Knuckle Sandwich Chef’s Special

If you had told me on Jan. 1, 2022 that Guy Fieri, the Food Network star, was going to enter the cigar market, I wouldn’t have been that surprised. We’ve seen other celebrities get involved with their own cigar lines and ever since George Clooney—along with Rande Gerber and Mike Meldman—sold the tequila brand Casamigos for up to $1 billion, I’ve heard that more celebrities have poked around at having their own cigars. Additionally, I’ve heard that Fieri is a cigar smoker and so, it only seemed natural.

That said, I would have guessed that the cigar would have been done in some way with Room101 as Fieri and Matt Booth, Room101’s founder, are longtime friends.

But during the first week of last January, word got out that Espinosa Premium Cigars would be teaming up with Fieri for Knuckle Sandwich Cigars.

In late February, the debut blends appeared. Like many other Espinosa cigars, the Knuckle Sandwich Habano and Maduro are made at AJ Fernandez’s San Lotano Factory in Ocatal, Nicaragua. Both blends used a Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan fillers, while the wrappers were either habano or Sumatra from Ecuador.

At this year’s PCA Convention & Trade Show, during which Fieri made an appearance, the first limited edition was announced, Knuckle Sandwich Chef’s Special. It’s a 6 1/2 x 52 box-pressed figurado offered in a different blend: Ecuadorian habano rosado wrapper over a Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan fillers.

• Cigar Reviewed: Knuckle Sandwich Chef's Special
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: San Lotano Factory
• Wrapper: Ecuador (Habano Rosado)
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Nicaragua
• Length: 6 1/2 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 52
• Vitola: Perfecto
• MSRP: $12.50 (Box of 10, $125)
• Release Date: 2022
• Number of Cigars Released: 2,500 Boxes of 10 Cigars (25,000 Total Cigars)
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

This is a box-pressed figurado with more prominent angles than say an Oliva Serie V Melanio Figurado or Padrón Family Reserve 80. Unfortunately, I seem to have lost my notes of what the cigar smelled like when it was freshly removed from cellophane. After the cigar has been stored without cellophane, the oily wrapper has an aroma that smells of Spanish cedar, the aroma of tobacco sweating in an aging room, and some cocoa. The foot doesn’t really offer much difference, though there are hints of pepper. On two cigars, I find the cold draw to be surprisingly open for this size, though the other one is more predictable. I can still smell the tobacco-sweating smell that I associate with strength, but I don’t taste any pepper. Instead, there’s a lot of cocoa over some sweet peaches, grapes and a muddy earthiness.

In complete contrast to the cold draw’s resistance, the first puff of the Chef’s Special is extremely tight. There’s a surprising amount of fruitiness joined by earthiness—both generic and the more terror-like one—black pepper and cocoa. The first third is led by an earthiness that is infused with red pepper, acorns, toastiness and some more of that tobacco-sweating flavor. The end result is a profile that makes no attempt to hide the strength. Bitter cocoa, generic wood and unsalted pretzels round out the profile, which is oftentimes dry and toasty. I can taste the different pepper sensations in different parts of my mouth—burnt black pepper and red pepper—though neither stays consistently in one place. Underneath all of that is a flavor that reminds me a bit of the taste of sugar dumped into water, and some leather. The finish has cedar, leather and a muddy terroir flavor. The toastiness disappears, but the end result is that the profile turns more bitter. Retrohales have toastiness and acorns edging out leather and some black peppercorn flavors. Once again, there’s an underlying sugar water flavor, though it tapers off during the finish. Speaking of the retrohale’s finish, there’s lots of an intertwined mixture of cedar and pretzel along with some added saltiness, the latter restricted very much to the tongue. During each cigar, I write some version of “the cigar tastes very strong.” And it is strong. Flavor is full, body is full and strength is almost full, though the nicotine isn’t as strong as the flavors would suggest. While the draws get better, I’m not sure they open up to the level that I would have liked, just slightly more restrictive than my sweet spot. My larger frustration is that all three cigars experience cracks on the foot and two cigars have parts of their caps unraveling. While I don’t deduct points for any of that, I am forced to make a deduction for needing to touch-up one cigar before the first third comes to an end.

As the Knuckle Sandwich Chef’s Special continues on the toastiness dissipates, which helps to allow other flavors to emerge. There should be no confusion, the second third is still led by the earthiness and there’s still a very noticeable and more intense red pepper, but the decreased toastiness changes the profile quite a bit. Other flavors include lots of dough-like sensations, at times more pizza dough, other times more white cracker-like. Some of that probably has to do with the tertiary flavors accenting things, a list that includes milky creaminess, sesame seeds and dry pasta. Everything is very intertwined, which makes it difficult to keep track of. Red pepper and sugar cookies lead the finish before herbal flavors and dry crackers take over and linger until I take the next puff. That is all very dependent on the red pepper, which is inconsistent from puff to puff during the finish. Retrohales provide an immediate reminder that the red pepper is back, but it doesn’t have the vibrant flavors like before. It mixed with some herbal flavors, which can present it more like cinnamon, though I’m pretty sure it’s a red pepper flake flavor that I’m tasting, albeit mostly on the tongue after taking a retrohale. Once the finish kicks in, black pepper joins the red pepper and there’s an emerging pasta water flavor. There’s less going on during the retrohales but the flavors are more pronounced, which makes it a lot easier for me to identify the flavors. Flavor is full, body is full and strength is full. All three cigars struggle with burn issues. My largest issue is that the smoke production declines to the point where I’m concerned that the cigar might go out, but the burn line is wavy and contributes to it. Oftentimes I find myself looking at the foot of the cigar and seeing some bright cherry red indications that part of the cigar is lit, while the other side of the cigar appears to have almost stopped combusting.

Perhaps more than any other cigar I’ve smoked recently, the transition between the second and final thirds of the Chef’s Special is very pronounced. At some point during each cigar, I realize there’s just no more red pepper. A mushy nuttiness joins the dough sensations as the strongest flavors. Like before, the profile is very intertwined and the long list of secondary flavors include earthiness, burnt herbs, mild ground black pepper, white pepper, yellow mustard and some oak. Cedar emerges right as the finish seems to start and leads the transition, joined by some less burnt herbal flavors and black pepper. Retrohales have burnt back pepper followed by sawdust, a mushy nuttiness and a peanut butter cookie-like sweetness. The finish is pretty similar though the woody flavors—sawdust, oak and cedar—pick up a lot. Flavor is full, body is full and strength finishes either medium-full or full. Like the second third, I’m regularly needing to use the lighter to help get the cigar to the finish line without going out, though one cigar goes out completely.

Final Notes

• The Knuckle Sandwich Connecticut has started landing in stores this week.
• During the tail end of 2022, I made note of how I found a substantially increased amount of cigars that had caps unraveling. I switched my cutter to a new Fox Knives 749 cutter and have found the cap issues to be reduced. I’m unsure if that’s because of the cigars or the cutter change, but it didn’t help here.

• I’m not sure why each of the cigars had issues cracking near the foot once lit, but it was a consistent theme. I certainly took extra care in lighting the second and third cigars to see if the first one was user error, but that didn’t seem to fix it.
• One other minor construction annoyance: the ash. I found that it wanted to fall off before getting to the one-inch mark. I am not trying to do a long ash contest while smoking these cigars for review, but some cigars can easily build more than an inch of ash, and cigars like this one when it’s falling off in much smaller clumps.
• For the purposes of the score, the real issue was the combustion. It wasn’t the worst example, but over the course of nine thirds—three cigars have three thirds each—I made at least one correction during seven of them.
• This tastes like a strong cigar and is a pretty strong cigar, albeit not one that ever sent my head spinning. That said, if you can get through it and keep smoking the cigar, I found that the flavors were still very good at the point where the cigar’s nub was about an inch long. A lot of times cigars get very harsh at that point, but this one didn’t.
• I’ve heard Fieri described as basically the apex predator of television talent in the sense that he produces timeless content. You can watch clips from Diner’s, Drive-Ins and Dives from a dozen years ago and outside of the lack of HD video, the content seems perfectly recent. It’s also an easy-to-follow, easy-to-watch, easy-to-listen-to and also an upbeat show.
• Both Erik Espinosa and Matt Booth have appeared in episodes of Diner’s, Drive-Ins and Dives as some of the restaurant patrons that get interviewed. It’s made me wonder how many of the guest interview segments of the shows are actually done by random people.
• Don’t let the next paragraph fool you. Nachos are one of my favorite guilty pleasure foods and I very much want to try to trash can nachos.
• Final smoking time averaged two hours and 45 minutes.
• Site sponsors Atlantic Cigar Co., Cigar Hustler, Cigars Direct and Corona Cigar Co. carry the Knuckle Sandwich Chef’s Special.