East End Cigar Company House Maduro

Note from the Editor: Back in November, we introduced a new feature on Cigar Coop that will provide assessments of some house exclusive cigars from some of the great retailers nationwide.  We’ve found some house cigars to offer high quality cigar experiences, and from time to time we will highlight these on Cigar Coop.  Today we take a look at East End Cigar Company’s House Maduro.


Today’s cigar is a House Maduro from East End Cigar Company.  East End Cigar Company has two locations – one in Myrtle Beach and another in West Hempstead, New York.  The company sells several of their own blends.  Today we are taking a closer look at one of these cigars – the East End Cigar Company House Maduro.

Without further ado, let’s take a closer look at this cigar and see what this cigar brings to the table:

Blend Profile

We’ve only been told that this cigar is a Dominican puro:

Wrapper: Dominican Maduro
Binder: Dominican
Filler: Dominican

Vitolas Available

This particular blend is available in three frontmarks.  Each cigar is in a box-press format.

Torpedo: 6 x 52
Double Corona: 7 x 56
XL Robusto: 5 1/2 x 60

Appearance

For this cigar experience, we smoked the torpedo vitola of the East End Cigar Company House Cigar.  The cigar has a coffee bean colored wrapper.  Upon closer examination there is some darker marbling that is visible.  The wrapper has a very light amount of oil on the surface.  There are both visible wrapper seams and visible veins.  The box-press is well packed with new soft spots.

The cigar we received was unbanded.

Preparation for the Cigar Experience

Prior to lighting up the East End Cigar Company House Cigar, I clipped the tip of the torpedo.  I then proceeded with the pre-light draw ritual.   The dry draw provided a mix of earth, leather, and a light floral spice.  Overall, I considered the pre-light draw to this cigar to be satisfactory.  At this point I was ready to light up the East End Cigar Company cigar and see what the overall cigar experience would deliver.

Flavor Profile

The start to this East End Cigar Company House Cigar provided a strong blast of spice to start.  The spice was a cross of black pepper and cedar notes.  The spice was also immediately present on the retro-hale and remained.  Within the first five percent, some earth notes emerged – followed by some coffee notes.  The coffee and earth notes moved into the forefront and the pepper spice into the background.

Throughout the first half the coffee notes took control and the earth notes joined the spice in the background.  There also was an interesting oak flavor that was present in the forefront as well.

In the second third, the richness of the coffee notes diminished and the earth notes began to move back into the forefront.  The oak flavors dissipated.  Meanwhile in the background I was also detecting a slight floral note in the background.

By the later part of the second third, the earth notes were in control as a primary flavor.  The spice notes were a close secondary note while the coffee notes became more distant.  This is the way the flavor profile held until the end.  The resulting nub was soft to the touch and cool in temperature.

Burn and Draw

Overall I found this offering by East End Cigar Company to be a well-constructed cigar and this was reflected in the burn and draw.  The burn line remained sharp from start to finish requiring minimal touch-ups along the way. The resulting ash was firm and tight with little in the way of flaking.  The ash had a white color with some darker streaks in it.  The burn rate and burn temperature were ideal.

Burn of the East End Cigar Company House Maduro

The draw was outstanding to this cigar.  It was not tight and not loose.  Normally I don’t like the way a torpedo will draw, but this one was low maintenance to puff on.  The head of the cigar where I was puffed on did not get soft – something that plagues many torpedoes and perfectos.

Strength and Body

Overall, I found the East End Cigar Company House Maduro had a little bit of kick from a nicotine standpoint.  Overall I found this cigar to fall directly in the middle of the medium to full range.  As for the flavor, there is some nice depth to them.  The flavors will definitely carry some weight on the pallet.  Overall I assessed this cigar to be full-bodied.  When comparing strength versus body, I gave a slight edge to the body with this cigar.

Final Thoughts

For a Dominican puro, I was amazed at how the East End Cigar Company House Maduro smoked.  This cigar had a lot of qualities of a Nicaraguan puro in terms of coffee, earth, and spice.  If someone is a fan of Nicaraguan tobacco, I would not hesitate to put this Dominican puro in their hands.  I was also quite pleased with how this cigar performed in the torpedo format.  This is probably a cigar I would place in a more seasoned cigar enthusiast’s hands as it is skewed toward the fuller side.  As for myself, this is a cigar I would smoke again – and one that is worth picking up a five pack of.

Summary