Review: Liga Privada Único Serie A

Today we will be taking a look at a promotional product from Liga Privada, the Único Serie A! About a year ago there were rumors of a possible A size for the Liga Privada line in the works at Drew Estate. As you can imagine, being the Liga Privada whore that I am, I was very excited as were many people. As the months rolled on we would hear a little bit here and there about the project or Jonathan Drew would proudly tease us on Facebook with a video of him smoking from a fresh bundle in his cozy little office, and we would watch, not noticing the drool pile that was collecting on our keyboards. It wasn’t till late spring that samples started trickling out here and there to select people and from what I gathered people enjoyed the smoke and more so enjoyed the sheer size of a Liga Privada cigar that big! In July 2011 at IPCPR in Las Vegas even more people got to see the new A size, now being called the Liga Privada Único Serie A.

All along, Liga Privada fans were wondering if this was going to be a full production release, limited release or what? The month of September answered all questions when an officially a beautiful sample box featuring two Liga Privada Único Serie A cigars were received state side at the Drew Estate offices ready for shipment to Liga Privada Events when needed. It became obvious that this new release would be a promotional product only and would be made available at events for people who bought a box of Liga Privada. I must say that the box and over all presentation is amazing, they absolutely could not have done a better job. The box is simple, clean, and screams Liga Privada.

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A few questions need to be answered right away because I am sure some of you are wondering about the blend. Many people are asking if this is a No. 9 blend, T52 blend, or some new blend? The answer is that this is indeed a T52 style blend, however because of the unique size of the A, it’s more of a tweaked T52 blend because it took altering the blend a bit to work well in the large format. Also, the question as to why these are simply promotional items and not full or limited production releases is a two part answer. The first being the availability in general of T52 leaf. It’s hard enough these days to get regular production T52 cigars due to tobacco, let alone trying to fill orders for an A vitola, which requires uniquely-sized leafs of tobacco due to the size. Also Drew Estate wanted to make something special for customers, it’s nice to go to an event, purchase a box and get something truly special, and this is certainly it.

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• Cigar Reviewed: Liga Privada Único Serie A
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: La Gran Fabrica Drew Estate
• Wrapper: Connecticut River Valley Stalk Cut & Cured Sun Grown Habano
• Binder: Plantation Grown Brazilian Mata Fina
• Filler: T52 Blend (Tweaked)
• Size: 9 1/4 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 47
  
• Vitola: A
• Est. Price: N/A
• Number of Cigars Released: N/A
• Date Released: September 2011
• Number of Cigars Smoked for Review: 2

The cigar itself is near perfect, you can tell that these massive leaves used for this large format are hand selected because both of the samples I have are absolutely perfect. They are a wonderful dark chocolate color and are completely uniform in color, there are veins here and there as well as a nice tooth present, the wrapper glistens with oil and is completely seamless. There are no soft spots, the cigar is packed well with a slight give to it letting you know the draw is going to be excellent. I love the choice in the band; it’s a standard Liga Privada Único band with just a simple bold style A.

The pre-light aroma off the wrapper is wonderful with a nice maple sweetness, reminds me exactly of maple syrup, also there is a nice dark chocolate and coffee mix that is wonderful, just a ton of sweetness and a rich tobacco smell. The foot smells of that wonderful warm bread dough aroma I often get with any T52 blend, it’s just wonderful with a nice hint of musty tobacco. The pre-light draw is like tasting a salty New York pretzel, it’s a sourdough bread flavor with a tinge of salt on the tongue, and behind it is a nice mellow cedar flavor as well as a touch of leather. All in all just a absolute near perfect pre-light experience, one of my favorites to date.

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Starting off in the First Third, the first few puffs reveal a surprisingly mild to medium body with very little pepper or spice and a short clean finish. As far as flavors go there is just a faint hint of tobacco. About a half inch into it the flavors really start to show and the overall body rises to a solid medium. The texture of smoke becomes nice and creamy with flavors of cocoa, leather, and a wonderful earthy flavor. The finish becomes quite long with flavors of wood, sourdough and a nice pepper tingle.

Coming into the Second Third, the cigar holds steady at a medium body, the smoke is plentiful and just pours out of the cigar when idle as most Liga Privada will do. The flavor profile has changed a bit with some darker flavors coming into play, a nice cream, espresso and cocoa mix creating a latte type flavor. There are standard Liga Privada tones on the finish with an earthy, musty aroma coming off the cigar.

Finishing up in the Final Third the cigar reaches a slight point of boredom where the flavors don’t change up a whole lot from the last third and just the sheer size of the cigar makes you want to just finish it already. The flavors remain enjoyable though and the body stays at a solid medium.

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Final Notes:

• A few things surprised me about this cigar with one of them being the relatively low amount of spice and pepper and the other being the strength and body, I was expecting or at least hoping for something a bit stronger, and certainly something with a bit more spice and pepper.
• In comparison this cigar actual reminded me of the Undercrown, it was like a mix between a regular T52 and Undercrown. It certainly had some standard T52 flavors but the body, strength, and certain flavor tones reminded me of Undercrown
• Initially, given the size, the cigar forced me to double and triple puff during the first third to get a good amount of smoke out of it. I simply attribute this to the heavy leaf blend and the large size of the cigar. It got a lot easier when you entered the second third.
• Again, at this point these are only available at certain Liga Privada events, for a list of upcoming events please check out the Drew Estate blog event page.
• Final Smoking time was 2 hours 15 minutes

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The Bottom Line: As far as promotional items go this is a absolute winner. I truly don’t believe this format is ever made for anything but a sort of novelty item. I mean it’s a huge cigar and it takes some real time to sit and enjoy it. It’s nothing I would grab on any regular basis whatsoever but for the capacity it was made for it is perfect. I would absolutely be ecstatic to receive this as a freebie when I bought a box of cigars. The presentation is top notch and the idea to make this is perfect for Liga Privada fans because it’s unique and fun to smoke, although a touch monotonous at the end. It certainly won’t knock you on yours ass, it’s subtle in its strength and flavor, but in the end is everything Liga Privada — just a touch lighter in my opinion.

Final Score: 87

Steve Valle

Steve Valle wrote for Smoking Stogie, a precursor to halfwheel, from 2010-2011.