Cigar Preview: CLE Connecticut

Toro, 6” x 50 / MSRP ?
It didn’t take long for Christian Eiroa to expand the line-up of his new CLE brand. The Corojo and Cuarenta made their debuts in July of this year. The first I heard of the Connecticut was in late September, and..Bang!...I got one put in my hands last week while I was at Burns in Chattanooga. Matt Shugart, one of the sales reps...but not OUR sales rep, as it turns out...was hanging out at Burns and gave me one of these to sample. I figured I would burn it Sunday afternoon while I was trying to catch up on a little work. Instead of a full review, I decided to give this one the “cigar preview” treatment. Thanks, Matt, for letting me have an "early look" at this new release.

From what has been published and what was told me by Matt, these are Honduran filler and binder with an Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper. The wrapper looked good, but there were a couple greenish spots on it. The cigar felt fairly light in my hand, too...lighter than other cigars of the same approximate size that I’ve smoked lately. Call the band peach or salmon...I still find the color a little odd, but maybe it will grow on me. It is “vintage dated” like the other CLE smokes have been. I like this idea and hope they continue to do it year after year. It will seriously make dating smokes easier after 4 or 5 years have gone by: “What batch is that?” “Gee, I don’t know...I can’t remember when I bought them.” “Just look on the band, the year is printed on all of them!” “Cool!”

The aroma of the wrapper was mild and hay-like; the foot had a little earth and a bit of cedar...and some additional grassiness. The prelight draw was a subtle, mild mix of natural tobacco and hay. Once lit up, I got more of the hay and some cedar, but just a little earthiness and the barest hint of spice on the nose. There was a bit of coffee bitterness on the tip of my tongue (even before my first sip of the coffee I decided to pair this with) and a bit of tobacco sweetness to balance it out...but so far not enough sweetness to truly provide balance.

As I got into the second third of the CLE Connecticut, I realized that this might be one of those cigars that just “wasn’t made for me.” It’s not that it was bad. For the most part the flavors were “standard mild cigar”: hay, creamy coffee, maybe a little citrus. It just seemed like nothing stood out to me. The body was quite mild and there was no strength to speak of. This could be a very good cigar for a beginning smoker for those reasons...and because the price tag appears that it will be very reasonable (I was only able to find some online retailer pricing).

My final thought on this is this: the CLE Connecticut seems to be a "traditional" Connecticut in a market that has been flooded recently by "new breed" Connecticuts. Because of its more traditional body and flavor profile, it was not something that hit my taste receptors just right...but there are a lot of folks out there who might find this a step (or 5 steps) up from the typical mild bundle cigars out there.