Wrapper: Ecuadorian Maduro
Binder: Ecuadorian Habano
Filler: Nicaraguan, Pennsylvania Broadleaf, Connecticut Broadleaf
Size: 5 x 48
Body: Medium/Full
Price: $9.50
Humidor time: 9 weeks
Number of cigars smoked prior to review: 2
Photo courtesy of BLTC:
Today we take a look at Black Label Trading Company Bishops Blend.
Thanks to Miguel Castro and Bryan Kinnaman for the sticks.
BACKGROUND:
Debuted at the 2016 IPCPR trade show
Factory: Fabrica Oveja Negra
Release Date: July 2016
I counted over 10 reviews of this blend. I’m sure that if you are interested in the story of BLTC and how this blend came to be, there is no shortage of information available to you. No point in repeating it for the 11th+ time.
SIZES AND PRICING:
Robusto 5 x 48 $9.50 (150 boxes of 20)
Corona Larga 6.25 x 46 $10.00 (150 boxes of 20)
DESCRIPTION:
There is no information on the BLTC web site about this blend other than to show off a Halfwheel rating of 93. So I went on over to Halfwheel to read the review. The reviews of this blend are all in the Robusto size. So I thought I would follow suit.
A gorgeous, very oily, toothy, coffee bean brown colored wrapper. Seams are tight. Some very large veins up and down the stick. Firm but not hard.
The cigar has a closed foot.
Halfwheel called the unusual nib-like cap a Hershey’s Kiss. Spot on. Exactly what it looks like. He so smart!
Gotta put my 2 cents in here…if I see one more cigar band with a skull on it I’m going to mow down every person in the nearest post office. They’re disgruntled, disgusted, folks who hate their jobs but the money and benefits are excellent so they stay…especially the older folks. They’re stuck. To those that are young, I say: RUN! The monotony of a never ending supply of mail will make you nuts.
Three things keep a person from getting a CCW: a Felony, Domestic Abuse, and being a Postal Worker.
AROMAS AND COLD DRAW NOTES:
From the shaft, I smell dark chocolate, spice, cream, hickory, and peppercorns.
From the clipped cap and the foot, I smell strong dark coffee and bittersweet chocolate, red pepper, cream, hickory, honey with nougat (Like Bit O’ Honey), and barnyard.
The cold draw presents flavors of meatiness, dark cocoa, black pepper, malt, cream, burnt butter, and coffee.
FIRST THIRD:
First puffs are delicious…malt, chocolate, coffee, nuts, cold roast beef, pepper, and peanut butter nougat.
Good start.
A combo of both red and black peppers merges creating a nice compilation of building spice elements.
The draw is spot on. Very easy going.
Flavors begin to feel their oats. The creaminess is very potent now over shadowing the spiciness of the blend. Chocolate and malt teams up.
Flavors are delightful but delicate. This isn’t a slap in the face by Mae West. It is more of a soft glove being draped across your face by Ali MacGraw. (In the late 90’s, I sat on a Southwest jet right next to her. I fell in love).
Grape jelly shows up. The only cigar in which this was a major factor was the CAO Amazon Basin. I reviewed it here on Sept. 8, 2014.
The flow of the blend has gone from nothing special to extraordinary. One moment, it was unoriginal cigar blending…and the next moment, it became a big macher. (Hybrid English-Yiddish term for big shot).
Strangely, the finish is short. Complexity is on the cusp of becoming brazen. Transitions haven’t kicked in.
The Black Label Trading Company Bishops Blend is rich, elaborate, and is blessed with a multiplex of finely tuned tobacco leaves.
The blend isn’t going for the record in kitchen sink lists of flavors. Rather, it is boldly subtle. I know. A contradiction in terms.
Strength is medium.
The Bishops Blend is for those with palates that are finely tuned. It is a sum of its parts rather than several outlandish flavors combined with other ancillary flavors.
Haven’t had a cigar like this in a while. If I had any memory left, I’d list those I thought to be in the same league.
The first couple I smoked did not possess the potential of what I am experiencing. But left alone for another couple of weeks and voila.
There is a touch of Old School in this blend. It needs its rest before lighting up.
Construction is good as I almost made it through the first third without tapping the ash. But of course, it did collapse at a critical moment.
SECOND THIRD:
Smoke time is 25 minutes.
Strength is medium body.
The cigar band is so huge; it must come off as I begin the second third.
The Black Label Trading Company Bishops Blend is extremely tasty but it’s missing something. No grasp of that yet.
I believe this is the first nuanced flavor bomb I’ve smoked. Flavors don’t expel themselves like Ethel Merman singing “There’s No Business Like Show Business.”
They lay low and surround your palate like a predator ready to attack.
Graham cracker appears. That’s the carb I wasn’t getting.
OK. Here is the best I can come up with: Creaminess, malts, chocolate, mint, coffee, sweetness, smoky hickory, black pepper, graham cracker, buttery blintzes with cream cheese filling (I know. Nuts.), and that wonderful grape jelly.
The short finish started out limp. It has become a heavy hitter…with long, lingering bits of flotsam and jetsam testing my palate with each puff.
Halfway point.
Smoke time is 35 minutes.
The Black Label Trading Company Bishops Blend is so delicious it seems to smoke much too quickly.
BLTC struck gold with this blend. This is their quantum leap in blending.
But beware…do not smoke this stick too soon. None of that ROTT bullshit. Give the cigar the respect it deserves and let it rest a couple months…at the least.
There are still some online stores selling them. Use your search engine.
Holy crap. The expansion of the intensity of the flavor and character of the Bishops Blend is phenomenal. This blend is monumental. I don’t use that word often.
I find it amazing, that in this time of every new cigar seeing its price point at $15, a $9.50 cigar blows their shorts off.
Constantly listing flavors is a waste of time. When I said the Black Label Trading Company Bishops Blend is a sum of its parts, that phrase has become even more accurate at this juncture in the cigar experience.
Strength became medium/full several minutes ago.
LAST THIRD:
Smoke time is 50 minutes.
The Black Label Trading Company Bishops Blend is tremendous, stupendous, prodigious, phenomenal, remarkable, and exceptional.
The first two sticks smoked didn’t taste remotely like this morning’s review cigar.
Construction has been without issues. The char line has behaved like a pro.
Strength surges to full body. No nicotine.
The Bishops Blend is a work of blending mastery.
Notice how I haven’t used the work “fuck” once?
I have one stick left. I shall mount it like a moose head to the wall of my cave. To keep it perfect, Lucite is in order.
I don’t have the vocabulary to remedy this all the adjectives needed to describe the Black Label Trading Company Bishops Blend.
This is shock and awe. And we don’t have to invade Iraq.
As the nub begins to lose itself into the ether of the atmosphere, I don’t want it to end. It remains smooth as Miguel’s tummy and Bryan’s tush.
Another month of humidor time might improve the blend even more. Though, I feel that at two months, I have gotten all the ingredients that the blender intended for me to experience.
I find it a shame that most of the great cigars have a short lifetime as they are produced in small batches.
I’m now scorching my thumb and forefinger that holds the cigar.
Brilliant blend. Kudos BLTC.
Final smoke time is one hour 10 minutes.
RATING: 96
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