E.P. Carrillo Allegiance

By Tony Casas | February 6, 2023

This weekend reminds me of spring. It’s in the 70’s and smells great. Today I am hanging out back with an E.P. Carrillo Allegiance paired with a can of Firestone Walker’s Parabolita Imperial Stout beer.

The Good Stuff:

The Allegiance is one of the newest offerings from the famed cigar producer/blender E.P. Carrillo. For this blend, Carrillo paired up with Oliva Cigars in Nicaraguan to created the Allegiance. The blend features an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and fillers. The E.P. Carrillo Allegiance comes in four sizes: Sidekick (5 x 50), Confidant (6 x 52), Wingman Corona (6 7/8 x 54) and the Chaperone ( 6 1/4 x 58). The cigar comes package in boxes of 20 ranging between $12 and $14 per stick. I picked mine up from our good friends at Cuenca Cigars who still have quite a few options in stock in both singles and boxes.

• Size: 5 x 50
• Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sumatran
• Binder: Nicaraguan
• Filler: Nicaraguan
• Body: Medium
• Strength: Medium
• Price: $12
• Pairing: Firestone Walker Parabolita (Imperial Stout 9.2% ABV)

Prelight:

The E.P. Carrillo Allegiance starts out with a a deep, dark, milk chocolate brown wrapper that is extremely consistent in color. The wrapper’s texture is toothy and gritty with only a light amount of oils coating it. The wrapper feels very thick and dense while the cigar as a whole it pretty well-packed and heavy. There are some slight veins running their course through the cigar’s soft-box pressed body leading up to the cigar’s round, double wrapped cap. The cigar is polished off with an extravagant green, black and gold E.P. Carrillo crest, a secondary green and gold band with the “Allegiance” logo across the front and a nice, dark green ribbon around the foot.

The wrapper on the E.P. Carrillo Allegiance gives off mostly sweet, and spicy aromas while the foot of the cigar carries more musk and earthiness. The cap cut clean and easily using my Xikar XO double bladed cutter. The cold draw produces heavy milk chocolate and grain flavors.

First Third:

The E.P. Carrillo Allegiance starts out with a heft, unexpected hit of bold pepper which left my lips screaming through the first few puffs. After the pepper faded loads of milk chocolate and caramel over light spice, musk, and pecan came out of the profile. There is a little bit of leather under there as well. The draw on this cigar is so perfect. Every little puff kicks out a huge cloud of white smoke while the cigar releases only a slight amount of stationary smoke while it rests in my ashtray. I really love how comfortable the soft-box press is in both my hand and mouth. The burn line is razor thin and dead even leaving behind a trail of tightly compacted white and dark gray ash which held on for about an inch before giving way, seconds before taking this first pic. Ugh.

Second Third:

Into the second third of The E.P. Carrillo Allegiance and the chocolate is dominating the experience. Under the chocolate are notes of caramel, pecan, spice and sweet brown sugar. This is a great tasting cigar. The retrohale brings out more of the chocolate and spice and I actually find myself doing it often as I really like the way the spice pairs with the chocolate. It almost reminds me of a nice cup of Abuela Mexico hot cocoa. I close out the second third with no signs of any nicotine.

Finish:

Into the final third of the E.P. Carrillo Allegiance and the chocolate is still rocking away. Backed by caramel, pecan, spice, and brown sugar with just a touch of creamed coffee. It took me a little over an hour to smoke this down to the nub and I loved it. Such a solid experience. I experienced no harshness nor extended heat. I closed out with zilch in the nicotine department as well.

Overview:

E.P. Carrillo’s Allegiance is a chocolate bomb in the best possible way. I really liked the flavor profile and feel that it its something I could find myself coming back to time and time again. This would be perfect for a novice smoker looking to try a premium cigar, but also for a seasoned smoker that is looking for a cigar that will always deliver. I will be keeping quite a few of these on hand and in my regular rotation.

Pairing:

Firestone Walker’s Parabolita is a 9.2% Imperial stout brewed out of California. The beer is a result of blending two of Firestone Walker’s famous beers together; Parabola and Velvet Merlin before adding Madagascar vanilla beans, cocoa nibs, and sea salt. The beer leads with a nice creamy milk chocolate over a potent raw vanilla, caramel and malt with a light mouthfeel (for a stout) before finishing with more vanilla and just a pinch of salt on the aftertaste. It’s not a complex beer, but the straight-forward flavor profile is very enjoyable. I paired this with the E.P. Carrillo Allegiance as the sweetness, chocolate, and caramel paired wonderfully with the flavors in the cigar.