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| Long Live the King Petit Double Wide Short Churchill by Caldwell Cigar Company |
Long Live the King one of three lines made by Caldwell Cigar Company under its Caldwell Collection brand. Caldwell Cigar Company is owned by Robert Caldwell. Caldwell was best known as a partner of Christian Eiroa with Wynwood Cigars. Last September, it was announced that the partnership with Caldwell and Eiroa had dissolved. Following his departure from Wynwood Cigars, Caldwell set his sights on the Dominican Republic where he has teamed up with William and Henderson Ventura at Tabacalera Ventura to make his blends for his new company. One big differentiator in the Caldwell Collection is that it uses rare / hard to find tobaccos. Long Live the King is a multi-national blend that is highlighted by the use of Dominican Corojo. Today we look at Long Live the King in a size known as the “Petit Double Wide Short Churchill” – which translates to a Toro. Overall I have been very impressed with what Caldwell Cigar Company has done. Long Live the King is no exception as it delivers a terrific cigar experience.
In addition to Long Live the King there are two other lines in the Caldwell Collection – Eastern Standard (featuring a unique Ecuadorian Connecicut hybrid wrapper known as “Dark Connecticut”) and The King is Dead (featuring a rare wrapper called Negrito). The Caldwell Collection features rare tobaccos rated “Grade A” and thus is a more premium offering. Caldwell also released a more value priced line called Junior Varsity to address that segment of the market.
Without further ado, let’s take a closer look at the ong Live the King Petit Double Wide Short Churchill and see what this cigar brings to the table.
Blend Profile
As mentioned Long Live the King is a Corojo based blend featuring Dominican Corojo in the wrapper, binder, and filler. The filler also contains Nicaraguan and Peruvian tobaccos. For the Dominican tobacco, Caldwell is sourcing the tobaccos from Leo Reyes.
Wrapper: Corojo Dominicano – 2008
Binder: Corojo Dominicano – 2009
Filler: Corojo Ligero Dominicano 50% – 2006, Viso Pelo De Oro Peruano 10% – 2008, Habano Ligero Nicaraguense 40% – 2007
Vitolas Available
Long Live the King is currently available in four sizes:
The Heater: 5 3/4 x 46
Petit Double Wide Short Churchill: 6 x 52
Marquis: 6 x 60
My Style is Jalapeno: 7 1/4 x 40
Appearance
As mentioned, this cigar experience is based on the toro-sized “Petit Double Wide Short Churchill”. The Corojo wrapper has a dark cinnamon color to it. Upon closer examination, some darker marbling can be seen on the surface. This is somewhat of an oily wrapper. There are also some visible veins and visible wrapper seams. There is a short pig-tail on the cap.
One thing Caldwell has done well is integrate unique artwork into the cigar bands. Most of the band has an ivory-colored background. On that background is a black and white sketch of a man with a gold crown covering a good proportion of his head. The crown contains the text “KING”. To the left of the sketch is the text “Long Live” in black cursive font sitting on the ivory background. To the right of the sketch is the text “The King” – also in black cursive font on the ivory background. There are also some gold adornments on the band. Finally the band is finished with red trim across the top and bottom.
Preparation for the Cigar Experience
As opposed to pulling the pig-tail off the Long Live the King, I opted to use my usual choice of a straight cut. Once the cap was removed, I moved on to the pre-light draw. The cold draw provided a mix of exotic spice and natural tobacco sweetness. Overall I considered the pre-light draw of Long Live the King to be solid. At this point, I was ready to light up my Long Live the King and awaited what the cigar experience would have in store.
Flavor Profile
The start of Long Live the King Petit Double Wide Short Churchill provided a blast of what I would categorize as “exotic spices”. The spices did settle down quickly, however these spices remained on the retro-hale throughout the smoking experience – and were quite prominent on that retro-hale. Meanwhile notes of natural tobacco and cedar emerged.
The natural tobacco notes moved to the forefront while the cedar joined the exotic spices in the background. The natural tobacco had a raw sugar-cane like component while the cedar notes were more subtle. During the first half, the natural tobacco took center stage – and it particular the the sugar cane component. At this stage of the cigar, Long Live the King was definitely delivering a unique sweetness.
By the midpoint the cedar notes began to increase and later in the second third it became the primary note. While the cedar had some sweetness, there was now less overall sweetness on the Long Live the King than on the first half. It also added another layer of spice on top of the exotic spices (which also slightly increased). This is the way the flavor profile held until the end. The resulting nub was firm to the touch and cool in temperature.
Burn and Draw
Caldwell Cigar Company cigars have proven to me very early on that they are well constructed cigars with an excellent burn and draw. Long Live the King becomes another cigar from Caldwell that lives up to that reputation. I found this cigar burned straight from start to finish – requiring only some occasional touch-ups. The resulting ash was not overly tight, nor did it prove to be a loose ash either. The ash had a light charcoal gray color and for the most part came off the cigar in nice clean chunks. The burn rate and burn temperature were ideal.
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| Burn of the Long Live the King Petit Double Wide Short Churchill |
The draw of Long Live the King was excellent as well. It had that slight touch of resistance that I like. Overall, I still found this cigar to be a low maintenance cigar to puff on.
Strength and Body
This is definitely one of the stronger and fuller cigars made by Caldwell. From a strength perspective, I found the Long Live the King Petit Double Wide Short Churchill to start out in the medium to full range. The strength slowly increased and by the second half it had crossed into full strength territory. Meanwhile I found the flavors to take a similar pattern – starting off medium to full bodied before progressing to full-bodied in the second half. I found both the strength and body countered each other well throughout the smoking experience.
Final Thoughts
In the past twelve months, Robert Caldwell has made a huge comeback, and his products are leading the path – providing not only innovative packaging, but innovative blends.
I will admit, I did not find Long Live the King to be an overly complex cigar. While I normally like a cigar that has plenty of flavor transitions, Long Live the King did not need to be this type of cigar. I found that the quality of the flavors delivered was what was most important here. This also was a very different Dominican Corojo from anything I smoked before. Because this is a stronger and fuller cigar, it is one that I would recommend to an experienced cigar enthusiast. As for myself, this is an outstanding cigar and one that is easily a box worthy selection.
Summary
Burn: Excellent
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: Low
Strength: Medium to Full (1st Half), Full (2nd Half)
Body: Medium to Full (1st Half), Full (2nd Half)
Finish: Excellent
Assessment: 4.0 – Box Worthy
Score: 92
References
News: Caldwell Collection by Caldwell Cigar Company Launches
Price: $11.00
Source: Purchased
Stogie Geeks Podcast: Episode 116
Stogie Feed: Long Live the King Petit Double Wide Short Churchill by Caldwell Cigar Company
