Originally published at Tiki Bar Online
Cuadrado (Box-pressed), 6” x 64 ring gauge
At the Chattanooga Tweet-Up in August, Anwar from Kings Cigars handed me this cigar and said, “This is something special we’ll be releasing around the first of October.” I asked if I should wait until then to smoke it since it maybe needed a little more time to settle. He told me, “No, go ahead,” but I ended up waiting on it anyway. Partially I wanted to make sure I did give this cigar a chance to rest until it was properly past the stage of rolling and traveling. Partially, I just had have too many things going on in the last two months and never seemed to find the exact right time to light this one up. Kings Cigars named their other two releases after lower lines of royalty…the Baron and the Conde. Here I give you the “King” of Kings Cigars…the aptly named King of Kings. Their website does not declare where any of the leaf is from, the only clue being the word “Nicaraguan” at the top of the description, but I believe that to be a declaration of where the cigar was rolled. As for makeup description: Kings Proprietary Filler, Habano Criollo Binder, and Habano Wrapper.
The band on this is a beautiful example of regality (is that a word?). A coat of arms, lions, a crown, lots of gold foil, lots of embossing. And the wrapper under it isn’t bad, either. A nice dark tan color with a hint of red and minimal veining. The box press on this cigar is a rather soft box press, but it looks imposing simply due to the 64 ring gauge. I got an aroma of hay, molasses and earth on the wrapper; the foot was rich with earth and sweet with dried fruit and chocolate scents. I struggled a bit with the best way to cut this monster. I’ve had a few larger ring gauge cigars lately with a straight cut and it ends up being just too big a cut. I wanted to do a punch or double-punch (as I had done on another cigar recently) and the wrapper and underlying tobacco just didn’t want to cut cleanly for my punch. So I ended up giving my Xikar XV a run at it and it ended up just about perfect. The cold draw had a solid earthiness, along with a bit of cocoa powder and some grassy sweetness.
Despite it’s very large ring gauge, the King of Kings was quite easy to get lit and soon it was pouring out voluminous, billowing clouds of smoke. Riding on that smoke was a combination of earth, hay and cedar flavors on the palate, as well as a sharp red pepper kick to the nose. Unlike some pepper kicks, though, this had a short finish and was gone within seconds of blowing the smoke through. The body started in the medium range and it was very difficult to tell where this was going. Midway through the first third, I was still getting lots of hay and cedar notes, but with some added mocha sweetness and a lot less earth.
As the second third burned away, I noticed a bit of a citrusy sweet and sour note creeping in with the hay and cedar, as well as a continuation of the pepper spice. Construction was excellent in all ways. The burn needed just a couple minor touchups, the ash held on for an inch or better, and the draw was flawless.
The final third had the King of Kings getting fuller of body until it reached the low end of the full range, and the pepper spice increased on the palate. There were still great citrus and hay notes as well. As a “top of the line” cigar, I found the King of Kings to be very good, bordering on excellent. It started off a little slow in the flavor department, but the intensity of flavor increased throughout and it ended in a great place. I’m not sure how much this is due to retail for, but anything in the $10 range would be well justified.
Body: 8/10
Strength: 7/10
Complexity: 7/10
AFP Scale
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9.5/10
