It's 7:46 am on a warm Sunday morning in Texas. Those who know me know that this is "My time!". When everybody is still asleep, I've already had breakfast, and I have a delicious Colombian Coffee in hand. I'm not expecting my phone to make a sound for the next 2 to 3 hours. For now, this is my own version of living off the grid, my place of Zen. Now, I'm ready to start my tasting of the E.P. Carrillo Pledge Prequel, Cigar of the year for 2020, and the highest-rated cigar in history.
THIS MASTERPIECE is wrapped in an Habano Connecticut leaf, which means a Cuban seed planted and har- vested in Connecticut, accompanied by a majestic Ecuadorian binder, and robust Nicaraguan fillers. It is the latest creation from the Master Blender Ernesto Perez-Carrillo and family. Don Ernesto is a family man in every way, his family is his inspiration, and we can see the pictures of his mother and daughter in at least 3 of his latest creations. Last Sunday I had the opportunity to interview his daugh- ter Lissette Perez-Carrillo right after she landed in Dominican Republic to visit their factory. She was kind enough to share the story behind this family legacy.* It's worth noting that this is a cigar, not a puro. A cigar is made with tobaccos from different countries, the puro only has tobaccos from one country. A puro is not better or worse than a cigar, it's just for mere classification purposes. This is a beautiful box pressed cigar, and if you read my last column, you will notice that the cigar of the year 2021 was also a box pressed. Is there a tendency here? Maybe, only time will tell. A common factor in box pressed cigars or puros is an almost perfect draw due to the way it's rolled and then pressed in a squared box, allowing for a great airflow.
Points: 98
Wrapper: Habano Connecticut Filler: Nicaragua
Origin: Dominican Republic Binder: Ecuador MSRP: $10.75
Pre light cold draw: the flavors and aromas that we perceived right out of the box were fruity, prune, and apple.
First Third: starting with a light grey ash, the aromas started with beautiful hints of dry fruit, toasty, dark chocolate, and licorice. Flavors in the realm of cedar wood, leather, charred wood, coffee beans with a great retro hale right from the start. As a box pressed cigar, the draw its normally great and, this cigar was no exception.
Second Third: Ernesto Perez-Carrillo is well known for his amazing craftsmanship and the time that he invests while creating these magnificent blends, with so much attention to details like moving certain fillers back and forth to fine tune the smoking experience. That said, the transition to the second third is remarkable and teases the palate in a steady progression of strength with aro- mas of nutty, roast, peanuts, almonds and toast as well as woody and tasty bread flavors. The retro hale continues to be an extremely pleasant experience.
Final Third: This is where everything comes together! Remember the fruity flavors from the cold draw? Well, imagine your favorite toast bread with a spread of almond butter and honey, and a few slices of peaches and apples on top!
As most cigars of the year, they have certain things in common, like a perfect draw with no effort and firm ash. In this case, it comes in a light grey color. Overall, perfect burning from start to finish. My go to cutter was a V-cut, which provided the perfect amount of smoke considering that this is a box press cigar with a 50-ring gauge.
The smoking experience lasted for 60 minutes, which is a very good combustion rate for a 5.0" inch long cigar. Its profile could be positioned in the mild to full strength, qualifying as a 7.5 in a 1 to 10 scale. The drink of choice for this tasting was black Colombian coffee.