Smoked: Caldwell Long Live The Queen Ace of Hearts

Smoked at: West Chester. Ohio

Caldwell Long Live The Queen Ace of Hearts Toro is a box pressed medium bodied cigar with an Cameroon binder cloaked in a beautiful chocolate brown Cameron wrapper. Between the hype and look of the cigar, I’m intrigued.

Construction: Perfect draw, solid ash, burn line remained very even until the final third when it went a bit askew, but only needed a couple of touchups to regain its form.

The flavor profile on this stick is complex, balanced and changing with each puff. The Ace of Hearts’ initial flavors are pepper and milk chocolate-cocoa with notes of caramel (maybe some butterscotch in there), coffee, almonds and some earth and leather. There really is a lot going on here. I can usually taste wood to some degree from the first third. This cigar didn’t register wood notes to any degree until the second third. The almonds give way to more of a hazelnut flavor, some licorice and mild spice steps in during the final third to round out a very enjoyable smoke.

The Caldwell Long Live The Queen Ace of Hearts more than lives up to the accolades. This is one of the best cigars Caldwell has released to date. 5s across the board.

The Glenglassaugh Is an interesting single malt from the Highlands. It's right across the Eastern border of Speyside. It has an interesting sweetness on the palate and finish. It's not the typical Speyside caramel, vanilla, toffee sweetness. It took several drams to determine (lucky me), but I finally identified it as a cognac - maybe watered down Grand Marnier sweetness. Interesting scotch and very affordable. $70 in Kentucky.