Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sumatra
Binder: Dominican
Filler: Dominican Piloto Cubano, Nicaraguan
Size: 5.625 x 52 Toro
Strength: Medium/Full
Price: $12.95
BACKGROUND:
Factory: Tabacalera La Alianza, S.A.
The Four Kicks Mule Kick has been a yearly release since 2012.
This year is a limited release of 3000 boxes of 10.
The cigar was produced with the help of E.P. Carrillo.
THE WHOLE MEGILLAH:
Aromas from the wrapper are potent: Barnyard, cloves, espresso, dark chocolate, black pepper, floral notes, baking spices, caramel, cedar, and red pepper.
The draw is a tad tighter than I prefer in my cigars…so I shall keep my PerfecDraw draw adjustment tool at the ready should it be needed to come off the bench.
The cigar feels nicely filled. It dangles with pride from my lips.
Impressive start. Fat notes of dark chocolate swirled with creaminess, graham cracker, black pepper, and nutmeg/cinnamon.
The blend begins with a lovely richness. Complexity is barely held at bay. It should pounce shortly.
I chose to review this cigar inordinately early as this is such a limited production, I wanted to give you a leg up if it turns out to be a good snatch. A good snatch. Should I? Maybe later.
I smoked one of these cigars earlier in the week and was pleasantly surprised at how mature it was so shortly after receipt.
I suppose I am proceeding mostly on blender’s intent without a few months’ humidor time.
The length befuddles me. 5-5/8” long. Why not just grab the molds for the standard 6 x 50 Toro size? The extra 1/32” (52 gauge) in diameter for this cigar doesn’t have an impact on flavor.
A woody and earthy blend. It is like tasting the Dominican soil. Very rich and satisfying. I have soils from all the Central American countries shipped to me via Amazon. If I was a smart guy, I’d go bag some dirt from the backyard and sell it on eBay as soil from those cigar leaf countries. If women can sell their underwear on that platform, why not fake soil?
This is going to be a great cigar with several months of humidor time. The blender’s intent is screaming laughter.
I reviewed the 2022 entry of this cigar. It had the usual AJ mix of Mexican wrapper with Nic guts. It was just OK. It received an 89 after 3 months of naked humidor time. I believe the choice to mix it up this year was solid thinking on the part of Crowned Heads.
Black grapes. Nice shakeup.
Nuttiness is represented by raw cashews and salted almonds.
Climate change has mellowed Wisconsin…while it is tearing apart the rest of the country, we get mellower winters and mild summers…Until yesterday when we got the hottest day on record. 115 °. Humid as hell. Felt like Florida. Going to be hot again today.
The blend is very unique in its approach. I want to give it a simile, but I can’t think of a good analogy. Complexity has been on board since the first half inch. Transitions are miniscule. The finish is exceptionally rich. It seems to linger forever.
Strength is medium at 1-1/4” burned. 25 minutes. A nice slow roll. This is how a cigar should be built. Ford tough.
The second half is going to show its stuff. With proper humi time, a major sweet spot will start a few minutes in.
This is a good purchase. They are going to be gone in a week, if that long. The price is on point. I’m glad I decided to break my rules. I could have reported to you with a review that is merely a look in the mirror. Sometimes that’s OK. I don’t feel pressured to snag the first review or steer you towards a purchase. And then, occasionally, I do just that.
I like that the Savory v. Sweet balance is on the money. One of my favorite blending styles.
I used Google Earth to find my old recording studio in Long Beach. It looks so different after 40 years. The beauty supply store was the studio. We had the entire bottom floor all the way to the back of the building. The window front was my personal office. The spa building next to it was our rehearsal studio and ancillary offices. The second view is looking down at the street away from downtown. It has all changed. It was 4 story brownstone apartments with stoops. It was the gay section of Long Beach. The third view is looking towards downtown. The cross street led down to the marina where the Long Beach Gran Prix is held. We had to close for 4 days every year.
The cigar keeps on impressing. Nice richness whose satisfying nature will please newbies and seasoned smokers alike.
This is a terrible Kodak Instamatic photo of drummer Hal Blaine and me in my studio. I believe the white mass in the foreground was cocaine for the day. (I used to have hair on my chest).
2” burned. 43 minutes. Alrighty then…
The sweet spot lands like a sledgehammer. Wow. Flavors pile on like a Saturday night orgy where my studio was planted.
The apartment building above my studio wasn’t so nice back then. Lots of unsavory characters. A couple times, the same assholes tried breaking into our place in the middle of the night using the ductwork. Both times, they got stuck and triggered the silent alarm. Almost once a week, I got a call in the middle of the night from the cops about the alarm and intruders. Once, right in front of the cops, I threatened the assholes that if they did this again, I would kill them. Imagine doing that today. The cops just laughed. Some of the cops would come by and hang out and enjoy the excitement of a recording session. But then the reality of drudgery would send them on their way after an hour. Everyone in the studio was on their best behavior. But when my engineer and I were working, we never did drugs. We tried to dissuade customers from doing so but bathroom breaks always came way too often for the musicians.
The cigar is swimming in a sea of swarming simbas. Man, it is a fine depiction of good cigar blending.
Construction is on point. The burn is behaving.
Strength goes from medium to full just like that. Vision in my third eye evaporates.
The only frustration we ever had at the studio was when a harpist from the L.A. Symphony booked 4 hours to record tunes. We just couldn’t get the sound he wanted. We worked our asses off trying to alter the sound within the studio and using multiple recording techniques…but to no avail. The guy was very nice about it, but we felt we failed.
I’m past the halfway point and the cigar is singing to me. In E♭…a guitarist’s nightmare.
This is going to be a two-hour cigar so I shall shut the fuck up for a bit.
With less than 2” to go, the cigar is brilliant. Complexity is righteous. The depth of flavors is expansive and interesting. The richness of the blend is like the first time you jump out of an airplane…lots of screaming.
The cigar is a bona fide flavor bomb.
The stick is going to be a killer blend with more humidor time.
Despite the full strength, I’m still firmly situated on planet earth. Might be a good cigar for newbies to venture into stronger cigars. Sophisticates will dig a pony.
You can purchase these cigars from some of my sponsors: Small Batch Cigar (10% off with promo code ‘katman’), Luxury Cigar Club (15% off with promo code ‘katman’), and Atlantic Cigar (no promo code).
RATING: 94
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Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS
