Drew Estate

20 Acre Farm

Not bad! Nice hay/earth forward note

TL;DR: A connie with a kick, but I think the Undercrown Shade is better (and cheaper). ——— 71% RH @ Cap, 67% RH @ foot - Home humidor aged 5 months. ——— Initial observations - Quality all around in the presentation. I love the red foot band, the cedar roll around the body with the 20 Acre Farm/D.E. logo printed on it, and the main band itself with the white, red, and gold color way. The band size is great and well-placed. The foot band and cedar roll come off easily enough, but don’t try to use the cedar to light the cigar since there’s tape on it (even if you remove the tape, there will probably be some glue left on it that you won’t want to burn and inhale). The wrapper itself is a nice brown-paper-bag color. The veins and seams are obvious, but the stick still looks clean. The complexed cap is set cleanly, straight, and deeply. My cigar has a clean, evenly cut foot with no nicks or splits (thanks, in part, to the banding). It feels very firm to the touch and I can see that it’s packed well. Unlit wrapper scents include cinnamon, coffee, and hay, and the foot smells the same, all pretty standard for a quality cigar, especially a connecticut. ——— Cold draw - The cap took my double guillotine cut well, and the cold draw is spot on. I got flavors of cinnamon, coffee, a spice (white pepper?), and hay. ——— Light up - Initial flavors were almonds, peanuts, a floral note, and a touch of cedar on the palate. The retrohale had white and red pepper, cream, and graham crackers. No discernible finish. A touch of cinnamon gradually works its way in as the first third burns. ——— First third - Right off the bat I could tell that this wasn’t a typical connecticut. It has a bit more nicotine strength (mild plus, almost medium), and the pepper is very present, both in the palate and ESPECIALLY in the retrohale. Along with that pepper was almonds, cedar, and a touch of cinnamon up front, as carried over from the light up. The retro continued with red pepper, cream, graham crackers, and a floral note that almost got missed due to burn in my sinuses. I learned very quickly not to retrohale this too much. The finish that developed let the cream linger along with a hint of cedar and pepper just sitting at the back of my throat. The ash was a dark gray, stacked, and moderately flaky. I found the room aroma to be a little more pungent than the average cigar, which is kind of odd to me considering the price point. It’s been my experience that cigars with cheaper tobaccos tend to smell more foul than others, so I was not sure what to make of that. Additionally, the cigar ashed itself before a whole inch burned. If I had been handed this cigar blindly, I’d have thought it was a Factory Smokes with a different binder or something. The burn was less than razor sharp and in fact stayed wavy almost the entire burn. The increase in cream presence brought in the second third. ——— Second third - Not too much change from the first third. Like most Drew Estates cigars, the foot put off tons of smoke. My nose was running from the pepper at this point. A grassy hay showed up in the finish, but the palate and the ratio stayed the same, for the most part. Not much sweetness, and toward the end of this third I actually got a smoked mineral meatiness. Go figure. ——— Final third - The burn canoed on its own. No breeze outside to speak of, so…who knows. Leather showed up as an unexpected palate note, and the floral note added some citrus to it. The main band came off easily. The draw got noticeably loose, which only added more smoke to an already very smoky stick. ——— Other notes (aroma, ash, finish, burn line, pace, strength, draw, etc.) - To say that I was NOT impressed would be putting it mildly, unlike this cigar’s pepper. The toro may be a better vitola, but I don’t know if I’ll venture to find out. I will entertain the idea that I might have gotten a bad stick, but I don’t know. All said, I actually like some connecticuts, like the Rose of Sharon, the Undercrown Shade, the My Father connecticut, even the Casa de Garcia, but this one just wasn’t for me. I didn’t care to smoke my cigar past a 1” nub, and that took 1 hour, 10 minutes. ——— Personal Final Score - 73

Decent burn. I'd do it again.