Today we offer the Stogie Press Rough Cut cigar review notes on the Southern Draw Cigars – QuickDraw Connecticut. This cigar, announced back in April of this year, is the new, bitter-sweet sister of the QuickDraw Habano and Pennsylvania Broadleaf blends. Robert Holt, founder of Southern Draw Cigars sent me samples of his latest creation last month and I have been wanting to smoke them ever since they arrived.
According to the Southern Draw Press:
“The QuickDraw Connecticut blend was heavily influenced by our appreciation for Café Cubano, colada and cafecito, a blend offering the strength of dark roast espresso, the sweetness of hydrolyzed sugar and the light creaminess of the espumita or crema that sits atop the coffees. The connoisseur size vitolas were selected to further enhance the coffee experience,’ commented Robert Holt – Founder of Southern Draw Cigars. “
The QuickDraw Connecticut is available in two vitolas:
- Petit Corona: 4.5×44
- Short Panatela: 5.5×40
The QuickDraw Connecticut blend, which was a collaboration between Robert Holt and A.J. Fernandez, is described as follows:
- Wrapper: Ecuadorian Connecticut
- Binder: Ometepe Nicaraguan
- Filler:Proprietary/Nicaraguan
For this review I sampled the Short Panatela but have to say I also enjoyed the Petit Corona and other than the time of smoke it delivered a similar smoking experience.
Cigar Review Notes
- Smooth light tan wrapper
- Pig tail cap
- Gently closed foot
- Sweet tobacco aroma along barrel
- Cold draw delivers earth and pepper
- Upon lighting it up, pepper bursts in immediately
- Massive smoke production – especially for a small ring gauge
- Well formed, salt and pepper ash develops
- Pepper fades into a creamy butter and mild tempered bitter note
- Spicy pepper aroma detected
- Ash fell after an inch and reveals perfect burn cone
- Brown sugar sweetness starts to evolve
- The bitter shows itself as dry cocoa powder by the half way point
- Strength builds at this point
- Finishes with a toasted almond nut
- Strength clocked in at the high end of medium
- I really enjoyed the developed bitter sweet notes of QuickDraw Connecticut
Overall, for a short smoke, the Southern Draw QuickDraw Connecticut was a solid coigar that had a flawless burn and though not overly complex, it offered some truly pleasurable flavor notes and demonstrated some strength at the finish. The Connecticut bitterness was perfectly complimented with notes of cocoa, almond, brown sugar and butter.
QuickDraw Connecticut