Blessed Leaf Kairos

The Blessed Leaf Kairos is a cigar that was made for the cigar-themed Christian Minstry Blessed Leaf.  Blessed Leaf was founded by Ezra Zion Cigar Company co-owners Kyle Hoover and Chris Kelly.  As such, it is a cigar that comes to Blessed Leaf from Ezra Zion and produced at Ezra Zion’s manufacturing partner, the Casa Fernandez Miami factory.  Kairos is one of what could be considered three shop exclusives spearheaded by Ezra Zion in 2014 – joining The Collective (a cigar for Cigar Federation) and SP3 (for Lone Star State Cigar Company).  Recently, I’ve had an opportunity to smoke the Kairos.  The track record of work between Ezra Zion and Casa Fernandez has proven to be excellent – and once again, the combination comes through with another solid cigar.

In terms of the name Kairos, Hoover explained the origin, “We chose the name Kairos because of it’s unique meaning to this project. Kairos is defined as a specific moment in time when the Divine intervenes directly into your life. To us, there is a duel application. Obviously, as a person smokes the cigar they will have a ‘heavenly’ smoking experience. Secondly, that the support raised for Christian missions will impact people’s lives with the gospel of Christ.”

Without further ado, let’s break down the Blessed Leaf Kairos and see what this cigar brings to the table.

Blend Profile

The cigar is a Nicaraguan puro that uses a Corojo wrapper – a staple of Casa Fernandez blends. Last year, Ezra Zion had ventured into multi-national blends with the Eminence and FHK. As Kelly explained, “For this project, we went back to our roots: Nicaraguan tobacco! This is a Nicaraguan puro in the Ezra Zion genre of blending. Since we are doing this for The Lord, it had to be the best work we could possibly do!”

Wrapper: Nicaraguan Corojo 99 Rosado
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Includes ligero from Esteli and Jalapa

Vitolas Available

The Kairos is available in one size – a 6 1/4 x 52 box-press. Total production will be 4000 cigars of 100 twenty-count boxes and 5 packs.

Appearance

The Blessed Leaf Kairos’ Corojo wrapper has a medium brown wrapper with some darker marbling. Depending on how the light hits the wrapper, it might show off a reddish hue. There is a light amount of oil on the surface of the wrapper.  There are some visible wrapper seams and some thin veins.  The box press is softer box-press with a slight rounding effect.

There are two bands on the Kairos. The primary band has a pale yellow background. The Blessed Leaf logo sits on that background consisting of three green leafs with a crown overlaying it. Two mustard colored rings surround the logo. Below the logo is a blue ribbon with the text “Blessed Leaf” with a star on each side – all in pale yellow font. On the left side of the band is th text Psalm 34:8 in blue cursive font. To the right side of the band are Hebrew letters in blue font. There are also some mustard colored adornments on the left and right side. On the far left and far right are three interlocking blue rings.

The secondary band sits on the footer and also has a pale yellow color to it..  The text “Kairos” is in black font on a simulated ivory-colored band.  The simulated band sits on what appears to be three solid blue circles.  There are also some mustard colored adornments.

Preparation for the Cigar Experience

Prior to lighting up the Blessed Leaf Kairos, I went with a straight cut to remove the cap.  Once the cap was clipped, I moved on to the pre-light draw experience.  The dry draw delivered a mix of bittersweet chocolate, cedar spice, and earth.  Overall I found the pre-light draw to be very good on the Kairos.  At this point I removed the footer band of the Kairos, fired up the cigar, and moved on to see what the smoking experience would have in store.

Flavor Profile

Out of the gate, the Blessed Leaf Kairos delivered some notes of red pepper and chocolate.  There was a cream note that also was present in the background.  In the very stages, some cedar notes emerged and quickly moved to the forefront.  The chocolate became a close secondary note while the red pepper and cream notes were a little further back.  I also picked up a touch of salt in the background.  Meanwhile the red pepper was a little more prominent on the after-draw and on the retro-hale.

Throughout the first third, I found the chocolate notes continued to diminish and were replaced by earthy notes. By the second third, the earth and cedar note became primary.  Meanwhile the red pepper and cream notes remained secondary.  There also were some nut flavors I detected that could be considered a tertiary note.

By the last third, the red pepper notes moved closer to the forefront with the earth and cedar notes. Both the cream and chocolate notes had dissipated. The nut flavors remained very distant. This is the way the cigar experience came to a close. The resulting nub of the Kairos was cool in temperature and soft to the touch.
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Burn and Draw

Construction-wise I found the Blessed Leaf Kairos to be a well constructed cigar and this reflected nicely in the burn and draw.  Atfer a slightly jagged start to the burn line, the burn line straightened out nicely and only required occasional touch-ups along the way.  The resulting ash had a salt and pepper color.  The ash itself wasn’t overly tight, but it wasn’t loose.  The ash wasn’t prone to any significant flaking.  The burn rate and burn temperature were ideal.

Burn of the Blessed Leaf Kairos

The draw to the Kairos was outstanding.  It was not too loose, nor was it too tight.  The Kairos produced a nice amount of smoke.  This made the cigar an enjoyable smoke from start to finish.

Strength and Body

Since there is some ligero in this blend, it did not surprise me that the Blessed Leaf Kairos leaned fuller in terms of both strength and body.  Given this cigars smoked for this assessment were in my humidor for six month, I was pleased the Kairos still maintained an edge for strength and body.  From a strength perspective, I found the Kairos to be medium to full strength.  In terms of the flavors, I did find they had some depth.  I assessed the Kairos as being a full-bodied cigar from start to finish.  In terms of strength versus body, I gave the edge to the body.

Final Thoughts

Quietly the Casa Fernandez Miami factory has been turning out some very nice blends.  I can add the Blessed Leaf Kairos to the list impressive smokes coming out of that factory.  With a lot of Casa Fernandez blends, I normally get a signature corojo flavor combining natural tobacco with a touch of cherry sweetness.  The sweetness from this cigar is going to be more chocolately early on, then more cedar-like for the majority of this smoke. In the end, I did enjoy the fact that Kairos deviated a bit from what I expected.

This cigar is a little stronger and fuller than I would expect for a novice.  I’m more inclined to recommend this to an experienced cigar enthusiast and use this as a cigar for the novice to graduate to something with more strength and body.  As for myself, this is a solid smoke, and one I’d easily keep a five pack around.

Summary

Burn: Excellent
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: Medium
Strength: Medium to Full
Body: Full
Finish: Good
Assessment: 3.0 – The Fiver
Score: 89

References

News: Blessed Leaf Kairos Announced (Cigar Preview)
Source: Sample Provided by Manufacturer
Price: $8.95
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