Crown Jewel Cigars

Note: I wasn't able to upload my photos. It kept repeating that their was a fatal error. Sorry.

A couple times a year, we went to the dog races..* A special function was to be presented by the adoption group that puts the greyhounds in good homes.* The dogs being put up for adoption had seen their better days and this was a humane way of dealing with the surplus of good pets. It was a wonderful idea. Too many animals were being destroyed.
Now people were standing in line to adopt them.
My band was hired to play at the function.
In between sets, we spent our time admiring the gorgeous dogs...but too skinny, most of them. Im sure they'd all enjoy a good double cheeseburger.
My wife wanted one and we ended up adopting Tansy. A beautiful tan female. She was 2 at the time.

The process of adopting was more rigorous than adopting a human, including having your home inspected.

We were asked to take a long break while the adoption group had their say to the crowd. It seemed like a good time to pull out a stick. The other guys didn't smoke cigars. Their loss.

I had gotten a hold of a boutique blend called Crown Jewel. Honestly, I hadn't heard of them.
But from what I read online, they got nothing but good reviews.
I pulled the Churchill from my pocket.
The prelight aroma was cedar and nuts. Very pleasant. I snipped the end with my Xikar Xi2 cutter.
I inspected the construction of the cigar and it was done nicely. The color is a medium tan. With very few veins. It was firm without any soft spots. It felt good in the hand.
I lit up and got an immediate oily taste that quickly became creamy. Very few cigars start out creamy. It usually isn't until the half way point, that creaminess kicks in.
The burn got a little uneven the first half inch but by the inch mark, it had corrected itself and never had a problem the rest of the cigar.

I got hints of wood, cedar and leather. And then the spice kicked in. Just a little bit. The spice spent most its time at the back of my mouth.
The creaminess became very buttery. I wanted to smear it on toast. It was delicious.

Into the second third, the taste of nuts-peanuts became apparent. Cream and peanuts. An interesting combination.
While I was enjoying the cigar, one of the dogs came up to me and put its snout into the air and it seemed to like the aroma. I had to laugh out loud. It's handler laughed too. Now this was a sophisticated animal!

The last third was wonderful. All the flavors had blended together and became incredibly complex. Now here's the thing. I bought the cigar the day before. It had no aging in my humidor. I can think of a handful of cigars that are magnificent without humidor time.
I had a few more and my job was to let them rest for a few months and see what they turned into. I could imagine that all the flavors would intensify and meld together nicely.

It was time for us to get up and play again. I wasn't done so I put a cigar holder on the stick and played with the cigar in my mouth. The holder keeps me from drooling while I'm playing because I don't have the chance to remove it now and again and our songs were always at least 5 minutes long. A drooling bassist doesn't impress anyone.

Just before I put the holder on the cigar, I took one more puff but I stuck the wrong end in my mouth. Ouch! I grabbed my bottle of water and soothed the burn. What a schmuck! I looked around to see if anyone noticed...just the band and they laughed out loud at me.

The next day, I showed no discipline and lit up another one in my cave. This time it was the torpedo and it tasted just as good as the Churchill.
I looked up the vitals on this stick:
“Silky Rich Ecuadorian Sun Grown Wrapper, an exclusive specially cultivated Dominican “Piloto Cubano” 5 year aged long leaf tobacco from the North Central Region of the Cibao Valley precisely blended with, a Sweet selected Peruvian tobacco from the San Martin region of the Northern Amazon. The final product is then hand rolled by a select few of Master Cuban Rollers.” This came directly from their web site.

I was down to 1-1/2” on stage. The holder allowed me to smoke it to the nub. The creaminess, the spice, the nuts made this a joy to smoke.

And Tansy turned out to be a smart dog. Whenever I smoked, she came over and lay down next to me. She loved the smell of burning tobacco. This dog could have been a roller in another life.

In summary, this cigar is a winner. I need to have these in my humidor all the time. I believe the people at Crown Jewel have developed a stick that should be in every B & M in the country so everyone can have a shot at this great stick. The retail on these are $9-$11.75 each. Based on the quality, they're worth every dime.
Thanks to Mark Mistie and the folks at Crown Jewel for the samples.