Years ago a cigar was made for Drew Estate called Papas Fritas, Spanish for French Fries. It was made of the scrap from Liga Privada cigars. Similarly, this year the scraps from Dunbarton’s Mi Querida, Triqui Traca, and Umbagog lines have been thrown together for Polpetta, Italian for Meatball. It’s held together with a Mexican binder and Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper then presented in a Rothschild format. I picked up one of the early release samples at a recent Dunbarton event and tonight pair it up with some Very Old Barton Bottled in Bond bourbon.
The wrapper on this cigar really was a beauty…rough and veiny, oily and redolent with barnyard notes…while the foot had sweeter earth and cocoa notes coming from it. Fired up, it was full bodied with a rich mix of earth and dark chocolate sweetness. I felt like it was heavy with Nicaraguan leaf, but it seemed like there was a definite presence of some of the powerful Dominican leaf from the Triqui Traca in there, too.
I like this one…it’s a short smoke that has great flavor and a fairly intense body for a shorter cigar. Expect to get 30-40 minutes at most. These were in short supply out the gate, but I expect to see them as a regular option in stores soon.
