Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano
Binder: Ecuadorian Habano
Filler: Peruvian, Dominican, Nicaraguan, Ecuadorian
Size: 5.2 x 55 Wide Churchill
Strength: Medium/Full
Price: $20.00
Factory: Tabacos de Costa Rica

BACKGROUND:
From Casdagli Cigars:
“Casdagli Cigars enters the crypto world in partnerhip with The Blockchainsmoker, an NFT membership cigar club for exclusive access to crypto themed premium cigars, incubated by leading Cardano NFT project: The Ape Society.

“Through the incubator program ‘The Factory’ from The Ape Society, The Blockchainsmoker will this year, with a target date of March, launch their NFT collection to exclusively serve those with passion for both Blockchain technology and very special, high-quality cigars. Through NFTs on the Cardano network, The Blockchainsmoker club will launch instantly collectible cigars from many different brands. Each brand will produce these cigars exclusively as one-off limited editions for the cigar club, the first one coming from Casdagli Cigars. Upon launch, it will be the world’s first cigar club that exclusively offers cigars tailored to the crypto space.”

The website goes on and on describing the wonders of NFT’s and crypto while never addressing anything about the blend itself. It does provide a link to the Blockchainsmoker club. But when I clicked on it, the website is no longer up and running.

There is a video introducing the founders of the club on YouTube. It was posted 3 years ago and has received very few views with zero comments.

There is little information as to when the cigar was actually released. The info regarding the release happened in February 2023. There are no reviews of the cigar. Is this a cigar with three years of aging after rolling with three years of box aging? I have no idea.

THE WHOLE MEGILLAH:
Aged three years (or is it 6 years?). They must be ready to go.

Casdagli was a forerunner of leaf stats in this blend design. Now, you can barely swing a dead cat without hitting dozens of similar blends. It has become the flavor of the modern era. I’ve been a fan of this style for 13 years when Jeremy stood alone in this sphere.

The outcome is that I’m a sucker for anything resembling this style. Unfortunately, the grand majority of similar blends are not cheap. And I like cheap.

It’s very clever using the Wide Churchill size and name. My top 25 list of 2025 saw the number one pick as the Cuban Romeo y Julieta Wide Churchill. An exquisite cigar blend that has few peers. So, how does the Casdagli do? Let’s see.

It surely smells good (Cue Det. Lt. Frank Drebin). Extremely floral with smaller notes of baking spices, saltless caramel, vanilla, malt, oak, earthiness, and milk chocolate.

My PerfecPunch plows into the cap like the Dewey Decimal System at a Congressional Inquest into Illiteracy. The cold draw is baking spices, leather, earthiness, milk chocolate, oak, malt, vanilla, and caramel without salt. Wait…and floral.

Very perfumy at light up. Almost cartoonishly overwhelming. The draw is tight but not without the ability to be overcome by the use of my PerfecDraw.

The floral is ridiculous. I’ve smoked everything that Jeremy has produced and this blend is like sparking a J made up of The White Widow which is a strain whose aromata is that of flowers, pine thistles, and earthiness. I can almost taste the sap droplets.

Heat plumps the cigar like a cantor running from a hog at a KKK celebration. A slow roll lay before me. My life lay behind me, but any good taxman will argue the opposite.

The draw is fakakta. I grab my PerfecDraw and put it to work. The tool takes several stabs and drags out half of the Jersey shore but now it’s better and my chest doesn’t heave like I’m on my back holding a thick pane of glass while a strange woman deposits a ca ca pee pee poo poo.

The blend settles and the sweetness of the leaf moves in an irregular pattern while the earthiness stands front and center.

The blend is very good, but it is becoming run of the mill for cigar blends using a similar design and price point. I’ve been here a hundred times. If I were to blind taste it, I would not be able to call this out as a Casdagli blend.

On the upside, it burns at the speed of a melting but stalwart glacier.

The burn gets wonky.

The cigar goes out.

I’m closing in at the end of the first half. The cigar is decent but ordinary. What a disappointment. I expect more from Jeremy.

Daughters of the Wind by Casdagli is my favorite blend. His Pony release is fantastic and only around $11 per stick. Unfortunately, they are not easy to find. My suggestion is that if you find them, buy every stick. They are the best morning cigars I’ve tasted.

Flavors are creamy, sweet with a touch of savory, oak, malt, caramel, and floral. For $20, I need transitional quality, depth of field, complexity, richness, and extreme earthiness. The Blockchain has none of this.

I get the sense that the blend wants to do better but doesn’t have the impetus or enthusiasm to do so.

The cigar has trouble staying lit. My Humidimeter showed 61% after a day of dry boxing. It was good to go.

The cigar has several years of aging, so I wonder if it aged out. Some cigars don’t take kindly to long rest while others do very well. It’s a crap shoot for any blender.

I love Casdagli blends, but the Blockchain was a swing and a miss.

RATING: 84

Caldwell 10th Anniversary Añejado
Wrapper: Mexican San Andrés Rosado ~ Aged 3-1/2 years
Binder: Dominican
Filler: Dominican, Nicaraguan, Colombian Cubita
Size: 5.75 x 52 Toro
Strength: Medium/Full
Price: $50.00
Date Released: November 2024
Quantity Released: 200 Boxes of 10
Factory: Tabacalera William Ventura

My cigars received 4 months of naked humidor time.

THE WHOLE MEGILLAH:
A $50 Caldwell cigar.

The cigar was released 2 years ago and not a single review since. The good news is that the cigars have a year of box aging. I will begin with reverence and then it either pleasantly surprises…or I become a raving lunatic. I’m an amalgam of Grandpa Munster, a blind proctologist, and owner of 3-string basses.

For $50, I expect a glorious looking cigar. It’s not happening. A very ordinary looking wrapper with a bit of oil and a lot of 1930’s horror movie veins.

My PerfecPunch slices through the cap like a rabbi on his 1000th bris. Without my PP, I’d be lost, bequeathed, alone, disjointed, and fornicated. Dr. Rod’s mission on earth is to provide solid dental care and provide an end to cigar smokers’ anxiousness throughout the northern hemisphere and parts of Utah.

I sniff the didgeridoo while it awaits extermination. It’s devoid of external aromata. I guess that this leaf having 4 years of age discriminates against the average schnoz. So, I go in for the cold draw: baking spices, malt, chocolate, espresso, nocturnal emissions, and a dirigible worth of cream.

Time to gas it up.

Now, my dears, we’re schmoozing like the king of Greenland. Big fatty notes of earthiness, sublime creamed corn, leather goods, chocolate, café au lait, black pepper, and brown sugar.

There is a nice cocoa powder taste on my tongue and lips. There’s something special going on. Like the time in 1973 when I found a lid of weed in the heating vent that the previous tenant forgot about.

I love cigars that don’t fuck around and get down to business immediately. As we all should with a cigar ringing in at half a C note. It’s complex, it feels nurtured, and words slide off my tongue like a newly elected politician.

The skipper plumps like the Wienermobile with too many Little Oscars aboard. But the burn gets wonky and I am displeased. I try not to be displeased too often but I’m Jewish and there is no resolve. That’s all I have to say about that.

I’m waiting on a small grocery delivery so if I have to stop, I will raise two fingers. When I’m back, I’ll raise one finger. Just so you know.

The cigar is pretty damn good but either I’m having another aneurysm or I have lost the ability to discern distinct party favors. A rich earthy blend that defies description. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Skip and I loved to spend time at the tide pools and ecosystems at Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro. We could spend hours watching fish, indigenous beings, and plant life weaving to and fro. He once wanted to show me what a sea anemone’s tentacle sting was like. He picked one up from the clear water and stuck his tongue in its vagina. I watched in horror. He smiled for a minute, maybe less, and then his tongue began to swell. Another minute passed and his face was red, panic set in, and I couldn’t help but laugh. We spent the next 6 hours in the emergency room.

The first two inches were good but all I can think of is that adventure cost me $17. I could have gotten laid for that in 1973. Meanwhile, in 2026, my bone whistle lay at parade rest.

Are reviewers afraid of cigar manufacturers? Sure. Most don’t want to diss someone that might, in 20 years, send them a free fiver. Especially if they have podcasts and want Steve Saka as a guest. If I have to listen to one more guy ask, “So, Mr. Saka, how did you start in the cigar biz,” I’m going to plotz all over the floor. Even worse, “How did you come up with the name of the cigar?” Oy.

Disappointment is looming large. I’m smoking this lovely Fortaleza on a clean palate. I should be advancing the propaganda nicely. I’m finishing the first half, and I can’t help but wonder gently, “I fucking spent what on this cigar???” Blimey.

If this cigar lived at the going rate of $15 in 2026 for a decent cigar, I would still be unhappy. It started off with such promise and now it is devolving into huge regret and dissemination of improper thoughts. I may want to butt fuck my accountant who suggested this as a great fiver. Or I may just wait to see how the second half does.

Skip was so much smarter than me. But I was shocked when he threw his chances at a master’s degree away after discovering that his science experiment failed. Instead of illuminating the wrong turns, his research in molecular biology went unanswered. Skip was also a consummate artist. A kid with possibilities…but his demons would eventually win. His brothers and sister all had their demons. All succeeded in life until they didn’t. Skippy was a dashing good-looking sod but had nothing up his sleeve with the women. A divorce at the age of 26…and then a 30-year marriage to a woman from hell. A deeply disturbed woman that made his life miserable…a woman that turned him so insane, that he would have her jailed, bat her around, and listen to her nonstop claims of foreboding suicide. Skip found a way out. He allowed his treatable health issues to end his life. He was only 70.
This is Skip in his London flat while we jam in the key of E ♭.

I still like the cocoa powder influence. And the creamy earthiness. But there are no transitions. The complexity has stalled. It’s depth of field lay bare. Fuck me. $50.

I’ve reviewed a lot of good Caldwell designs. The Crafted & Curated Savages Mal Caida took the #17 position on my top 25 of 2025. A $16 stick. Take a look here.

Despite my anger, the second half improves. I still want my money back, but it’s better and I calm the fuck down.

Removing the tiny little secondary band causes a rip in the wrapper. Damn my no good for shit arthritic fingers. I enjoyed the first stick. I enjoyed the second stick which was the prompt for reviewing the third one this morning. I don’t know what’s wrong with me…or better yet, what’s wrong with this blend?
There is enough decency that I’m going to stick it out as long as the good lord, who visits me at night during my sleep apnea interruptions, allows me to do so. If the cigar doesn’t show some sign of life, I’m converting to Catholicism. My Catholic wife is Jewish by injection.

The cigar ain’t bad. But we have choices. I’m pretty sure that Caldwell is very happy that he only released 2,000 cigars into the wild. That’s $100,000 in cash flow so he ain’t all that unhappy. Many are still sitting on retailer’s shelves. This is the best place for them to reside.

RATING: 84

Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS