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| King of Kings by Kings Cigars |
The King of Kings is one of three cigars that are initially being launched by a new company called Kings Cigars. Kings Cigars has been a near three year project that was started by Anwar Mithavayani and Pete Tyndale. From the company web-site, Mithavayani is the Director of Sales while Tyndale is listed as the Master Blender. The company actually has two factories – one in Santiago, Dominican Republic and the other in Esteli, Nicaragua. The company is headquartered in Pompano Beach, Florida. Kings Cigars announced their cigars just prior to the IPCPR, and they did have a booth at the 2013 trade show. The King of Kings is a cigar that is being offered in one size – a big 6 x 64 soft box-pressed. It is being targeted for an October, 2013 release. I recently had an opportunity to smoke this cigar. I found this a solid cigar and a nice offering for large ring gauge enthusiasts.
Kings Cigars has put a strong emphasis on quality, and is very focused on making sure their cigars are aged properly before going into the marketplace. While we were not directed by Kings Cigars to wait to smoke these cigars, we made a decision to rest the King of Kings for about seven weeks before smoking it.
At this point, let’s take a closer look at the King of Kings and see what this cigar brings to the table. Since these cigars smoked were pre-release samples, we will default to our pre-review format. This will allow us to provide our thoughts and perspectives on the cigar experience. Once these cigars become generally available at retailers, we will revisit this cigar and provide an assessment rating and score.
Blend Profile
The King of Kings is made at the company’s Nicaraguan factory.
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano
Binder: Habano Criollo
Filler: Kings Proprietary Filler
Vitolas Available
Appearance
The Ecuadorian Habano wrapper of the King of Kings is a medium brown color. There are some visible wrapper seams. There are a couple of visible veins. The complexion of the wrapper is not oily. The cigar itself is more of a flat box-press shape, but it is not sharp on the corners – thus making for a soft box-press. The box-press itself is firm across the whole cigar.
The band has a gold, red, blue, and black color scheme. It is highlighted by a crown resting above a coat or arms. There are some gold leaves and medallions to the left and right – as well as some red and blue design. The text “King of Kings” is in gold font on a black ribbon with red trim. It is located below the coat of arms.
Preparation for the Cigar Experience
Prior to my smoking experience, I went with a straight cut to remove the cap. After the cap was successfully clipped, I proceeded with the pre-light draw phase. The cold draw yielded a nice combination of flavors. I detected notes of grass, natural tobacco, floral spice, and some cherry sweetness. Overall, I considered the pre-light draw to be solid on this cigar. At this point I was ready to light up the King of Kings and see what the overall cigar experience would deliver.
Flavor Profile
The start to the King of Kings provided a nice combination of natural tobacco and pepper notes. There was also a background cherry note. This cherry flavor was not too sweet, but provided some nice balance right out of the gate. The retro-hale has a pepper spice to it, but some of the cherry notes could also be detected in the through the nasal passages. As the cigar moved through the early stages of the first third, I also detected some grass notes in the background.
As the King of Kings moved through the first third, the natural tobacco flavors continued to be in the forefront. The pepper notes moved into the background joining the cherry notes. It was around this time where I also detected some caramel notes. The caramel and cherry notes had a nice synergy between them – giving the King of Kings a good balance between natural tobacco, spice, and sweetness.
The flavor profile continued into the second half. The pepper notes increased and moved back into the forefront. As the smoking experience of the King of Kings came to a close, the cigar continued to produce some nice flavors. The spice never got overwhelming, but not harsh. The resulting nub was slightly lukewarm and slightly soft.
Burn and Draw
Overall the King of Kings is a well-constructed big ring gauge cigar. It scored very nicely in terms of the construction attributes of burn and draw. The burn line remained relatively straight from start to finish. The resulting ash was a salt and pepper ash that was more on the gray side. There was some light flaking on the ash, but nothing that proved to be a major problem. The burn rate was ideal. The burn temperature remained ideal for the majority of the smoking experience, but it did get lukewarm toward the very end.
The draw was outstanding from start to finish. For a big ring gauge cigar, the soft-box press was a nice shape to puff on – making for a very enjoyable smoke. If you normally don’t reach for a big ring gauge, you might be surprised that this wasn’t an uncomfortable cigar to smoke.
Strength and Body
From a strength perspective, I did not find the King of Kings to be an overly powerful cigar from a nicotine standpoint. I found it just had enough strength to qualify as a medium to full strength cigar. As for the flavors, the King of Kings does deliver some nice depth and robustness. I assessed the King of Kings to qualify as a full-bodied cigar. When looking at strength versus body, I found the body had an edge during the smoking experience.
Final Thoughts
The King of Kings is a cigar to watch once it starts to make its way to retailers. With big ring gauges still very much an important part of the cigar industry, the King of Kings delivers a very good cigar experience with great flavors and great construction. This is also a cigar that can stand-up in terms of a competitive landscape of big ring gauges. This cigar definitely seemed to be blended to work in a big ring gauge. This is a cigar that I would recommend to either a novice or experienced cigar enthusiast. As for myself, while I would have personally liked a touch more strength from this blend, it is still a cigar I’d reach for and smoke again.
Summary
Burn: Excellent
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: Medium
Strength: Medium to Full
Body: Full
Finish: Good
Source: The cigars for this assessment were provided by Kings Cigars. The samples received were initiated by Kings Cigars order to provide feedback. Cigar Coop is appreciative for the sample, but in no way does this influence this write-up.
