I got my first glimpse and taste of the new Hiram & Solomon, limited production cigar, known as the Chabal at this years Ybor City Heritage Cigar Festival. The Chabal is hand crafted at PDR Cigars in the Dominican Republic. Hiram & Solomon Cigars owner, Fouad Kashouty, explained to me the name “Chabal” translates to ‘tie together’, to bring the Past, Present & Future together.
The blend is described as:
- Wrapper – Corojo 99
- Binder – Indonesian Sumatra
- Filler – Corojo Ligero, & Corojo Seco
The Hiram & Solomon Chabal is expressed in a single (6 x 52) toro and comes packaged in 20-count bright yellow boxes. They retail for about $10.00/cigar
For this review, I sampled 3 of these which I received from the company for the purpose of reviewing on Stogie Press.
Pre-Light Examination
There is one thing you will notice as soon as you pick up a Hiram & Solomon Chabal, and that is the deep reddish brown color of the toothy wrapper. The wrapper has a decent oily sheen and exhibits some bumps and veins running along the barrel. The cigar feels firm to the squeeze and has a decent weight in the hand. A simple cap finishes the presentation.
A single band adorns the cigar that uses a pale yellow, gold, red, and black motif. The name Hiram & Solomon is printed on the bottom and CHABAL on top. The center of the band contains an image of a triangle that states present, past, future and also an outline of the state of Georgia as this cigar was made for the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Georgia (Donald C. Comes).
Running the Chabal along the nose, I picked up a musty earth note especially off the foot.
Once I sliced the cap, straight across the shoulder of the cigar, I gave it some cold draw puffs that had some of that musty note in it along with a slight sweetness in the background. The draw it self was decent with sufficient restriction to continue the journey.
So with the past behind us I reached for my double flame torch to warm the foot gently, bringing it to an even orange glow as I drew in the first puffs of peppery smoke. Follow along as I burn the Chabal to ash.
Cigar Review Notes
- Peppery spice starts the journey
- Solid light grey ash forms on top of a medium thick char line
- Floral aromas fill the air around me
- Mild jag in burn
- Cedar notes emerge deep in the first third
- Flaky Ash
- Ash fell in solid chunk – revealing well formed burn cone
- Dark chocolate nuances develop
- Slight off burn midway – required touch up
- Natural sweetness adds to the pleasure
- Mouth watering citrus notes fill in on top of the sweetness
- Citrus grows into more of a citrus peel
- Burn has been behaving well since touch up
- Aroma shifts to a nut like sensation
- Spice notes complete the journey in the final
Final Analysis
I found the Hiram & Solomon Chabal Toro to be a decent cigar with a fairly well balanced set of flavors and aromas. I would say the introduction of the Indonesian Sumatra helped a lot with the balance of the pepper and spice I was getting from the Corojo. As much as the flavor as good, the construction could have been better as it exhibited a flaky ash along with a jagged burn that eventually resulted in an off burn that required a touch up. This behavior was consistent across multiple samples. This is worth checking out a five pack and I rate it an 89.
Point Deductions: (-1) Jagged Burn; (-1) Off Centered Burn Cone; (-1) Off- Burn; (-1) Required Touch Up; (-1) Flaky Ash
