicy and bold with notes of leather, caramel, earth and gritty black pepper. Both Liga Privada Flying Pig expressions are packaged in 12-count boxes with an MSRP of $198 per box.

“Flying Pigs are distinctly Drew Estate,” says Jonathan Drew, Founder and President of Drew Estate. “There are very few things in life more satisfying than cracking a fresh box of Drew Estate’s piggies and being hit with that aroma and the visuals. You can’t help but immediately, desperately, spark one up. Ya’ll know it’s the truth!!!”

About Drew Estate

Founded in New York City in 1996, Drew Estate has become one of the fastest growing tobacco companies in the world. Under their mantra “The Rebirth of Cigars”, Drew Estate has led the “Boutique Cigar” movement by innovating new elements to the tobacco industry with their unique tobaccos and blending styles that attract new and traditional cigar enthusiasts. In their Gran Fabrica Drew Estate, the Nicaraguan headquarters, Drew Estate produces a variety of brands such as ACID, Herrera Estelí, Herrera Estelí Norteño, Isla del Sol, Kentucky Fired Cured, Liga Privada, MUWAT, Larutan by Drew Estate, Nica Rustica, Pappy Van Winkle Barrel Fermented Cigars, Tabak Especial, Undercrown, Florida Sun Grown, and Java by Drew Estate.

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, drew estate, Flying Pig, Kentucky Fire Cured, Liga Privada No. 9, Liga Privada. Serie Unico, undercrown

by Craig Vanderslice | May 7, 2021 · 5:56 pm

News: Drew Estate Unveils Undercrown 10 to Commemorate its “Decade of Dedication”

Here’s some Friday news. Last night on Drew Estate’s Freestyle Live event they announced this cigar. The cigar was included as a “mystery cigar” with the Freestyle Live pack, and I smoked it and it was really good. I was fooled though, I didn’t think it was a San Andrés wrapped cigar, it tasted more Broadleafy to me, and I wasn’t the only one who thought so. Whatever I think, it was San Anrés and is a great cigar, and I look forward to it’s release. I can remember hearing about the Undercrown back in 2011 when I was at Cigar Safari for the first time. I dig it.

Drew Estate is commemorating ten years of Undercrown with the global release of Undercrown 10, a bold new ultra-premium addition to Undercrown’s current premium lineup of Maduro, Shade and Sun Grown expressions.

To celebrate the brand’s anniversary in 2021, Drew Estate is getting “All Dekked Out,” a tag line that denotes Undercrown 10’s elegant packaging and reinforces the pride of Undercrown’s ten years of excellence. The new, sophisticated packaging is surpassed only by Undercrown 10’s complex, rich and bold blend of ultra-premium aged tobaccos that includes the highest priming of Mexican San Andres dark wrapper, the very finest Broadleaf binder from the Connecticut River Valley, and a tripa blend of select and rare Nicaraguan tobaccos.

“Undercrown 10 offers smokers an experience of Mexican hot chocolate … naturally sweet with hints of raisin and cacao … waves of intense black pepper … along with notes of sun-dried cherries, espresso, woodiness and earthiness,” says La Gran Fabrica Drew Estate Factory Spokesman, Pedro Gomez.

Undercrown 10 will debut with four core vitolas: Toro (6 x 52), Robusto (5 x 50), Corona (5 x 43) and Corona Doble (7 x 50), each available in 20-count boxes. A limited-edition Undercrown 10 “Factory Floor Edition” (6 x 46 Lonsdale) will additionally debut in July. The Undercrown 10 Factory Floor Edition is packaged in commemorative 20-count boxes, and includes a unique “tobacco leaf library,” offering each lucky purchaser the opportunity to see, smell and touch the very leaves that Drew Estate’s torcedores painstakingly chose for Undercrown 10’s new powerhouse blend. Finally, the Undercrown 10 Tuani Belicoso (6 x 52) will be exclusively available in a special 2-count presentation coffin/box at Undercrown 10 events hosted by Gomez.

Jonathan Drew, Drew Estate’s Founder and President pontificates, “Undercrown is a noble prince of a brand, both humble and loyal, who is now to become a king. The new UC10 expression represents its super-premium platform, sealing the brand’s destiny … as the good king whose brand promise is gratitude for our talented team at La Gran Fabrica. The new UC10 is so incredibly important to Drew Estate that we gave it two slogans, ‘A Decade of Dedication’ and ‘All Dekked Out.’ Add those two slogans to ‘Born on the Factory Floor,’ and the Shakespeare really unfolds.”

Born on the factory floor at La Gran Fabrica Drew Estate, the Undercrown brand is a passionate testament to the creative talent, dedication and self-determination of Drew Estate’s torcedores. Blended with many of the same rare vintages found in Liga Privada, Undercrown quickly became a grand slam for Drew Estate as consumers felt a deep personal connection to the grass-roots firebrand that celebrates the typically unheralded working-class heroes employed at the Drew Estate cigar factory.

Undercrown 10’s core vitolas will ship to retailers beginning in May. MSRPs for the Undercrown 10 cigars will be: Robusto $235/box or $11.75/cigar; Toro $240/box or $12/cigar; Corona Doble $270/box or $13.50/cigar; and Corona Viva $210/box or $10.50/cigar. Undercrown 10 Factory Floor Edition will debut in July with an MSRP of $272/box or $13.60/cigar.

ABOUT DREW ESTATE

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, drew estate, undercrown, Undercrown 10

by Craig Vanderslice | November 25, 2020 · 9:20 pm

News: Two Undercrown Limited Editions Now Shipping Nationwide

Two Undercrown Limited Editions Now Shipping Nationwide

Drew Estate announces today that it is now shipping both Undercrown ShadyXX and Undercrown Dojo Dogma Maduro to Drew Diplomat Retailers nationwide. Drew Estate announced the 2020 editions of Undercrown ShadyXX and Dojo Dogma Maduro during the #DESummerTakeover campaign and highlighted them on Freestyle Live: Special Edition.

Both the Undercrown ShadyXX and Dojo Dogma Maduro share a powerhouse blend that is similar to the Undercrown Corona Viva. Both cigars feature a toothy Mexican San Andres maduro wrapper, spicy Connecticut Stalk Cut Habano binder and showcase the highest quality plantation Nicaraguan and Brazilian filler tobaccos.

From Sag Harbor, N.Y., Jonathan Drew, president and founder of Drew Estate, adds, “Both Eminem and Drew Estate were quintessential underdogs. Everyone laughed at the two of us, claiming that we didn’t have a chance, that we didn’t fit the mold, and that we didn’t belong. Well … of course the story reads on and ya’ll know how it ends up … both underdogs rise above to break the mold and become legends. The Shady Series celebrates the Drew Estate torcedors in Nicaragua for their contribution to the world of cigars … determination, raw talent, and natural bad-ass-ness … as they birthed the prince of a cigar brand that we call Undercrown. Oh, and in regard to the Dojo Dogma … well that shit’s just straight fire … Nuff said !!”

The ShadyXX is a 5 x 50 box-pressed belicoso that is well-aged and packs a punch, while remaining smooth and sophisticated during the entire smoke. ShadyXX is packaged in an elegant, gold embossed 10-count petaca that highlights this 2020 limited release. The MSRP for Undercrown ShadyXX is $104.00 per box.

The Dojo Dogma Maduro is unique within the core vitolas of Undercrown Maduro. It is a 6 x 56 box-pressed toro that is packaged in a stunning 10-count box that also signifies that the cigars are a limited edition release for 2020. The MSRP for Undercrown Dojo Dogma Maduro is $107.87 per box.

ABOUT DREW ESTATE

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, Dogma, drew estate, ShadyXX, undercrown

by Craig Vanderslice | September 2, 2020 · 9:48 pm

Byron 19th Century, Undercrown ShadyXX and Micallef Grande Bold Sumatra Cigars

I smoked a bunch of great cigars on my birthday weekend. After the Padron and the Unicorn on Saturday, I had to step down gradually! Sunday afternoon I selected a Byron 19th Century Grand Poemas that had spent a few years in the humidor. This cigar was a gift from David Garofalo at an IPCPR show a few years back, it had to have been 2017, as that was the last show I attended. This cigar was 6″ x 56 and I don’t believe it’s even available any more. It’s listed as a 2013 limited edition, and the blend is undisclosed. I know that it’s made in Costa Rica under the supervision of Nelson Alphonso. This was a spectacular tasting cigar, it had that hard candy sweetness that I haven’t been able to identify yet, but I love. I really need to buy a bag of old school hard candies and find that flavor, it’s one that grandma would have in her candy dish. It was perfect in burn and draw, as a cigar with a $33 price tag should be. You know me, I’m not dropping that kind of coin on a cigar, but I certainly appreciate when I have the opportunity to sit back and enjoy such a great smoke. it was truly wonderful. Later I had another wonderful cigar, as I finished the weekend, a Joya de Nicaragua Cinco Decadas El General, a large, delicious cigar.

Back to reality, I decided to sample the Drew Estate Undercrown Shady XX, a line extension to the Undercrown Maduro line that came out a few years ago and I never got around to smoking. This returns this year as a limited release in the DE Summer Takeover. It’s a 5″ x 50 box pressed belicoso, for some reason it feels a little bigger than that. Usually box pressed cigars feel smaller. Much like the Dogma, this is based on the Corona Viva blend, which has some more ligero than the run of the mill Undercrown Maduro. This was a strong cigar. I felt like the strength overpowered the blend, and it was just too spicy. Maybe it was the wrong cigar for me for how I felt that day, or whatever the case, I generally like the Corona Viva and Dogma, although it’s been a few years since I’ve smoked either, oddly enough. It’s not that it kicked my ass, it was just more spice than the usual espresso/cocoa that I enjoy in the Undercrown Maduro. I’ll smoke one again under different circumstances, but I found this to be a spicy powerful smoke.

Last night I went with one of my favorite milder cigars, the barber pole cigar from Danli Honduras Cigars, or, as they are now known, DAHOT cigars, The Clown. I always enjoy this smooth, flavorful cigar! Tonight I found a cigar that I got at the TPE show last January, back when things were normal. By the way, next years TPE show has been moved to May, which is interesting because it put is pretty close to the PCA show. I may be able to go, as I will have vacation time by then, and I wouldn’t have if it had been in January, not that there’s any guarantee that travel would be possible then anyway. Tonight’s cigar was the Micallef Grande Bold Sumatra. I would have thought I had smoked this cigar before, but I searched my own site and didn’t find a reference to it, so if I’m repeating myself, my apologies. This cigar was the 5″ x 54 and was box pressed, has a Sumatra wrapper (it would be dumb to name it “Sumatra” if it didn’t, right?), a Broadleaf binder, and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. I love Sumatra wrappers, and I love Broadleaf, oddly the two play nicely together making for an interesting smoke. Both qualities come through with the sweetness and some nuttiness. It wasn’t what I expected, but it was really quite good, and I enjoyed it. I think these are priced reasonable and, if I recall, are readily available, at least in my local market. The sales rep in my area is someone I’ve known for a long time, going back to the Usenet days, I seem to recall him winning an inflatable sheep at a large herf in the 90s, but perhaps that’s another story. Micallef seems to be making good cigars and doing the right things for retailers and consumers from what I can see.

That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Byron, cigar, cigars, drew estate, Grand Poemas, Grande Bold, Micallef, Shady XX, ShadyXX, Sumatra, undercrown

by Craig Vanderslice | July 29, 2020 · 8:28 am

Undercrown Sungrown Dojo Dogma Cigar

We have been working on freshening up the screen porch over the last several weeks, and got one of the bigger parts of it tackled for the most part over the last couple days. That, along with a long awaited NHL game yesterday afternoon, I felt like a special treat, so I grabbed the new Undercrown Dojo Dogma sample that I recently received from Drew Estate and fired it up. You may recall from my post in June (here), this is the follow-up to the Undercrown Dogma, which was Smoke Inn‘s and Cigar Dojo‘s first collaboration, and was a 6″ x 56 box pressed version of the Undercrown Corona Viva blend, which was a punched up version of the Undercrown blend. It had a little extra ligero. Think of a world where Steve Saka never worked for Drew Estate, now imagine the Mi Querida is the Undercrown, and the Triqi Traca is the Corona Viva/Dogma blend, that’s the best comparison I can make. Steve would probably get mad at me for making that comparison, but he never reads this, so I’m pretty safe, unless one of you jerks outs me. Anyway, The Sungrown Dogma has one distinct disadvantage off the bat from the Maduro version, in my opinion, it’s an inch shorter at 5″ x 56. Otherwise, it’s a beautiful cigar. It’s nicely box pressed, it’s firm, it’s solid, it burns well, the ash is perfect, and the draw is perfect. I lit this up and got the sweetness I love from the Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, but there’s the little extra oomph that’s not there in the regular line! There are the familiar spices and sweet bready flavors that I like in this line with a little bit extra! By the way, I did smoke a Gran Toro later to satisfy my curiosity, and, yes, the Dogma does have some more punch than the Gran toro! Maybe five inches IS the right size for this blend! When I got to the end, about half way through the first period of the exhibition game between the Flyers and the Penguins, it had picked up in the strength department. In comparison, later that night, I didn’t feel like the Gran Toro was as strong as it neared the end, and I typically smoke cigars until either my fingers burn or I get bored with them, these bothe burned my fingers. By the way, interestingly, this cigar has the T52 wrapper as the binder (obviously not wrapper quality leaves). Shoot, that was my last Gran Toro, I need to get some more. Great job with these Mr. Herrera.

So, a couple notes. I still need to smoke the new version of the Maduro Dogma, I have one from the original release in my humidor. I know they have a corona (actually a corona gorda technically) in the Sungrown line, but will they make a Corona Viva with the punched up blend? Will they “Dogmafy” the Undercrown Shade, or will that just be whoring out the name or jumping the shark? Things that pop into my head. Anyway, the Undercrown Sungrown Dojo Dogma is awesome, if you like the Sungrown, or like Sumatra, you’ll dig it.

Finally, next Monday is Goose’s Philly Golf outing, I’ll be there cheerleading, or something, so if you are in the area and golf, hit Goose up and come along, it’ll be a great day! You can download the registration form here.