Do you like box pressed cigars but don’t like how they feel between your lips? Veritas cigars has an answer for that. Their 2015 3 blends release is a unique vitola. Constructed of three different wrapper leaves – Connecticut, Habano, and Maduro – this Vitola is then 2/3 box pressed and the remainder is left as a corona. It is quite an interesting cigar to look at. It is not your typical barbershop pole wrap as the width of each wrapper leaf changes as it moves up the cigar. Everything about this cigar is in threes, including the box packagin in whihc the 3 Blends comes packed 9 to a box. To understand more about it you can listen to Chris Weber describe it in the interview we did with him at the 2015 IPCPR.
The Veritas website aptly describes it:
“Made with the help of Sam Leccia, the 3 Blends is completely uncommon. As a barber shop pole, it is exemplary, …But it’s shape is really exclusive. A smooth Corona cap that tapers into a beautiful boxed press foot. The Corona cap makes the cigar easy on the mouth, while the boxed press intensifies the smoke and the flavors. You have never seen or smoked anything quite like it.”
The Veritas 3 Blends uses Sun-Grown Ecuadorian Habano, Habano Maduro and a Connecticut for its wrappers. It also includes a San Andres binder in addition to fillers from Jalapa, Ometepe, Condega & Esteli. A true taste sensation.
The team at Veritas informed me that the band on the cigars handed out at the show has been refined and though I don’t have the actual band here is the trademark design that was submitted to the US Trademark office.
There is a sweet hay scent on the pre-light and a tingle of pepper and spice on the dry draw with some notes of earth.
Once ignited you are greeted with a medium to strong white pepper that enters first, hitting the throat and nose on the retro-hale.
The draw is slightly restricted but pleasant, delivering a high volume of smoke-to-puff ratio. The pepper fades to the background after the first half inch and a sugary sweetness enters along with a vanilla almond like aroma wafting off the foot.
A citrus tang moves in alongside the sugar, like a lemon drop martini. The ash is light grey and flaky. I choose to tap the ash after a little more than an inch of burn revealing a well formed burn cone. The burn line is thick with minimum wave.
A mineral note joins the mix at the end of first third and then the sweetness and citrus reappears. I love the dancing of flavor in the Veritas 3 Blends, like doing another lemon drop shot.
A spat of coffee comes in along with a nut aroma developing in second third. The darker leaf in the wrapper develops a slight sheen as it burns down. I paired the second sample with a Not Your Fathers Root Beer and it brought out the sweetness and enhanced the coffee note. The aroma builds with a mix of maple syrup and nut.
As it moves into the corona phase the spice reemerges mixed with cedar.
The Veritas 3 Blends was a solid medium strength cigar though the strength does ratchet up a little near the end.
Overall the Veritas 3 Blends was a delicious smoke, with pleasant falvor transitions and a excellent burn. It was solidly constructed especially given the unique shape of the vitola. As noted I paired this with a sweet beverage and I think that was the correct pairing as it enhanced the cigars sweetness down to the nub. i would like to thank Chris Weber and the Veritas Cigars team for the samples. In total transparency, Veritas Cigars is a client of Immerse Marketing, LLC the parent company of Stogie Press.
Veritas 3 Blends