Quick Smoke: Drew Estate MUWAT Kentucky Fire Cured Just a Friend
31 Oct 2015
Each Saturday and Sunday we’ll post a Quick Smoke: not quite a full review, just our brief verdict on a single cigar of “buy,†“hold,†or “sell.â€
Drew Estate extended its My Uzi Weighs a Ton (MUWAT) brand in 2013 with the addition of Kentucky Fire Cured (KFC). A project over two years in the making, KFC is crafted at the Fábrica de Tabacos Joya de Nicaragua using, as Jonathan Drew puts it, “dark fire-cured†tobaccos from a proprietary seed called KY190, Burley. The leaves are cured in a barn under fires of hickory and maple. Just a Friend (6 x 52) is one of seven vitolas. It retails for about $9 and, as you’d expect, exhibits a tremendously unique profile of barbeque sauce, chewy meat, hickory, leather, sweet tobacco, and peat. Though, notably, the taste is more toned-down than the pre-light aromas might lead you to believe. But this is still as close to a love-it-or-hate-it blend as you can get. And my palate doesn’t seem well-suited to the distinctive MUWAT KFC taste.
Verdict = Sell.
photo credit: Stogie Guys
Patrick Ashby
Co-Founder & Editor in Chief
Patrick Semmens
Co-Founder & Publisher
George Edmonson
Tampa Bureau Chief
Cant stand KFC tobacco…makes me nauseous 🙁
Have never cared for flavored cigars.
I’m not sure you can qualify this cigar as “flavored.” I suppose it depends on your definition of the word.
Regarding cigars, I take “flavored” to mean infused with artificial flavors that are not naturally inherent in the tobacco leaves as a result of growing, cultivation, curing, fermentation, etc. In this case, I believe all Drew Estate is doing is introducing smoke from maple and hickory fires that burn under the leaves while they cure. So I wouldn’t consider this process any different than, say, barrel-aging.
Barrel-aging and fire-curing are gimmicks that fall in line very closely to infusion. Call it what you will, it is a flavored cigar, just smell one.
JMAc – I hear what you’re saying. I think calling barrel-aging and fire-curing “gimmicks” certainly carries a negative connotation, though.
While I’m not a fan of KFC, I liked La Aurora’s barrel-aged cigar, and I didn’t really consider that “flavored” – certainly not like Flavours or Acid.
I guess I’m wondering where we draw the line of what’s flavored and what isn’t. Aging cigars in cedar? Barrel-aging? Fire-curing some of the tobaccos in a cigar? Stalk-cutting? Etc. It’s an interesting question. And depending on the course of FDA involvement, it may be an important one.
Imagine barbecue that tastes like tobacco.
I don’t like a cigar ring over the 56 ring size. It’s too hard to keep it lit and I find it not too enjoyable. As for full stgnerh,I would rather have full flavor than a stick that is all power and no flavor. I like a medium stgnerh cigar Bolivar Conf. and some of the Oscuro wrapped Hoyo lines.