At the 2023 Premium Cigar Association (PCA) Trade Show, Crowned Heads will showcase the Four Kicks Mule Kick LE 2023. This will mark the first time the Mule Kick will be showcased at the PCA Trade Show.

If you go back into the history of Crowned Heads, the Mule Kick is the oldest limited edition line in the company’s portfolio going back to 2012. It was in that year that there was a batch of Ecuadorian Habano wrapper tobacco that was deemed too dark to use for the Four Kicks line. A decision was made to combine the wrapper with a tweaked version of the Four Kicks blend and release it as a limited edition. As a result, Four Kicks Mule Kick LE 2012 was born. The cigar became a huge hit for Crowned Heads and one of its most sought-after limited editions. In 2017, the Mule Kick was released again – using a similar blend to 2012. Following the 2017 release, the Mule Kick has been an (almost) annual release and the blends have been changed up from release to release.

For the 2023 edition, there’s a twist. While the previous installments have all been highlighted by a wrapper change, this year it’s not just the wrapper that changes, but also the binder and filler. While all of the previous installments of Mule Kick have used Nicaraguan tobaccos for binder and filler, this time the blend uses a Dominican binder and a combination of Dominican Piloto Cubano and Nicaraguan fillers. The wrapper used is Ecuadorian Sumatra, which was last used on the LE2 2019 edition of the Mule Kick. As always, production for the Mule Kick comes from Ernesto Perez-Carrillo’s Tabacalera La Alianza factory. The cigar comes in a 5 7/8 x 52 vitola (a size consistently used on the Mule Kick) in ten-count boxes. A total of 3,000 boxes have been produced. Pricing is set at $12.95 per cigar.

The cover leaf drove the blend for this year’s Mule Kick,” commented Crowned Heads co-founder Jon Huber in a press release. “When Ernesto (Perez-Carrillo) presented this dark, rich Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper to us last year, I immediately earmarked it for Mule Kick 2023. When we went to validate the Mule Kick 2023 blend with that wrapper, Ernesto presented an alternative version of the blend that took the flavor profile to a different level. As it turned out, that blend incorporated a Dominican binder and some Dominican Piloto Cubano in the filler.”

For completeness, we list the installments of the Four Kicks Mule Kick Limited Edition series (and wrapper leaves)

The 2023 PCA Trade Show opens in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 7, 2023.

At a glance, here is a look at the Four Kicks Mule Kick LE 2023

Blend and Origin

Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sumatra
Binder: Dominican
Filler: Dominican Piloto Cubano, Nicaraguan
Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
Factory: Tabacalera La Alianza, S.A.

Vitolas Offered

Vitola: 5 7/8 x 52 Toro

Photo Credits: Crowned Heads