Blackbird Crow Box Pressed

For the most part, cigar companies will either sell a particular blend in a round format or a box-pressed. Sometimes, a particular vitola might get box-pressed and there are rarer cases when blends might get box-pressed for limited purposes. However, the concept of offering the same cigar—blend, dimensions, brand—in both round and box-pressed formats is rare.

I suspect the main reason companies avoid doing this is to avoid commercial headaches. Making both a round and box-pressed version of the same blend is probably easier than making two different blends. For the most part, I imagine you could probably use the exact same packaging and it’s not like keeping both versions in stock would be any more challenging than if the two SKUs were separate blends. However, there would likely be repeated confusion from both retailers and consumers when they buy a round version one time and then purchase the product again, only to find themselves with a box-pressed version.

Given that intro, it should be clear that this is a review of one of those exceptions, or at least close to it.

The Crow is one of Blackbrid’s core lines, offered in three round sizes. Earlier this year, Smokingpipes.com—part of Laudisi Enterprises, the same group that owns Caldwell Cigar Co.—began selling the Blackbird Crow Box Pressed. It’s a 6 x 52 toro that uses the same blend as the other three vitolas but is box-pressed. Of note, the round Crow Gran Toro is 6 x 54, meaning this isn’t the exact same size.

This is not an exclusive for Smokingpipes. The plan was to ship the cigar to other stores in October, though I don’t see any evidence that the shipment happened.

• Cigar Reviewed: Blackbird Crow Box Pressed
• Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
• Factory: Blackbird Dominicana
• Wrapper: Mexico (San Andrés)
• Binder: Dominican Republic (Habano)
• Filler: Nicaragua & U.S.A. (Pennsylvania)
• Length: 6 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 52
• Shape: Pressed
• MSRP: $12.72 (Box of 20, $254.40)
• Release Date: August 2024
• Number of Cigars Released: 600 Boxes of 20 Cigars (12,000 Total Cigars)
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

The large and bright red bands probably make this wrapper appear slightly darker than it actually is. Given how dark it is, I’m not surprised by the mottling on the wrapper, though the texture is softer than the cigar appears. These days, I try to smell the cigars before they get weighed and measured as I find the initial removal from cellophane provides me with the best chance to pick up as much aroma as possible. Given that this review was assigned to Brooks but then later assigned to me, I don’t get that chance here. When I smell the cigars, the aromas are more medium-plus with the first cigar offering some barnyard over brown rice and mild sweetness, the other two cigars are led by a ketchup smell with sweet leather and roasted meat scents behind them. The aroma from the feet is strong with a semi-sweet flavor—typically chocolate, but the third cigar has more raisin—over leather and some other dried fruits. The first cigar has great resistance on the cold draw and a balanced profile of plain bagels, dried cranberry, leather and corn, around medium-full. The second and third cigars have a slightly open draw with brownie batter, tomato sauce leather, white pepper and some sweet fruit at the end, also around medium-full.

While the first cigar’s cold draw wasn’t open, all three Blackbird Crow Box Pressed cigars have a draw that is too open for my liking on the first puff. That produces less smoke than I’d like and makes me concerned about what’s about to come. Flavor-wise, it’s toastier than I was anticipating with woodiness, leather, sesame seed and a touch of pepper. An earthiness, accented by sharpness and toastiness, quickly takes over. It’s a familiar flavor, one that I find semi-regularly in cigars that have combustion issues. That earthiness is joined by black pepper, herbs, creaminess and a mild Dr. Pepper-like sweetness. The finish is far more interesting with stale white crackers over some leather, creaminess, white pepper and cantaloupe. Retrohales vary in flavor but are consistent in that they are much richer than the mouth flavor. One cigar has a flavor that reminds me of pork-based charcuterie with secondary flavors of earthiness, creaminess, black pepper and some lemon; another cigar is sweeter with bread flavors leading nuttiness and leather. There’s not a ton of change during the finish, though one cigar has this unique hay-like sensation, something that is so distinct from the other parts of the cigar that it serves as a bit of a reset and seems to cleanse the palate, even if that’s not really how the science works. Flavor is full, body is medium-plus and strength is medium. While the draw resistances are great and I avoid having to touch up any of the cigars, construction could be better. Most puffs never seem to produce the desired smoke production and I feel like the cigar’s not burning right inside, though can’t identify why.

The second third confirms my suspicions that the Blackbird Crow Box Pressed’s combustion was not proper. Each cigar needs at least one touch-up to help with declining smoke production, though there’s also some burn line issues. While the combustion issues are consistent, the flavors are not. The first cigar has a much lighter profile with some generic crackers leading leather, creaminess and a very mild black pepper. The second cigar is much heartier with a woody flavor leading peanuts and some burnt flavors that remind me of bits of char from a grill. Then there’s the third cigar, which is a lot drier than the other two. The individual flavor intensities are much more balanced, though it’s probably not for the better: leather, earthiness, dry stray, some saltiness and a touch of nutmeg. The finish of each cigar tends to get drier and spicier, though more dry than spicy. When it comes to the retrohale, the first Blackbird Crow Box Pressed continues to be an outlier. It’s got a floral flavor over some berry sweetness and creaminess, though it’s not all that sweet. The other two cigars are pretty similar with dry leather leading sesame seeds, generic dough, black pepper and a touch of caramel. While there are some key differences, the finishes share a lot of the same traits: they get spicier, largely thanks to a horseradish-like burn. Secondary notes aren’t consistent between the three cigars with dry bread, minerals, grass, leather and caramel apples showing up in my notes. While each cigar struggles with combustion, the final cigar is noticeably worse than the other two.

It seems like the repeated touch-ups have taken their toll and each cigar is drier and sharper than before. The first cigar is the most noticeable example of this because of the contrast between how the cigar tasted in the middle section versus now, when a bitter toastiness leads white pepper, barnyard and some sourness. I think the second Blackbird Crow Box Pressed has the most intense version of the profile, again dry earthiness, though more saltiness than sourness and with a similar amount of white pepper. The final cigar has a strong enough leather flavor to challenge the toastiness for the top spot, but the end result is still quite dry and toasty. The finish provides more creaminess—reminding me of a burnt roux or even Ritz crackers—but the saltiness picks up even more. Fortunately, retrohales are still pretty enjoyable. It’s also the area where the first cigar continues to show how it’s different: there’s some fruitiness, unsweet floral flavors, hay and a small amount of leather. The other two cigars have nuttiness overtop some poultry, creaminess, sesame seeds and leather. All three cigars get more metallic as time goes on, though it’s a small and typically limited part of the experience. Flavor is full, body is medium-full and strength is medium-plus for the first two cigars, though medium-full for the final cigar. Touch-ups are a regular part of the experience, but I also make deductions for the draw of the first cigar, which has tightened up and made it very difficult to get any smoke.

Final Notes

• Brooks, Patrick and I take slightly different approaches to how we write our cigar reviews. For me, these paragraphs will typically start with a conversation about flavor and then end with thoughts on construction. It’s typically a bad sign when one of these paragraphs goes in reverse order, it’s not great when multiple paragraphs have that ordering.
• While these could be related to how the cigar was blended or how the tobacco was processed or even how the cigars were aged, the most likely scenario is that something is off when it comes to bunching.
• Blackbird says that it might increase production of the Crow Box Pressed next year to 1,000 boxes compared to the 2024 release of 600 boxes.
• While far from the company’s most intricate designs, I’m a big fan of the packaging from Blackbird. It leans into an approach established by Davidoff’s 2013 rebrand of Camacho, though with its own bird-theme twists.
• I’ve smoked the regular version of the Crow, but not for review and therefore am unable to go back to any notes to tell you what I think of the two. This is purely a guess, but if there were fewer construction issues, I’m guessing that I enjoyed it a lot more.
• Cigars for this review were purchased at halfwheel.

• The cigars are listed as 6 x 52 toros, the above numbers are what I found when measuring and weighing the three cigars that were smoked for reviews. I’m not surprised to see that the first cigar has a slightly different weight than the other two. If there was a cigar that was going to be an outlier, that would be the one.
• While still not great, the final cigar had far fewer touch-ups than the other two. This cigar also burned a lot quicker: two hours and 20 minutes. The first cigar took nearly three hours.
• Site sponsor Smokingpipes carries the Blackbird Crow Toro.