Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano Rosado
Binder: Mexican San Andrés
Filler: Nicaraguan
Size: 5.5 x 54 “Robusto”
Body: Medium
Price: $8.90

Today we take a look at the Southern Draw Cigars Firethorn.

BACKGROUND:
From the Southern Draw Cigars web site:
“HAND CRAFTED IN ESTELI, NICARAGUA Firethorn, our second offering, has been specially blended to pair with medium weight styles of craft brews, boutique wines and spirits. The aged Habano Rosado, double-fermented wrapper is flawless with a taste that will quite simply – draw you in. The wrapper is complemented by perfectly aged binders and fillers from Cuban seed tobacco grown in Nicaragua and Mexic0. From the first draw, the sweet and natural aromas will tantalize the palate. After the first third of the cigar, some spicy notes will blend and then gently trail off, leaving you with a flutter of cinnamon, cocoa and caramel, eventually fading into a subtle pecan-like finish. This handmade beauty has a closed foot for a smooth and toasty burn that results in a firm ash.

“Southern Draw may very well be considered a “newcomer” to this industry be we aren’t new to cigars and we offer only custom blended cigars that are hand crafted from only fine and rare aged Cuban seed tobaccos afforded us by AJ Fernandez and the dedicated team at Tabacalera Fernandez located in the heart of Estelí, Nicaragua. There are obviously many very good cigars available so we won’t attempt to simply stake claim to ultra-premium or boutique definitions but we currently produce a monthly limit of 5,000 cigars per blend.”

It is also declared that the wrapper is double fermented.

SIZES AND PRICING:
Robusto 5.5 X 54 $8.90
Toro 6 x 52 $9.30
Gordo 6.5 x 60 $9.95

AROMAS AND COLD DRAW NOTES:
From the shaft, I smell honey sweetness, floral notes, fruit, a light orange citrus, cedar, and a bit of spice.
From the clipped cap and closed foot, I smell bittersweet chocolate, spice, citrus, floral notes, fruit sweetness, and cedar.
The cold draw presents flavors of strong red pepper, chocolate, espresso, floral notes, orange citrus, and cedar.

FIRST THIRD:
The draw is a bit tight.

Big blast of red pepper. Really big shoe, ladies and germs. Malt wastes no time entering the flavor profile. As well as a nice creaminess.
Strength is medium body.

The fruitiness gives the blend a nice balanced sweetness. There is a strong toast element. Sort of like a toasted butter bagel. A good bagel not a Pepperidge Farm bagel. I cannot find a single bagel in this town made correctly. Bagels should be very dense. NO sugar should be used. A good bagel should not be light and airy like a dinner roll.

Chocolate and espresso enter. I’ve only had these cigars for a couple weeks and they were bound in cellophane because Miguel only received them a day before shipping them to me. Two weeks. And the Southern Draw Cigars Firethorn is kicking ass and taking names. This is New Breed blending at its best.
The Southern Draw Cigars Firethorn is a premium blend. No doubt.

And then just an inch in, more flavors are layered upon the others: Caramel, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
I dig a pony…No..I mean I dig that the spiciness is nice and strong throughout.

The fruitiness is elusive. I can taste a slight peach component. But it is only after smacking my lips for a minute that it comes to fruition. No pun intended.
Construction is good. Char line spot on. Slow smoke. Perfectly filled.
The sun comes out. It is minus 25° with the wind chill. Poor Charlotte has to drive to work in this crappy weather. But no snow. Too cold for that.

The malts: Chocolate Rye Malt, Cara Munich Malt, Coffee Malt, and Honey Malt. (See Malt Chart).
For my tastes, malt brings an important component to the blend. It is the “It” factor that I found elusive for most of my cigar smoking years.

Here they are as I approach the second third: Chocolate, creaminess, malts, red pepper, caramel, fruit, floral notes, orange citrus, nuts, toasty, honey, graham cracker, baking spices, cinnamon, and cedar.
Not bad, huh? I swear to you on my pledge. If you are training your palate to explore all a blend has to give, there is me and other fine review sites that you can learn from. The most important thing to remember is that the blend must be the first stick of the day. No food prior to lighting up. It all affects your palate.

And intense focus. You don’t need to retrohale to get these flavors. I stopped long ago as my sinus passages got too crispy. Hold the smoke in your mouth for 30 seconds and then let go. Smack your lips. Take a sip of water. Let each few puffs happen 2-3 minutes apart. Do this and you will find your palate.

SECOND THIRD:
Smoke time is 25 minutes.
Transitions galore. Complexity. Nice balance and a very long finish. It has been a nice climb to get here. Flavorful and interesting.
Each sip of water floods my palate with flavors.

A lovely premium blend.
I hate having to write two negative reviews in a row. So not this time. Splendid cigar.

The Southern Draw Cigars Firethorn is worth every shekel of the $9.00 price.

The flavor profile has no changes except the nuttiness becomes candied pecans as described by Southern Draw Cigars.

Halfway point. Smoke time is 45 minutes.

The Southern Draw Cigars Firethorn is putting a smile on this old puss. I like everything about it. The spiciness has maintained an even keel. And the coordination of spice vs. sweet is perfect.

Creaminess takes the lead followed by malt. The chocolate and coffee are on the wane.

LAST THIRD:
Smoke time is one hour 5 minutes.
Strength hits medium/full.
Nicotine kicks in.

I finally got some photos of me with my head in a drag queen’s bosom from my kid’s 30th birthday party. But they are too dark and out of focus. But one look, with my snow white beard, and I cut the whole thing off last night. I had a vanity panic attack.

My hair is really long now. Past my shoulders and past my Adam’s apple.
I’m going to go to a salon that specializes in long hair haircuts for men. It’s time to look a little more hip.

The cracks aren’t spreading. Good news. The flavors, while excellent, don’t become a flavor bomb.
But they do excel compared to the first two thirds of the cigar.
I’ve got a good story to end the review.

The draw becomes very airy now. Probably due to the wrapper cracks.

The Southern Draw Cigars Firethorn was a really nice surprise. Miguel sent me three sticks but this was my first one. With little left to review, I thought the hell with it.
Another fine example of New Breed style of blending.

The cigar finishes cool without any harshness.
I highly recommend this cigar. A 5 pack is a good way to start. Southern Draw Cigars sells a 5 pack sampler. You’ll get 3 Kudzu and 2 Firethorn. For $48.00. That’s $9.60 per stick.

RATING: 92

And now for something completely different:

Here is a story I told back in June of 2014. Music in the background reminded me. “Take the Money and Run” by the Steve Miller Band.

I was living, and working, in Phoenix during the 1990’s. I got this horrible project to run that was residential. The biggest home in Arizona up in the hills north of Scottsdale. The guy that owned it had a famous boat company: Sea Ray. And sold it for a gazillion dollars.

He was spending something in the neighborhood of $100 million for this project. That’s 1995 dollars.
The road to the top of the hill where the main house was cost him $20 million to build. It had a caretaker’s house at the bottom. And it had a housekeeper’s house about halfway up.

His house was on top of this hill that he bought. I don’t know how many acres it was but the land alone cost him around $30 million.

His house was perfectly round. All the rooms on the exterior walls were pie cut shaped. With a huge circular living room, kitchen, etc. in the middle.
His garage was also a circle and big enough that you could drive a car into it and come out of it facing the right direction to leave the house. Must have been 150 feet in diameter.
I wish I could remember the guy’s name but I can’t.

I was in the Todd Hart Band Blues Trio at the time and for Christmas he bought me a beautiful leather jacket with the band’s logo on it.

Todd on guitar, the drummer, and me on the far right in the background playing my Dobro electric upright bass like a guitar:

I remember I had a meeting with the owner, architect, construction manager, and the structural engineer one morning at the site.

The owner saw my jacket and inquired. He asked me if I knew Steve Miller? I laughed and said no.

He said that Steve was staying at his house in Paradise Valley…an old, very upscale part of Phoenix. Same place that Alice Cooper lives.

I should add that the owner of the company I worked for was there as well. He was my age. A real prick. Cheated on his wife openly with some buck toothed chick that worked in the office eventually leading to a divorce. And his wife getting half the business. She was a class act and such a nice lady. Why this douche bag continued to cheat one her is beyond me. Especially, with a long line of dogs.

So the owner says to me that Miller is quite the guitar player. I nodded. He then took out his cell phone and made a call.

He hung up and asked if I wanted to stop by his house and meet Miller when business was done? Before I could answer, Brad said “YES!”

We meet Miller and he was as gracious as all get out. He actually had set up a little recording studio in one of the large rooms in the house. I was introduced and gave him my background for my 15 minutes (actually 10 years) in the music business.

Then he asked if I wanted to lay down some bass lines or just jam?

I told him that I didn’t have my gear with me. He laughed as he pointed to about 6 different basses in their stands. All were collector’s items and I picked the 1958 Fender Precision. It felt like I had owned it forever. While in England, I bought Wishbone Ash’s Martin Turner’s 1968 Fender P bass.

My boss was impressed with me for the first time. Then, a few people I didn’t know came into the room. One was a drummer.
I was freaking out. I didn’t know any of his songs. Miller graciously suggested we start with a blues improv. You know…1-4-5?

We played for an hour on one tune and took it everywhere. Miller and I and the drummer were having such a good time that time lost its value.

Miller invited me to stay all day and asked if I could lay down some bass lines on stuff he was working on.
And my prick boss said we had to get back to the office. My jaw dropped. How could he do this to me? Fuck nuts!

We all glad handed each other and Brad and I left in his new Corvette. I didn’t say a word to him the whole 45 minutes back to the office.

We get back and Brad goes on and on about what happened. But forgets to mention how Miller and I bonded and how much he liked my playing. This guy was an egomaniacal narcissist and couldn’t stand to not be the center of attention.

Of course, the truth came out during the day as I was pounded for more info. Brad always liked to leave early in the day to go fuck his sweeties.

So all work stopped and I told the story of Miller and I playing together.
I got some serious street cred from that incident in the office. Maybe 30 people.

I never saw Steve Miller again. But a week later, I met with the house owner and he told me how much Miller appreciated me being there because he had recorded the whole jam and it gave him some ideas for new compositions.

So I really thought Miller would contact me again to use me but alas, never did.
Oh well…It was a fun experience.

Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS

Tags: cigar review, cigar reviews by the katman, cigars, Southern Draw Cigars Firethorn Cigar Review