Cigar Review: My Father Connecticut

Vitola: Robusto
Size: 5.25” x 52 ring gauge
MSRP ~$8.00
Purchased at Burns Tobacconist

Background

From the Don Pepin Garcia lines to the My Father lines to Tatuaje to work done for Ortega, Crowned Heads and a seemingly endless parade of others, the My Father Cigar company has always been best known for their powerful Nicaraguan blends with up-front flavor and massive amounts of pepper spice. Not that they never made a milder cigar before (Cabaiguan for Tatuaje is one good example), but they never did a Connecticut Shade wrapped stick that had their own name on it. 2014 is the year that changed.

The initial report was in the “lifestyle magazine” website in June. This cigar is supposed to be made up entirely of leaf from the Garcia family’s farms in Nicaragua, with the exception of the wrapper. It uses a Nicaraguan Corojo ’99 binder and a blend of Habano and Criollo filler leaves. Additionally, there is one tobacco that “undergoes a ‘special fermentation process’ for enhanced aroma and flavor.”

Of particular interest is that My Father did choose not to participate in the “New Wave Connecticut” rush of a few years ago…seemingly one of the few companies that didn’t produce a new Conny at the time. Also interesting is that Janny Garcia says (in the same article linked to above) that this is “absolutely a mild cigar” which is different than what most companies did during the NWC craze (many pushed the envelope to get mild-to-medium or even straight-ahead medium-bodied smokes).

I bought this cigar at Burns Tobacconist and this review is based on my first smoking of it.

Prelight

Like the rest of the My Father lines, this is a good looking stick. It uses the regular MF band, but like the Le Bijou and Lounge Editions, it adds a secondary band that further tells something about the cigar. In this case “Edition CT” in the center and “Connecticut” in very small lettering on either side. They once again did a good job of making it seem like the secondary band was designed at the same time as the primary and not years later. Colors, die-cut and artistic sensibilities all work together. This cigar also adds a black ribbon on the foot.

I’m used to seeing a lot of minor flaws in Connecticut Shade wrapper on cigars at this price point. Whether it’s mottling, green spots, stretching and puckering…it just seems to happen. And it’s not a huge problem when you see those things at this price point, either…what is unusual is seeing a wrapper leaf that probably could pass muster for Davidoff most days on a cigar that costs about half of what they would charge. Perfect? Pretty near. The color was a beautiful even shade of caramel; while it had no visible oils, when I touched the leaf I could definitely feel them. And the aroma was classic aged tobacco and sweet hay…like walking into a room where dozens of ladies are working their way through piles of Shade wrapper leaf, sorting by size, color and quality. The foot had a bit of that note, plus some pungent earthiness. The cold draw was excellent and featured flavors of earth and molasses with a touch of grassiness.

Flavor

I lit up the My Father Connecticut and was greeted with a solid earthy flavor profile, mostly due to the Nicaraguan filler and binder, undoubtedly. There was a touch of grassiness and sweet hay, but just on the fringes. I also detected a little cedar and anise in the mix, along with some red pepper on the finish. The retrohale was nutty, woody and peppery. Midway through the first third, I noted that the flavor had settled down a bit, into more of a woody, grassy place with earthiness underlying and a pleasant graham cracker sweetness.. I also noticed that the burn line was very wavy, which is something frequently seen with Connecticut Broadleaf, but I can’t remember the last Connecticut Shade leaf I’ve seen burn this way.

In the second third, I got more graham and grassiness, while the pepper and earth seemed to recede a bit.

In the last third the construction issues noted below suddenly went away. The burn line became very even and the ash stopped flaking. In terms of flavor, I noted a very creamy smoke with an extraordinary balance of earth, coffee, graham, grass, cedar and even touches of molasses.

Construction

This particular cigar performed a bit like it had been dropped at some point along the way. The first third of ash broke off solidly, but then it went through a very flaky stage where cinders would fly off at random and ash was falling on my lap. Because I grade based on what I smoke, I have to count off a bit for construction, but with a caveat: it probably wouldn’t have this problem normally. The burn line continued to need fairly constant touching up, possibly a sign that it needed a little more rest before smoking. The draw was perfect, though.

Value

If I’m not mistaken, this is the cheapest line of cigars to wear the My Father label. It was also a very satisfying smoke so I would judge the value to not be just “worth the price” but “a steal.”

Conclusions

The My Father Connecticut is a great addition to the company’s portfolio. It stands out from everything else they have produced and stands apart from other Shade wrapped sticks on the market. While I had some very irritating construction battles with this stick, I believe this is probably an anomaly and without those issues, this would have been an absolutely stellar experience. As it is, I find it one of the best Connecticut Shade sticks available and well worth trying for any level of smoker.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 1.5/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10