Leccia Tobacco White

The Leccia Tobacco White is the first blend to be released by Sam Leccia’s Leccia Tobacco Company.  It is one of two distinct blends that make up Leccia’s Black and White line.  Many people know Leccia from his days with Oliva Cigar Company as the face of the Cain and Nub blends.   Late in 2010, Leccia departed Oliva and had plans to launch is own company, however legal issues prevented that from happened.  As a result, Leccia was out of the cigar business for almost 2 1/2 years.  With the legal issues behind him, Leccia regrouped and launched Leccia Tobacco.  Leccia was a popular figure in the cigar industry and his return has definitely been one of the big stories of 2013.  The launch of the Leccia Tobacco White begins a second chapter for Leccia in the cigar business.  No doubt expectations are high for what Leccia will deliver.  In terms of the Leccia Tobacco White, it appears that Leccia has solidified this comeback with an outstanding release.

As mentioned the Leccia Tobacco White is a part of the Black and White line (there also is a soon to be released Leccia Tobacco Black which will feature a fire-cured leaf in the filler).  The press release announcing Leccia’s return describes what the Black and White line is all about:

Black and White will consist of two different cigar blends.  The Black blend is being manufactured in the Dominican Republic and the White blend is being manufactured in Nicaragua.  Both blends are very different, but each delivers a powerhouse of flavor.

Leccia Tobacco will be distributed by Torano Family Cigars. Torano was originally going to be Leccia’s distributor before the legal issues hit.  At the time, Torano was planning on distributing Leccia’s first cigar called “Debut”.  The Leccia White and Leccia Black are different blends than what that “Debut” cigar was going to be.

Today, we take a closer look at the Leccia White and see what this cigar brings to the table.

Blend Profile

The Leccia White consists is a multi-national blend with tobaccos from four regions and three continents (Africa, South America, and North America).  It is highlighed by an African Sun Grown wrapper.  The use of Pennsylvania Seco in the blend pays homage to Leccia’s home state of Pennsylvania.

Vitolas Available

Leccia White comes in four sizes.  The cigars are packaged 21 per box.

446: 4 x 46
552: 5 x 52
650: 6 x 50
660: 6 x 60

Appearance

For this cigar experience, I went with the 650 vitola – which is a toro-sized vitola.  The Leccia White’s Africian Sun Grown wrapper has a (lighter) chocolate color with a slight red tint to it.  The wrapper has a nice oily sheen to it.  There are some visible veins, but the wrapper seams are well hidden.  The aroma from the Leccia White has a nice farmyard aroma to it.

As expected, the band to the Leccia White is white in color.  All of the fonts on the band have a black color.  The band features the Leccia Tobacco “L” logo.  To the left of that logo is a second logo used by the company that says “LECCIA TOBACCO”.  To the right of the “L” logo it says “white” in white font on a black rectangle that is positioned in landscape mode.  The band also features Sam Leccia’s signature.

Preparation to the Cigar Experience

For my smoke of the Leccia Tobacco White 650, I went with a straight cut to remove the cap. After the cap was successfully clipped. When I commenced with the pre-light draw, I initially detected notes of cedar, wood, and pepper.  As I continued the pre-light draw, I also detected some chocolate notes.  Overall, the cold draw was excellent  on the Leccia White.   At this point I was ready to light up the Leccia White and see what the smoking experience would bring to the table.

Flavor Profile

The start to the Leccia White yielded a nice dose of pepper to start. Perhaps a little power of suggestion played into this, but the initial pepper notes did seem to have a white pepper quality. Once the pepper started to subside, it was joined by notes of coffee and natural tobacco.  The natural tobacco gave the flavor profile a nice sweetness.

By the five percent mark, the coffee notes took over as the primary notes.  The natural tobacco notes and pepper became secondary notes.  The pepper could definitely be detected on the finish. The spice was also present on the retro-hale.  The spice had what I term a “cool spice” feel to it.

As the smoke of the Leccia Tobacco White continued the coffee notes remained present in the forefront.  The pepper and natural tobacco alternated as a primary and secondary note throughout the smoking experience.  For the most part, this was the flavor profile of the Leccia White throughout the majority of the smoke.  A couple of times I detected a few sour notes, but nothing that really proved to be a problem on the pallet.

Toward the end of the cigar experience, the pepper notes did become the dominant flavor.  There was a  spicy kick at the end of the cigar.  The resulting nub was firm to the touch and cool in temperature.

Burn and Draw

The Leccia White has some outstanding construction to it – and this is reflected in the burn and draw attributes of the cigar.  For the most part the burn was straight.   There were a few points where the cigar did need some touching up, but nothing I would consider abnormal for a cigar experience.  The resulting ash was tight with a nice white color to it.  There was virtually no flaking of this ash during the cigar experience.  The burn rate and burn temperature were ideal.

 

Burn of the Leccia Tobacco White

The draw was excellent as well.  This was a very low maintenance cigar to puff on from start to finish – making for a very enjoyable smoking experience.

Strength and Body

From a strength perspective, there actually was a little more kick to this cigar than I originally thought. My initial smoking experience had this as a medium strength cigar, but my subsequent smokes seemed to have just a little more kick for me to assess this as medium to full strength.  No doubt the Nicaraguan ligero was providing the right amount of pop here.

The flavors for the most part are medium to full-bodied.  As the cigar progresses into the final third, the flavors do inch into the full-bodied area of the spectrum.  Along the way, I gave the body a slight edge over the strength, but toward the end the gap seemed to grow a little bit.

Final Thoughts

My last memory of cigars by Sam Leccia were the straight ligero smokes he did with the Cain brand.  This cigar is going to be a radical departure that line.  In fact, this is a very different smoke than anything he has been involved with before.  While I didn’t find this to be an overly complex cigar, I did find this to be a cigar with a lot of flavor – and just the right amount of strength.  It’s a great cigar for a novice cigar enthusiast looking to broaden one’s horizon into something that is medium to full in strength and body.  Experienced cigar enthusiasts will appreciate the nice flavor profile this cigar delivers.  As for myself, it is definitely a cigar I look forward to smoking again in the future.

Summary

Burn: Excellent
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: Low
Strength: Medium to Full
Body: Medium to Full (Full last third)
Finish: Good
Assessment: Nice to Have
Score: 91

Source: The cigars for this assessment were purchased from Smoke Inn Cigars in Boynton Beach, Florida.