Black Works Studio Killer Bee Shaolin

At the 2022 PCA Convention & Trade Show, Black Label Trading Co. offered retailers a chance to purchase a limited edition from its Black Works Studio brand, the Black Works Studio Killer Bee Shaolin.

The Killer Bee Shaolin is the latest extension to the Killer Bee, a cigar that was part of Black Works Studio’s debut releases back in 2015 when Black Label Trading announced the project as a way to show off the skills and artistry of Fabrica Oveja Negra.  The original Killer Bee blend uses an Ecuadorian maduro wrapper with a Nicaraguan binder and filler.

In 2018, the Killer Bee got its first extension, the Killer Bee Connecticut, which was released as an exclusive to attendees of the 2018 IPCPR Convention & Trade Show. That blend uses an Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper highlighted by strips of Ecuadorian maduro tobacco, while the binder and filler are both from Nicaragua.

In 2020, the line would gets another extension, called The Swarm. That cigar used a wrapper from Cameroon atop a Nicaraguan habano binder and Nicaraguan fillers of undisclosed origin.

The Shaolin’s outermost layer of this cigar is made up of three leaves: a Mexican San Andrés leaf making up the bulk of what one sees, while an Ecuadorian Connecticut is used to create the lighter stripes and an Ecuadorian candela leaf that covers the foot and provides a strip of green at the bottom of the cylinder. Underneath that is a Honduran habano binder and Nicaraguan fillers.

Those tobaccos get rolled into a slender belicoso vitola that measures 5 1/2 x 46, created by the team at Fábrica Oveja Negra in Estelí, Nicaragua. The Black Works Studio Killer Bee Shaolin is limited to 1,000 boxes of 24 cigars, a total run of 24,000 cigars.

“The Killer Bee line is in a constant state of evolution,” said James Brown, owner of Black Label Trading Co., in a press release announcing the cigar. He went onto say that the Killer Bee lends itself to a lot of different variations.

• Cigar Reviewed: Black Works Studio Killer Bee Shaolin
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: Fábrica Oveja Negra
• Wrapper: Mexico (San Andrés) & Ecuador (Connecticut and Candela)
• Binder: Honduras (Habano)
• Filler: Nicaragua
• Length: 5 1/2 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 46
• Vitola: Belicoso
• MSRP: $13.50 (Box of 24, $324)
• Release Date: September 2022
• Number of Cigars Released: 1,000 Boxes of 24 Cigars (24,000 Total Cigars)
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

There are plenty of places to start the visual inspection and commentary on the Black Works Studio Killer Bee Shaolin, and regardless of where one starts, it feels right to say this is quite a visually unique and attractive cigar. This belicoso feels noticeably slim in the fingers, reminding me a bit of a Crayola marker with its size and pointed head. Were this a parejo, I don’t think it would generate a note, but the pointed head feels unfamiliar on a cigar of this size. The stripes of tobacco are easy to dive into; while I think I notice a little issue on the stripe of candela at the foot, I realize that it is just a bit of tobacco from the covered foot. While there isn’t much of an oily sheen, the wrapper feels like it has a bit of oiliness, but there is still some texture coming through from the leaf. The cigar is generally on the firm side, though I do find some spots that have a bit of give, though not enough that I would call it soft. The aroma from the foot is mild and mixes Ritz crackers with a bit of dry grass, a smell I expect given the candela covering. I wonder what the foot would smell like were it not for that candela covering, but that will be a question that goes unanswered. The cold draw has some resistance to it, which I’m primarily attributing to that covered foot and then maybe due to the tapered head. It has a fairly subdued flavor, reminding me of a Starlight Peppermint Mint at first. From there the flavor shifts to a mild flavor of whole grain or rye crackers, again pretty tame on the whole.

My suspicion about the cold draw being affected by the covered foot was correct; as soon as I toast the foot and take my first draw, air moves smoothly and without any undue restriction. The initial flavor starts with a toasty, whole grain bread or cracker flavor, with just a little bit of pepper lingering in the background. It’s a fairly tame flavor, and the flavor doesn’t have a ton of pepper in the early going to wake up the senses. Retrohaling get the nostrils tingling with a quick and pointed pepper sensation, surrounding that pepper is something that reminds me of a glass of cold orange juice, both in terms of the aroma and a lightly acidic sensation. The flavor begins to pick up a bit of dry earth before the first clump of ash drops, almost terroir-like on certain puffs, while during others, it’s a bit more generic. That peppermint candy flavor from the cold draw returns around the one-inch mark, The brighter parts of the flavor begin a cycle of ramping up and then dialing back, but other than that the first third of the Black Works Studio Killer Bee Shaolin is fairly tame. Flavor is right on the line between mild and medium in the first third, while body is medium and strength is mild. Construction is outstanding so far, though I’m going to keep a watchful eye on the draw, and am already thinking about what I might be able to do should it become an issue.

A bit of creaminess joining the profile kicks off the second third, and while each of the three samples progresses along the same flavor timeline, the creaminess seems to interact with the profile a bit differently. One cigar sees the creaminess amplify the earthiness, while in another it seems to mellow the earthiness. There are some occasional appearances of chalkiness, and in the case of one cigar, it makes me check the head of the cigar for tar, though I don’t find any of the brown stuff. Retrohales still kick things up with a bit of pepper. Around the midpoint of the cigar, the draws of all three cigars begin to feel a bit more labored, with an interesting sensation of the burn line running into something that requires a bit more horsepower to get through. The rye cracker flavor begins to remerge here, which gives a slightly different sensation to the taste buds as opposed to what the other pepper is doing. Flavor is medium-minus, body is still medium and strength remains mild. In addition to the tightening draw, the combustion rate seems to have slowed, while the burn line remains sharp and smoke production is good if not abundant.

The final third starts off by staying relatively mild, with a toasty flavor leading the way and a bit of lightly charred wood appearing on the finish, both sprinkled with a bit of black pepper as an accent. It’s probably a bit more flavorful than I’m giving it credit for, but given that this comes from the same folks behind Black Label Trading Co., there’s some expectation that the cigar will suddenly ramp up in flavor and strength. There is definitely a slowing of the burn rate as the final third gets underway, though there doesn’t seem to be an immediate cause, as the draw is fine and as long as I give the cigar a regular puff it stays lit. Smoke production also seems to drop off just a bit in this section, though in retrospect the cigar never put off a lot of smoke, so the change isn’t terribly drastic. I don’t pick up a lot of changes here, other than to say that the earthiness moves ever so slightly back into the lead flavor and as such imparts a somewhat mouth-drying sensation. The pepper ebbs and flows a bit, and at times there is some more chalk and now some mineral aspects to the earth. The burn rate continues to slow in the final third, reaching a point where the draw feels labored and the burn line seems to barely move following each puff. This portion wraps up at medium in flavor, medium in body and mild in strength. Were it not for the draw and combustion rate issues, this cigar would be flawless in construction.

Final Notes

• The ash on the Black Works Studio Killer Bee Shaolin was quite impressive, which builds up well over an inch in length, hanging on with an impressive grip.
• I also have to give the Fábrica Oveja Negra team credit for creating these cigars so well. While there is a lot going on visually, those aspects don’t seem to affect the way the cigar smokes.
• Barber pole cigars like this are a great way to not only see how a cigar wrapper is applied, but a reminder that there are what I have heard referred to as right-handed and left-handed halves of leaves. If you look at the box photo, you will see that the stripes go in both directions, which is the byproduct of which half of the leaf was used to create a particular cigar.
• When I hear the word Shaolin, the first thing that comes to mind is the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan, who seemingly brought the word into the lexicons of a number of early 1990s hip-hop fans with their debut album, 1993’s “Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers).” The album’s title drew from two martial arts films, “Enter the Dragon” and “The 36th Chamber of Shaolin.”
• Shaolin is a style of kung fu, regarded as the oldest, largest and most well-known styles.
• Black Works Studio’s releases are often stylized as BLK WKS, though we decided to use the full name. That said, you may still find BLK WKS referenced in articles on the site.
• I didn’t find there to be any nicotine strength from the Black Works Studio Killer Bee Shaolin.
• The cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.
• Final smoking time was one hour and 40 minutes on average.
• Site sponsors Atlantic Cigar Co. carries the Black Works Studio Killer Bee Shaolin.