Liga Privada Unico L40 (7 x 40) Cigar

Liga Privada Unico Serie is the home Drew Estate created for its "unique ones" — one-off Liga Privada blends built around a single vitola that could never become stand-alone lines. The L40 is Drew Estate's lancero: the blend was worked on for well over a year, and when it would not come together at the traditional 38 ring gauge an extra leaf was added to take it to 40 — hence "L40." It was unveiled at the 2011 IPCPR trade show and reached retailers late in 2011, packaged in wooden boxes of 15.

Connecticut River Valley Stalk Cut & Cured Habano wrapper over a plantation-grown Brazilian Mata Fina binder and Nicaraguan and Honduran long fillers. Lancero format at a 40 ring gauge rather than the time-honored 38, a size rolled by only one pair of rollers at La Gran Fabrica Drew Estate in Estelí. Box count: 15 cigars.

Cocoa powder, espresso and dry earth lead off, with the slim lancero format concentrating the wrapper's dark sweetness. The middle and final thirds move toward coffee bean, sweet cedar, nuts and leather with hints of citrus and creaminess. Pepper shows up mainly on the retrohale rather than the palate, making the L40 notably less peppery than the No. 9 or T52.