22 Minutes to Midnight Connecticut Radiante Toro

Lost&Found

• Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
• Factory: El Maestro
• Wrapper: Undisclosed
• Binder: Undisclosed
• Filler: Undisclosed
• Length: 6 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 52
• Vitola: Toro
• MSRP: $22 (Box of 20, $440)
• Release Date: May 2022
• Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production*
• Original Score: 91

*Officially, this is limited to 4,000 cigars per size per year. Because it’s not a defined limited edition, we classify it as a regular production release.

“A lot of times, I’m drawn to cigars for how great they can be at their best moments, this is a cigar that excels more for how good it is at its worst moments,” is how I closed my review of Lost&Found’s 22 Minutes to Midnight Connecticut Radiante Toro. Given that it finishes the year as one of the Top 5 cigars in halfwheel‘s Top 25, I feel I might have undersold how good it was at its best moments. For me, those appeared in the final third where the texture of the flavors excelled by gaining vibrancy. A secondary nod goes to construction; the cigar was also Top 5 on our list in terms of solely construction scores.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention what this cigar represents for Lost&Found as a project. Launched in 2015 by Tony Bellatto, Robert Caldwell and Jaclyn Sears, Lost&Found had long been one of the most unique cigar businesses in operation. Caldwell would go to factories and ask if they had any unsold cigars that had been sitting around for a while. After he bought them, Sears would create artwork—often relying on the protection of America’s parody laws—and then Bellatto was tasked with selling the cigars.

The nature of this model meant several things. First, most Lost&Found releases were pretty limited because factories try not to keep 50,000 orphaned cigars lying around collecting dust. Second, Lost&Found was likely prevented from rereleasing any of its “cigars” because, once again, factories try not to leave that many cigars lying around. Third, the concept was suspecitble to being knocked off, which it has been, multiple times. Finally, it created a weird situation for us at halfwheel. While we initially reviewed Lost&Found cigars, we eventually decided to stop because it felt weird to review what definitely looked like a Camacho Liberty 2007, only under a different name.

22 Minutes to Midnight marks a turning point for a lot of that. Regarding the last point above, we reviewed it. That’s because this cigar is not simply an old cigar that Caldwell bought from a factory; rather, this blend is one that Lost&Found commissioned for itself and then aged. Caldwell told halfwheel that during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic most factories were cleaned out of any orphaned cigars. As such, it was obvious that Lost&Found was either going to rely on buying and reselling inferior cigars, or it would have to change its model, which it has done.

There are four different 22 Minutes to Midnight blends—two are Caldwell’s of sorts, and two are Bellatto’s of sorts—but Lost&Found has also rebooted several of its previous offerings like One Night Stand, Pepper Cream Soda and Supreme Cream. Some of these cigars are even expected to be more year-round offerings, a decided change for the company once known as Impromptu. — Charlie Minato.