Drew Estate Liga Privada H99 Connecticut Corojo

By Tony Casas | April 11, 2023

Today’s review is another one that has been on my radar for sometime but I just hadn’t had any luck getting my hands on until now. Today I take a look at Drew Estate’s Liga Privada H99 Connecticut Corojo.

The Good Stuff:

The Liga Privada H99 Connecticut Corojo is the first regular production addition to the Liga Privada line since 2009. The blend starts with a Corojo seed leaf that is grown right here in the U.S. in the Connecticut River Valley over a Mexican Sand Andres binder and fillers from Pennsylvania, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The Liga Privada H99 Connecticut Corojo comes in a single 6 x 52 toro format packaged in boxes of 24 running $15.99 per cigar. I scored mine over from our good friends Cuenca Cigars who still have a few singles in stock currently.

• Size: 6 x 52
• Wrapper: Connecticut Corojo
• Binder: Mexican San Andres Otapan
• Filler: Pennsylvanian, Honduran, Nicaraguan
• Body: Medium/Full
• Strength: Full
• Price: $15.99

Prelight:

While is uses a different wrapper leaf the Liga Privada H99 Connecticut Corojo starts out with an awesome orangish brown wrapper that resembles the T52. The wrapper’s texture is very toothy and gritty while it’s coated in a ton of thick oils. The wrapper itself is very hard an dense while the cigar as a whole is very tight and heavy with no give anywhere. There are some smaller veins leading up to the cigar’s round, double-wrapped cap. The cigar is then polished off with the standard manilla Liga Privada band with the H99 crest in copper in brown similar to the T52.

The wrapper on the Liga Privada H99 Connecticut Corojo gives off notes of deep cigar and spice with a bit or floral while the foot of the cigar is mostly cedar with natural tobacco scents and a touch of spice. The cap took a little convincing from the Xikar XO double bladed cutter to clip since it was so thick. The cold draw proceeds notes of heavy cinnamon and nutmeg over musk. It reminds me of Christmas morning.

First Third:

The Liga Privada H99 Connecticut Corojo starts out with a huge burst of cayenne pepper that left my lips and tongue screaming. After the first few draws the pepper began to fade and I am left with a mostly cedar flavor profile with lighter notes of spice, dirt, and musk with hints of brown sugar and raspberry herbal tea. I was hoping that more of those Christmasy cold draw notes would shine through. The draw is perfect as every little puff kicks out huge clouds of white smoke which seem to never go away while the cigar releases a chimney of stationary smoke while it rests in my ashtray. The burn line is super sharp and pretty even leaving behind a very tightly compacted trail of white ash which held on for an inch before falling into my ashtray.

Second Third:

Into the second third of the Liga Privada H99 Connecticut Corojo the mossy, earthy, musky, dirt notes really take hold of the experience while the sweetness has all but tapered off. The retrohale coats my nasal passage with spice and pepper so I don’t find myself doing it too often. The burn line has become a bit wild and I found myself having to use my torch to touch it up a few times. I close out the second third with a pretty significant nicotine hit which puts the H99 up there in strength with most other Liga Privada blends.

Finish:

The final third of the Liga Privada H99 Connecticut Corojo reports much of the same in terms of flavor profile. I was hoping things would switch up a bit but the main flavors are cedar, dirt, and musk over a very light cinnamon. I had to touch up the cigar a few times into the final third as well, however it wasn’t anything too significant. Just worth mentioning. It took me an hour and forty five minutes to smoke the H99 down to the nub. Outside of the burn issues I experienced no harshness nor extended heat. The cigar did leave me with a pretty heft bit of nicotine kick.

Overview:

I was really excited to finally get my hands on the Liga Privada H99 Connecticut Corojo for two main reasons. First, I am admittedly a huge fan of the Liga Privada blends and that’s no secret. Secondly, I LOVE corona. While this is a great cigar, I feel like it didn’t fully satisfy either of those marks. The altered blend just didn’t live up to the experience that I had with any other Liga Privada blends in the past. The corojo just didn’t mesh well and the result was a good cigar, but nothing special which is one of the things I like most about the Liga Privada experiences. They are always special. Couple that with the rarity of this cigar and I don’t think it’s something I would have in my regular rotation. It’s worth picking up a few to try, but not something I’d really keep on hand.