Cigar: Southern Draw Rose of Sharon
Size: 6 x 54 (Toro)
Wrapper: Ecuador Connecticut
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Nicaraguan/Dominican Ligero
MSRP: $51.25 per five pack from Smoke Inn
A few months ago, I made a point to visit a few online retailers to search out new cigars for review. One of the cigars found during my visit on the Smoke Inn website is the one up for review today. To my knowledge, I have never smoked anything from Southern Draw. Announced at the ICPCR in 2016 and releasing a lancero vitola in 2018, the Southern Draw Rose of Sharon gets its namesake from Sharon Holt, wife of Robert Holt of Southern Draw. As this was one I was not familiar with the brand and rarely do I choose a milder cigar to review, I was excited to give this one a go.
No constructions found on the last of the five cigars. The pre-light aromas were mostly woody notes with hints of leather while the cold draw brought only the faintest flavors of wood onto the palette. I opted for the scissor cut on this cigar as I was taking this one up on the deck (beautiful weather) and the clippers fit in the pocket (the guillotine doesn’t exactly fit). After the cut and light, I found a very open draw with opening flavor notes of wood with moderate spice on the aftertaste. As expected, I would characterize the strength of the Southern Draw Rose of Sharon as mild to medium. It’s very mellow on the palette but the opening spice aftertastes gives enough flavor to make it interesting. 14 minutes into smoking, the spice began mellowing considerably while the woody notes began getting more prominent on the palette. 27 minutes after that was when the cigar crossed over into medium bodied territory. I found more strength and flavor on the draw with heavier woody notes and the addition of leather to the palette. The final eight minutes of the cigar was all wood and leather. The total smoking time on the Southern Draw Rose of Sharon came in at a quick 0:53.
Besides a single relight and minor burn correction at the same time, I had no real problems with this cigar. It reminded me that I needed to consider more milder cigars in my future purchases.
By-The-Numbers
Pre-light: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4.25/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9.25/10
To recap the Southern Draw Rose of Sharon:
- A great example of a milder cigar with a balanced, mellow flavor profile. I gave a few of these out to family and friends and all reported that they loved this cigar.
- It’s on the milder side of the street, so nearly every level of cigar smoker can enjoy this one without worry.
- $10.00 and change for a single cigar is probably about the maximum I would pay for this but it is worth the money. Jump on these if you can find them under that.
- My wife, after smoking one, asked me when we would be getting more of these in…I think you know the answer as to if I will be buying these again or not.
Thank you so much for reading. I look forward to the next time I can share my thoughts with you.
