Mil Días Sublime

To borrow a line from Robert Burns’ “To a Mouse,” my best laid plans for this redux went awry.

Those plans started when I read the backstory of the Mil Días line, a cigar created by Crowned Heads in collaboration with Tabacalera Pichardo in Estelí, Nicaragua. The process that led to this cigar began in 2017, when Jon Huber,  co-founder of Crowned Heads, was given some blend samples by Luciano Meirelles and Eradio Pichardo, then co-owners of ACE Prime Cigar and Tabacalera Pichardo. Those samples led the trio on a three-year journey to the finished blend that is Mil Días.

Mil Días gets its name from the length of the journey, roughly three years, or 1,000 days, as the cigars were released in August 2020. The blend features an Ecuadorian habano wrapper over a Nicaraguan binder and fillers from Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Peru.

After debuting in four sizes, limited editions were added in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, while a fifth size, the 4 7/8 x 56 Topes, made its debut at the 2023 PCA Convention & Trade Show and shipped to stores in September.

As for this redux, my plan was to do it as close as possible as 1,000 days after the original review as a tie-in to the name, which worked out to July 17, 2023. Unfortunately, that meant it would have run right during our coverage of the PCA Convention & Trade Show, a time when we’re not writing reviews, and then some oversights with our project management software didn’t get this on the calendar

So, to borrow one more quote about my plans for this redux, this time from Geoffrey Chaucer’s 1386 work “The Yeoman’s Tale,” better late than never.

Here’s what I said about the Mil Días Sublime when I reviewed it in October 2020:

They say good things come to those who wait and that patience is a virtue, both of those sayings seem to be perfectly applicable to the Mil Días blend. The cigar has almost everything I could ask for, with a complex and nuanced flavor profile, a bit of strength, fantastic construction, and a finished cigar that is truly greater than the sum of its parts. While it does have some puffs where there’s a bit more roughness than I would like, they are generally low on the irritation schedule and fleeting in their time on the palate. An incredibly impressive cigar that should easily deliver a very rewarding experience for anyone who gives it the opportunity to shine.

• Cigar Reviewed: Mil Días Sublime
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: Tabacalera Pichardo
• Wrapper: Ecuador (Habano)
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Costa Rica, Nicaragua & Peru
• Length: 6 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 54
• Vitola: Toro Gordo
• MSRP: $11.50 (Box of 20, $230)
• Release Date: September 2020
• Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Redux: 1

Tbe Mil Días Sublime looks great, with the wrapper very evenly colored in a medium-brown shade, while a network of small veins and a visible seam line provide a bit of visual texture. The cylinder is near-perfect from a visual perspective, while a gentle squeeze reveals a firm cigar, though the lower half seems a bit less firm than the upper half. The aroma of the foot reminds me of Cheerios, or more specifically, what I would imagine the pre-baked dough used to make Cheerios would smell like. The cold draw is smooth but not loose, and it has a slightly oily texture at first draw. That fades and I get notes of dry tea leaves with a bit of sweetness and then something that tingles my taste buds and the back of my throat in a pepper-like way but doesn’t come across as black pepper.

While I can’t quite figure out the pepper-like sensation on the cold draw, the first puffs have a good amount of black pepper for my palate and nose. It’s a very enjoyable first couple of puffs that lead into a slightly lighter expression of what I would describe as typical habano-seed tobacco flavors, with the woodiness a bit lighter and less prominent than I’ve tasted in other habano-wrapped blends. The supporting flavors keep calling me back to the tea flavors I picked up before lighting the cigar, as they are aromatic, slightly sweet, and definitely unique with some floral-esque qualities. There are some fleeting moments of creaminess, but they are only minor contributors to the overall experience. Flavor is a vibrant medium-plus, body is medium at most, and strength has been mild but picked up a bit just ahead of the midway point. Construction has been nearly flawless, with my only note being that the ash tends to drop off in inch-long chunks without much provocation.

The second half starts with a fairly abrupt change to the profile, as all those tea-like complementary flavors fall away and a more traditional habano-seed flavor profile emerges, with a pointed and direct black pepper leading the way, dry lumber behind that, and then a few touches of light earthiness bringing up the rear. It’s only a handful of puffs when the profile changes yet again, with some fairly thick creaminess coming into the profile and thickening up the body of the smoke as well. From there, the flavor takes on the progression of the second half of a roller coaster; the big changes seem to be behind me, yet the track dips and curves through everything the profile has offered to this point, dialing the pepper up and back, curving into and out of creaminess, all while keeping the profile balanced and on-track. The pepper gets just a bit rough in the final two inches, though never to a point where I’d think about putting the cigar down early. Taking it to the end takes me to just shy of the three-hour mark, with the flavor finishing medium-full, the body is medium-plus, and strength is medium-minus. Construction is very good, though I do find myself needing to relight the cigar twice in the second half. The smoke production, draw and burn line are all very good.