Drew Estates makes some excellent high grade cigars, they are the company behind the highly esteemed ROCKY PATEL brand of cigars as well as several others. The NATURAL line of cigars is a premium line of oddly named cigars with some unusual flavors in their line up.
The cigar I smoked today was a "DIRT TORPEDO" and the wrapper was a maduro wrapper. I love the sweeter flavor imparted by maduro wrappers, they tend to cut some of the harshness found in some blends. Maduro is the dark, often nearly black wrapper. On the DIRT TORPEDO the wrapper is a nice dark brown. The fermentation process used to make maduro wrappers often leaves them with a nice flexible oily feel and this little cigar was a great example of a one with a wrapper that had good flexibility without any hint of being brittle. Maduro wrappers also tend to have more prominent veining and a thicker wrapper and this was no exception.
Torpedo is a shape, so its more a descriptor than anything else. The DIRT TORPEDO had a very pointy torpedo shape with a fairly long taper to the point. Some other are almost blunted, but this one has a long enough taper that when you cut the end you still have plenty of taper left to grab onto when you smoke the cigar.
The cigar was a medium intensity blend, possibly leaning to medium-mild, but not mild. Clearly its more robust than the mild cigars on the market. Nothing harsh about it, but its going to make some non-smokers who pick it up a bit dizzy.
What surprised me was the sweetness of the cigar. Not like a SWISHER SWEET, but still, this cigar clearly had something sweet about it that didn't overwhelm but was obvious never the less. It also has some sort of a clove or spice overtone to the smoke. The clove/spice flavoring was also very obvious, it was not an understated flavor that you barely perceived but rather it was very obvious, but not unpleasant in any way.
I would not choose this as my daily cigar, simply put I am not one who looks for spiced or sweet cigars. Its a quality blend, and if you want something DIFFERENT then this might be a good choice. Not inexpensive either, this is a small cigar, perhaps 5" long (I should have measured it) with a good thick ring gauge (probably about a 50 to 54) so it smokes fairly quickly and the smoke is not too hot. I found I smoked it down pretty low, taking off the brand's large decorative band so I could continue smoking.
For my tastes this is a pretty good cigar, but I don't consider it a serious smoke. Maybe good for an afternoon on the golf course? A bachelor party? If you enjoy spiced cigars then give it a try, but if you don't then you probably want to avoid it.
Other cigars in the NATURAL brand line up include names like the PIMP STICK and IRISH HOPPS. This is the only variety that I've tried so I can't speak for the other shapes, sizes, blends.
The cigar I smoked today was a "DIRT TORPEDO" and the wrapper was a maduro wrapper. I love the sweeter flavor imparted by maduro wrappers, they tend to cut some of the harshness found in some blends. Maduro is the dark, often nearly black wrapper. On the DIRT TORPEDO the wrapper is a nice dark brown. The fermentation process used to make maduro wrappers often leaves them with a nice flexible oily feel and this little cigar was a great example of a one with a wrapper that had good flexibility without any hint of being brittle. Maduro wrappers also tend to have more prominent veining and a thicker wrapper and this was no exception.
Torpedo is a shape, so its more a descriptor than anything else. The DIRT TORPEDO had a very pointy torpedo shape with a fairly long taper to the point. Some other are almost blunted, but this one has a long enough taper that when you cut the end you still have plenty of taper left to grab onto when you smoke the cigar.
The cigar was a medium intensity blend, possibly leaning to medium-mild, but not mild. Clearly its more robust than the mild cigars on the market. Nothing harsh about it, but its going to make some non-smokers who pick it up a bit dizzy.
What surprised me was the sweetness of the cigar. Not like a SWISHER SWEET, but still, this cigar clearly had something sweet about it that didn't overwhelm but was obvious never the less. It also has some sort of a clove or spice overtone to the smoke. The clove/spice flavoring was also very obvious, it was not an understated flavor that you barely perceived but rather it was very obvious, but not unpleasant in any way.
I would not choose this as my daily cigar, simply put I am not one who looks for spiced or sweet cigars. Its a quality blend, and if you want something DIFFERENT then this might be a good choice. Not inexpensive either, this is a small cigar, perhaps 5" long (I should have measured it) with a good thick ring gauge (probably about a 50 to 54) so it smokes fairly quickly and the smoke is not too hot. I found I smoked it down pretty low, taking off the brand's large decorative band so I could continue smoking.
For my tastes this is a pretty good cigar, but I don't consider it a serious smoke. Maybe good for an afternoon on the golf course? A bachelor party? If you enjoy spiced cigars then give it a try, but if you don't then you probably want to avoid it.
Other cigars in the NATURAL brand line up include names like the PIMP STICK and IRISH HOPPS. This is the only variety that I've tried so I can't speak for the other shapes, sizes, blends.
