Cigar Reviews
Drew Estate – The Pope of Greenwich Village – Smoke Inn Microblend Series
As we start to venture into 100 degree weather, I started to venture out back with a Drew Estate Pope of Greenwich in one hand and a Deschutes The Abyss in the other.
The Good Stuff:
By now you should all be familiar with Smoke Inn’s Microblend Series. In case you have been living under a rock for the past few years, Abe Dababneh, Owner of Smoke Inn cigars has teamed up with some of the cigar industry’s leading manufacturers to create exclusive releases which are only sold at Smoke Inn Stores. We’ve been lucky enough to smoke or review each and every one of these:
- Tatuaje Anarchy
- Padron 1964 Anniversary SI 15
- My Father El Hijo
- Aturo Fuente Solaris
- Tatuaje Apocalypse
- Room 101 Big Delicious
- Quesada Oktoberfest Dunkel
- 601 La Bomba Bunker Buster
- Illusione Pactum
The newest addition to the Smoke Inn Microblend Series is the Drew Estate Pope of Greenwich Village. The name Pope of Greenwich Village comes from the title of a movie with he same name which takes place in New York, the city in which Drew Estate’s founders Jonathan Drew, and Marvin Samel come from. The Pope of Greenwich features a Mexican San Andres wrapper, Connecticut Stalk Cut Habano binder, and Nicaraguan / Brazilian Mata Fina fillers. The blend sounds very similar to what you find in Drew Estate’s Undercrown series. The cigar is offered in one single format, a 6 x 40 panatela with comes packaged in bundles of 10 running $8.50 per cigar. As of now, you can pre-order these cigars from Smoke Inn’s website as they are expected to start shipping this week. Word to the wise, as with all the other Microblend Series, these are limited runs so if you enjoy the cigar, grab as many as you can while they are still available.
Size: 6 x 40
Wrapper: Mexican San Andres
Binder: Connecticut Stalk Cut Habano
Filler: Nicaraguan / Brazilian Mata Fina
Body: Medium/Full
Strength: Medium
Price: $8.50
Pairing: Deschutes The Abyss (Imperial Stout 11% ABV)
Prelight:
The Drew Estate Pope of Greenwich Village starts out with an impressively dark brown wrapper. The wrapper is pretty consistent in color with some almost black areas spread throughout the webbing of the leaf. The long, slender cigar body features a few very subtle veins while it showcases it’s rugged appearance. The texture is very, very toothy with some slight oils while the wrapper and body of the cigar remain extremely firm. The cigar is finished off with an absolutely seamless, round, double cap and a very modest maroon band with the title “The Pope of Greenwich Village” as well as a very small Drew Estate logo embossed in gold metallic ink.
The wrapper of the cigars boats some very strong sweetness, cedar, and chocolate while the foot of the cigar carries some soft spice and more natural aromas. The cap cut clean and easy using my Palio double bladed cutter. The cold draw produced some soft cherry, chocolate, and grainy flavors.
First Third:
The Drew Estate Pope of Greenwich Village starts out with a nice little black pepper blast which quickly fades into a soft spice mashed up with some black cherry, deep cedar, brown sugar, cocoa, and natural tobacco flavors. The draw is perfect. Each puff kicks out a great deal of thick smoke. The cigar kicks out a ton of stationary smoke as it rests in my ashtray. The burn line is razor thin and dead even leaving behind a trail of compacted white and light gray ash which only held on for about a quarter of an inch before falling into my lap. Sorry about not getting a picture of the first ash before it fell, it was a bit unexpected.
Second Third:
Into the second third of the Drew Estate Pope of Greenwich Village and the flavors remain nice a bold leading with the black cherry and cedar backed by cocoa, natural tobacco, and some nice black licorice that has snuck it’s way in. The retrohale is really smooth and filled with chocolate, licorice, and spice. The burn line is still dead even while the ash has been falling quite often, so be prepared for it. I close out the second third with no nicotine kick whatsoever.
Finish:
Into the final third of the Drew Estate Pope of Greenwich Village and the flavors are still holding in there. The black licorice has really ramped up and is competing with the cedar for the top spot backed by black cherry, spice, and cocoa. The burn has been flawless and never once required any extra attention from my torch. It took me about an hour and fifteen minutes to smoke this cigar down to the nub and I experience only some light harshness into the final inch while the cigar left me with absolutely nothing in the nicotine department.
Overview:
It’s funny, the first time I smoked this cigar, even before I knew what the blend consisted of I thought to myself “This is basically an Undercrown Viva! Hybrid.” Here I am, smoking the cigar, thinking the exact same thing. But that’s not a bad thing. I am a huge fan of the Viva! and a huge fan of the panatela formats and I really enjoyed everything the Pope of Greenwich had to offer. It’s got some great bold flavors with a more medium strength level resulting in a smooth, relaxing experience at a great price. I highly recommend this cigar if you are a fan of flavorful, milder cigars of if you are into Drew Estate’s Undercrown series at all. Get them while you can.
Pairing:
Although this beer is usually better served in the winter, I couldn’t help but break out a bottle for this pairing as I knew it was perfect. Deschutes’ The Abyss is an 11% ABV Imperial stout from Bend, Oregon. It’s not your run of the mill stout though as its brewed with a slew of items such a Black Strap molasses, licorice, cherry bark and vanilla with 6% of the beer aged in oak bourbon barrels, 11% aged in oak barrels, and 11% aged in oak wine barrels. Do I have your attention now? This monster of a beer leads with strong malt, bourbon, booze, and vanilla with a very heavy mouthfeel before finishing with some strong black licorice, more booze, cocoa, and cherry. I told you it was a perfect paring.
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