Acid Subculture Progeny, a Famous Smoke Shop Exclusive

By Jeremy Hensley | May 27, 2016

The Acid Subculture Progeny by Drew Estate is a single vitola exclusive to Famous Smoke Shop in Easton, PA. This 5 1/2 by 46 Cuban Corona is not only part of the infused Acid brand, but also part of Drew Estate’s Subculture series. From Drew Estate’s website: 

Subculture blends are born from the ultimate expression of craft and art. These limited edition cigars are granted to only the most deserving and devout retailers across the nation who spread our call. Each Subculture is one onto it’s own, so seek them out and be rewarded with the fruits of our labor of love, creating the most fantastic cigars the world has ever seen.

You can find a listing of Subculture cigars HERE.

Cory Grover, Digital PR Specialist over at Famous, provided some additional background on their Acid Subculture cigars:

Only premium cigar retailers that have been appointed expressly by Drew Estate can stock ACID Subculture cigars, and each Subculture blend is created specifically for their appointed retailers respectively. Famous is lucky enough to have 3 Acid Subculture cigars (Progeny, Mantra, and Tri-Borough)  Before we were able to carry this cigar some of our team members visited the Drew Estate in Eseli to work with JD and his team to blend this cigar. Testing out various different cigars that have been produced using Drew Estates unique infusion process to come up with the Famous Exclusive Acid Subculture line.

The Progeny is an infused cigar featuring a Mexican San Andres wrapper over undisclosed binder and filler tobaccos with an additional year of aging.

You can purchase the Acid Subculture Progeny from our good friends at Famous Smoke Shop. 

The Facts

Samples Provided by Famous Smoke Shop
Price: $5.96 per single | $22.99 per 5-pack | $45.99 per 10-pack | $109.99 per box of 24
Vitola: Cuban Corona
Size: 5 ½ by 46
Wrapper: Mexican San Andres
Binder: Unknown
Filler: Unknown
Smoke Time: 1 Hour and 15 Minutes

Pre-light

Acid Progeny is dressed in a light to medium brown wrapper with a greenish hue that has a flat appearance. There is an extremely fine tooth along the bumpy leaf that is full of small veins webbing all over the place. You don’t even have to get the cigar close to your nose before the potent aromas greet you. Big aromas of clove, cinnamon, and sugarcane are found on the wrapper. The closed foot hides any aromas the filler tobaccos might have brought to the table.

 The cold draw is much more toned down than you would expect, but still full flavored. A straight-up potpourri, berry, and cedar is on the dry draw. Licking my lips, I find a sweetened cap applied to the cigar.

First Third

An infused clove, cinnamon and floral flavor is up front in the profile, but closely behind are the more traditional flavors of pine and earth. There is not a whole lot of sweetness in the profile, but a licking my lips every few puffs solves that problem. A spice leaves a lingering heat at the back of my throat. As the Acid Progeny burns along evenly, a white, toothy ash is being formed.

Middle Third

As I burn farther into the cigar, the light colored ash is now flaky with pieces dropping all of my keyboard. I don’t know if my palate has adjusted to the infused favors, but I am having a harder time pinpointing them in the profile as they mesh with the other flavors. The spice is now jalapeno-like, but the heat remains level with earlier. The finish has a bitterness to it, but not off-putting and easily countered by taking softer/shorter draws.. The burn is off track as I close out the second third of the Acid Subculture Progeny.

Final Third

As I moved into the final third of the Acid Subculture Progeny, the bitterness is no longer constrained but pushing off the clove, floral, pine, and earth. After a few minutes, the profile rounds out again. Woodsy notes are heavy as I push the smoke through my nose accompanied with a decent amount of pepper. The profile is much more meaty than it was early. The ash continues to drop and the burn self-corrected for a bit, but finally required a touch-up so I could get a few more minutes out of the cigar.  

Wrap-up

I am a complete newbie when it comes to Acid cigars so I have really nothing to base this cigar on other than the experience itself provided. From the time you remove the cigar from the cellophane all the way to the very nub, you don’t forget you are smoking a flavored/infused cigars, but at the same time the flavors in the Acid Subculture Progeny never become tiresome. The Progeny edges on full in the flavor department throughout the entire cigar with the strength never topping medium. Overall, the cigar delivered a nice combination of infused and traditional flavors that worked well for the most part. At times, the bitterness took the show, but never long enough to take away from the cigar as a whole. The cap was a little too sweet for my taste, so I attempted to smoke the cigar as dry as possible. However, the sweetened cap also helped out when the bitterness would creep in. Performance wise, the smoke production was satisfying, ash flaky, and burn wavy. I am not sure how other Acid cigars smoke, but if you are looking for a more manly infused cigar, the Acid Subculture Progeny may be the way to go.