Wrapper: Colorado Habano
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Size: 6 x 52 “Toro”
Body: Full
Price: $9.00 (Sold out)

Photos courtesy of Ezra Zion Cigar Company:

Today we take a look at the Makin’ Bacon by Ezra Zion Cigar Co.
Many thanks to my pal, Eric Anderson, for the sticks.
Erik sent me the package the sticks came in but I lost it. I lose a lot of things.
Why am I reviewing a cigar, whose number was so small, that if you did not act the moment you received an email from EZ telling you they were available, you were SOL?
Simply put. To document their existence.

BACKGROUND:
From the Ezra Zion Cigar web site:
“We’ve heard so many times that Ezra Zion is the “Bacon of Cigars!”

“To celebrate such high praise, we’ve created Makin’ Bacon! This cigar was blended and rolled in Texas at EZHQ. And get this…every one of them was meticulously handmade by master cigar-maker Noel Rojas!

“Makin’ Bacon is a meaty, peppery cigar balanced with cocoa, cream, and oak. A rustic oily Colorado Habano wrapper compliments a potent mix of vintage Nicaraguan Visos and Ligeros. It’s finished with a shaggy foot, highlighting the gorgeous wrapper flavors on the first puffs of the cigar!

“Full bodied with Med/Full strength, Makin’ Bacon is a complex, beautiful 6×52 toro.

“Makin’ Bacon might just be the best cigar you’ve ever smoked!

“Total Production: 750.”
Wow. “…might be the best cigar you’ve ever smoked.” Now that’s confidence.

DESCRIPTION:
Nice looking cigar. But rock hard. No give at all.
The wrapper is very oily and the color of coffee beans and mulch. Seams are nearly invisible but there are some big honkin’ veins.
The cap is so seamless that I have no idea how many there are.
There is just the slightest bit of tooth.
And there is a partially closed foot.

AROMAS AND COLD DRAW NOTES:
From the shaft, I smell a floral sweetness, chocolate, coffee, spice, cedar, roasted nuts, and black licorice.
From the clipped cap and the foot, I smell strong spice and barnyard, very earthy tobacco, clove, chocolate, and cedar.
The cold draw presents flavors of milk chocolate, spice, cedar, caramel, fruit, citrus, hickory and a generic sweetness.

FIRST THIRD:
Despite the cigar being so hard, the draw is spot on.

An adult portion of red pepper bursts on to my palate. Excellent. Followed by malt, chocolate, cedar, creaminess, sweetness, dried fruit, and a very earthy tobacco flavor.

This cigar begins with a big bang. This is a completely different style of blend from the earlier limited edition cigars that EZ sold in the past year.

Strength hits medium/full body almost immediately. Methinks it will hit full body very soon and my ‘nads will be in a sling for not eating breakfast prior to the review.

The Makin’ Bacon has some similarities to the finest Illusione blends, the Meridian “Sopadre” by Cornelius & Anthony, and the El Güegüense from Foundation Cigar Company. This is a very sophisticated amalgam of flavors and character.

Half an inch in, the Makin’ Bacon needs its first burn line touchup.
A heavy cigar that I expect to be a 2+ hour burn.
This is a very smoky cigar. It nearly blinds me as I try to type.

The fruit element begins to define itself: a combination of black cherry, raisins, and berries.
The creamy component has a vanilla pudding element. Wait. A caramel flan. That’s it.
The black licorice shows as a flavor now.

There is an extreme “aged” quality to this blend. I reviewed the 1502 XO yesterday that boasted having 18 year old tobacco. And it didn’t come close to tasting like a well-aged cigar.
Meanwhile, the Makin’ Bacon has a very sophisticated, deeply aged flavor.

It’s taken 15 minutes to smoke the first inch and a quarter.

The char line is not the most well behaved cigar I’ve smoked but it is minor and as long as it doesn’t run for the border (being stopped by a 40’-0 wall), then I have no problems with it.

The cigars were released on Feb. 24. Eric had to have snagged some that same day as they were sold out the next day. Between him and me, the cigars have had nearly 4 weeks of humidor time.

This is a manly cigar. The type one would smoke, with pride, in an exclusive (No Jews) men’s club in upper Manhattan. If I changed my name, I could probably sneak through if I tipped the door man $5.

I used to believe that The Collective was their best regular production cigar. While the Makin’ Bacon was an extremely limited production blend, it trumps the other blends by a mile. I reviewed the many other impossible-to-get blends, that disappeared in a day, and thought they were the best to come out of the brains of Kyle and Chris. But this is a whole different animal.

On another note, I lost my favorite cheap lighter. So back to Amazon where I got a similar one by the same manufacturer for $7. I love it. It has a long name: GStar® TorchZilla Series Brawny Heptagon Shaped 45 Degree Angle Palm Torch.
This brand makes sturdy lighters for just pennies. I got Charlotte one. And I love it because it is a single torch. It is what I use to toast the foot and correct the char lines.

I love its huge butane tank as I take a long time to toast the foot and with a regular lighter, and find myself refilling it every other day or so. This one can go a week or 10 days.

Back to the Makin’ Bacon.

Absolutely phenomenal cigar. I don’t understand why they only made 750 cigars. It’s not fair to their loyal customers who can’t react in time to buy their cigars.
This is a blend that should be regular production. EZ is missing out on a huge customer base willing to put their cash on the barrel head for these limited production blends.

SECOND THIRD:
Smoke time is 40 minutes.
Strength is full body.
The burn line is still not behaving.

I’m very happy that my second review, after a couple weeks off due to the flu, is a great cigar. Would have been really bummed if the Makin’ Bacon was a dog turd.
But then, I haven’t smoked an EZ cigar that has earned that distinction. The boys create magic when they put their heads together.

Here they are: Creaminess, black cherries, spice, chocolate, coffee, malts, pie crust, caramel flan, raisins, black licorice, cedar, a hickory smokiness, and berries.

Nicotine shows up. I was afraid of this. I still have a slow 4” to go. Oy vey.

If you are a spice junkie like me, you would have loved this cigar blend. The red pepper has maintained a steady presence giving the blend a real kick in the arse.

I’m going to do this in stages as I will need to walk off the nicotine every now and then.

While I let the cigar sit in the ashtray to cool the burn line, a side note…I’m feeling much better after nearly 3 weeks of the flu. Poor Charlotte is only finishing her first week and called off going to work. The worst part is the fatigue. I can’t even lift my massive, Jewish 3” penis.

I’m at the halfway point.
Smoke time is one hour 5 minutes.

The Makin’ Bacon is one of the strongest cigars I’ve had in a long, long time. My head is spinning. And my eyes are crossed.
As I write this, the flavors explode. The balance is on the money. It has a very tasty long finish.
Yesterday’s review was about an $18 cigar. Ptooey. Now here is a cigar half that price that makes the 1502 XO seem like a Quorum.
It is rich with wonderful intensity.

The flavors in the aforementioned list are pounding away. But there are ancillary flavors brought on by its complexity. Such as (Hang on. I’m smacking my lips) gingerbread, an abundance of fresh fruit, a nice vegetal note, and dried figs.

EZ claims that this might be the best cigar you’ve ever smoked. I’m not sure about that. But it is certainly my new favorite EZ blend. And there are few regular production cigars that match the Makin’ Bacon’s quality.

If this cigar had been released in 2015, I’m sure it would have been in my top 10 of my Top 25 Cigars of 2015.
I was very kind to EZ on that list. It got 4 spots on the list.

The char line is behaving nicely now.

The malts move to the front of the list: Caramel Wheat Malt, Chocolate Rye Malt, Flaked Oats Malt, Smoked Malt, and Marris Otter Malt. (See Malt Chart).

This is a big boy cigar. Those with very sophisticated palates will love this blend. Although, it takes some real stamina to withstand the nicotine assault.
I’m going to kill some time here so I can gather my wits about me. I wrote this little ditty on March 18 in an email to Darryl Martin and Miguel Castro…my pen pal buddies.

“On a lighter note…I ventured out of the house for the first time in 10 days to get cat food. I went to our local pet store. Mind you, I’m still as weak as a kitten. The cat also needed box litter.
“The stuff we usually get that does the trick was only in 18lb bags. I lug this thing home…plus the cat food bag.

“So I go upstairs and dump the old litter into a big tall kitchen waste bag that was only half full. I pull the strings tight. I go out front where the big trash bins are and I notice the bag is leaking at the bottom.
“I waddle as fast as I can; trying to open the giant lid and lift the bag at the same time.

“Well, you guessed it. I pulled the bin down on top of me with the trash bag full of litter, with shit in it, right on top of me and the bag explodes all over me.

“No time to dry off as I leap on to the toilet. I’m soaking wet. My long Goldilocks’ tresses are sopping wet. A huge pool of water is forming at my feet.
“And I just burst into tears. Like a 4 year old who pooped his pants.
“I get back in the shower and finish but still have to clean up the bathroom due to all the water on the floor.
“I was feeling a bit better today. Not coughing as much. My head not as clogged up as much. But the fatigue level was high.

“Now I can’t even lift my tiny dick I’m so wiped out.
“I crawl into bed and fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.
“The best part…All I did was towel dry my hair. I have very curly hair and I’m convinced it is long enough to have a full-on fro like back in the day. My hair is so long that it is down to my man breasts.
“I wake up a couple hours later, go into the bathroom to pee, and see myself in the mirror.
“YIKES!

“I look like a giant sea urchin ate my head.
So back into the shower to wet my hair.
“And I sit as I write this waiting for it to dry a bit so I can blow dry it into some sort of normality.”

OK. The nicotine is on the wane and I no longer find myself hallucinating.
Some bitterness appears. Usually happens if you suck too much and too hard but I haven’t done that. I only take a couple puffs every minute or two. Hope it goes away.

LAST THIRD:
Smoke time is one hour 45 minutes.
The full body strength is off the charts.
I’m going to lay down when I finish. But I dare not close my eyes.
The caramel and creaminess move to the front of the line. The Makin’ Bacon is so complex that flavors are indescribable as sole units.
The red pepper is still strong.

The bitterness disappears.

Last night, I smoked an Illusione Fume D’ Amour that a reader sent me. There is a striking similarity. The difference is that the Makin’ Bacon has a bigger array of flavors.

I wish I had the opportunity to buy some Makin’ Bacon. Just didn’t have the dough in time. Knowing what I know now, I would have bought 20 cigars. That would bring the price down to $8 instead of $9.
This would be a great cigar to hand out to the wedding party in May when my daughter gets married. Then watch the drinkers turn green. LOL.

Speaking of Katie, she started her second week of training to become a corrections officer for the Milwaukee Sheriff’s Department.

Katie has wanted to be a cop since she was 12. I guess patience is a virtue.

OK. Berries. Nothing specific but very strong.
The Makin’ Bacon was a great cigar experience. I wish I could tell you that you can buy some, as every serious cigar smoker deserves a chance to buy these cigars, but they are gone for good. Would be nice if EZ brought them back.
The cigar finishes smooth and very full bodied. Chock full of nicotine. Not sure if I can get to the end. No heat. No bitterness.
I am very grateful to Eric Anderson for being so generous.

RATING: 96

I shall take a day or two off. It was nice getting back to my desk and writing after suffering the slings and arrows of the pandemic flu.
I will decide each morning whether I will review that day or not.

I’ve got some very good cigars to review thanks to some special readers. So I will be busy.
Doctor’s orders.

Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS

Tags: cigar review, cigar reviews by the katman, cigars, Makin' Bacon by Ezra Zion Cigar Co. Cigar Review