A little background
Luxury Cigar Club is a monthly subscription box that provides the highest value per dollar cigars on the market. Each boxes retail value will exceed the monthly subscription cost and will occasionally have freebies or surprises. The Palladium box, reviewed here, ships with 5 premium cigars between the 15th and 21st of each month. The subscription renews on the 25th of each month, but you can pause or skip a shipment at any time. There are no contracts. Just great cigars every month! All of their box offerings and the online store can be found at luxurycigarclub.com.
The Big Payback Connecticut Rubusto by Room 101
Construction
Size – 5” x 50
Wrapper
Ecuadorian
Binder
Dominican
Filler
Dominican
Experience
Bready, cedar, pepper. Pepper fades after light. Smoke is creamy. Coffee notes. Bread goes away in the second third. Cedar sweetness stays, but coffee notes stays present. Cedar and hay on the front. Cedar slides back. Coffee comes forward. Razor burn. Excellent construction.
Pairing
Morning coffee. Buffalo Trace and a nice fire. Gives it a nice berries and cream feel.
MSRP
$6.50
Rating
4.3 out of 5
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Irish Car Bomb Firecracker from United Cigars
Construction
Size – 3” x 50
Wrapper
Dominican and Mexican
Binder
Nicaraguan
Filler
Nicaraguan, Dominican, and USA
Experience
All cream. Baking spices, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Barber pole. Light anise flavor. Cedar moves in. Flavors change quite a bit.
Pairing
A nice espresso or Irish Whisky
MSRP
$6.00
Rating
3.8 out of 5
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Cottontail by Casdagli
Construction
Size – 5” x 52 to 64 taper
Wrapper
Dominican
Binder
Dominican
Filler
Dominican
Experience
Closed foot is always interesting. Note: light closed foot cigars while inhaling. Manufacturer wants you to taste the wrapper leaf as it lights. Earth, cream, a bit of vanilla like a vanilla frosting. Vanilla comes forward, earth moves back. Very fun cigar to smoke because of the taper. Ash holds on tight. Woody sweetness, a bit of a nut flavor late.
Pairing
Fruit heavy, low proof bourbon like Maker’s Mark
MSRP
$16.00
Rating
3.8 out of 5
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Byron 20th Century Mesolongis by United Cigars
Construction
Size – 7 ¼” x 58
Wrapper
Ecuadorian
Binder
Nicaraguan
Filler
Undisclosed
Experience
1/3 – hay, cedar, leather, cream, milk chocolate
2/3 – cedar becomes more prominent. Chocolate and cream subside a little, hay goes away, leather disappears, waxy nut flavor comes in at the end. Earth joins the party in the latter part of the second third
3/3 – earth moves forward. A bitterness creeps on along with some spice.
Pairing
A fancier speyside scotch. Something along the lines of an older Glenlivet or Balvenie.
MSRP
$36.00
Rating
3.4 out of 5
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Aquataine Anthropology by Roma Craft
Construction
Size – 5.75” x 46
Wrapper
Ecuadorian
Binder
Cameroon
Filler
Nicaraguan
Experience
Spice, bread, nutty, coffee, bright cooking spice flavor. Not great. Mediocre. Very bright almost metallic a bit bitter. Could be a bad stick, but definitely not my flavor profile.
Pairing
A high proof, bold whiskey can offset some of the brightness in this cigar. It will help tame some of the bitterness. A black coffee from a diner
MSRP
$8.95
Rating
2.5 out of 5
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In closing
April’s Luxury Cigar Club box really stretched the spectrum. The Aquataine Anthropology, which I will caveat as a potentially bad individual stick, really surprised me by receiving the lowest rating I have given a cigar yet. On the other end of the spectrum the smallest cigar, the Firecracker, and a Connecticut, the Big Payback, shone as really nice cigars. What really had me scratching my head was the Byron. It is the first cigar where I had palate fatigue part way through. The blend is great, but it struggled to keep me interested for the two plus hours it took to smoke it. This is what I like about Luxury Cigar Club. I was able to experience these cigars, some of which I would have never purchased for myself, without worrying about the outcome.
NOTE: The cigars used for this review were provided at no cost courtesy of Luxury Cigar Club. We thank them for the sample and for allowing us to review it with no strings attached.
