Liga Privada Unico Dirty Rat (5 x 44) Cigar

The Liga Privada Único Serie is Drew Estate's "one blend, one size" program — cigars that work as one particular vitola, with the blend unique to that format — and the Dirty Rat (Rata Sucia) is the cigar that started it, announced at the 2010 IPCPR show as the first release in the series. Blended by Nicholas Melillo using a five-fillers-in-a-corona technique he developed himself, it was made in small batches from early 2009 purely for Drew Estate's own consumption and to share with friends before demand pushed it into the market. Then-president Steve Saka described it as his reflection of the greatest Cuban-made coronas he had ever enjoyed, and it has never been a limited release — just produced in small batches for as long as the market wants it.

A Connecticut River Valley stalk-cut and cured sun-grown Habano wrapper — the same leaf used on Liga Privada T52, dark enough that it is routinely mistaken for Broadleaf — over a plantation-grown Brazilian Mata Fina binder and five separate Nicaraguan and Honduran long-fillers, seven tobaccos in all. The difficulty of hand-bunching that five-filler recipe into a corona is the reason the cigar costs what it does. Handmade at La Gran Fabrica Drew Estate in Estelí, Nicaragua, and finished with a fan-twist pigtail cap. Corona format, 5 x 44. Box count: 12 cigars.

A spicier, more peppery turn on the Liga Privada formula — black pepper and savory spice lead off, then settle into espresso, dark cocoa, leather and earth. Sweet cedar, cinnamon and a touch of molasses sweetness fill in behind, and the smoke is famously thick and chewy for a cigar this size, closing on a long peppery finish.

Pair it with a rye whiskey or a peaty Scotch, or with a strong espresso.