The Crowned Heads Le Patissier

By Tony Casas | September 26, 2022

This week I head out back with a Crowned Heads Le Patissier in one hand and a bottle of Firestone Walker’s Brandy Barrel Barley Wine beer in the other.

The Good Stuff:

Le Patissier is the newest full-production line coming from The Crowned Heads. Originally showcased in 2021 to PCA attendees the Patissier is a bit of a sister brand to the much acclaimed “Le Careme”. Meaning “Pastry Chef” in French, the La Patissier starts out with a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper over a Jalapan Nicaraguan binder and filler tobacco from Costa Rica and the Pueblo Nuevo and Ometepe regions of Nicaragua. Produced at the Tabacalera Pichardo factory in Nicaragua the cigar was originally showcased in a single 6 1/2 x 44 Lonsdale format to 2021 PCA attendees, the full production version comes in four sizes: Senadores (6 1/8 x 48), No. 50 (4 3/8 x 50), Canonazo (5 7/8 x 52), and the No. 54 (5 3/8 x 54). Each come packaged in boxes of 20 running between $10.50 and $12 a stick. Note that the original 6 1/2 x 44 is still available for purchase at many online retailers at the time of writing this article. I purchased mine over from our friends at Cuenca Cigars who now offer online ordering of cigar singles. This particular cigar is one of those offerings currently.

• Size: 4 3/8 x 50
• Wrapper: Connecticut Broadleaf
• Binder: Nicaraguan
• Filler: Costa Rican and Nicaraguan
• Body: Medium/Full
• Strength: Medium/Full
• Price: $10.50
• Pairing: Firestone Walker Brandy Barrel Barley Wine (Barleywine 13.8% ABV)

Prelight:

The Crowned Heads Le Patissier starts out with a deep, dark brown wrapper with lots of darker areas as well as reddish brown areas scattered throughout. The wrapper’s texture is very gritter and toothy with a good amount of oils coating it. The wrapper itself feels very rich and hard while the cigar as a whole is extremely hard and tightly packed. There are a few smaller veins and one larger one running the length of the cigar’s short body leading up to it’s round, double-wrapped cap. The cigar is polished off with a beautiful manilla, gold, black and pastel green band which features a beautiful French-inspired design carrying the Le Patissier crest embossed on the front, and a secondary gold foot band with the Crowned Heads logo.

The wrapper on the Le Patissier gives off a light tobacco aroma while the foot of the cigar carries musk, tobacco, and earthiness. The cap cut with a bit of extra effort using my Xikar XO double bladed cutter. The cold draw produces mostly earth and deep tobacco with a few lighter berry notes.

First Half:

Due to the small size of this cigar I’ll be reviewing it in halves instead of the traditional thirds. the Le Patissier starts out with a very minor bit of black pepper and spice over bold musk, oak, light black cherry and dirt over natural tobacco flavors. The draw is slightly tight on the few that I smoked, but nothing unmanageable so no points taken there. the cigar releases very little stationary smoke as it rests in my ashtray. The burn line is dead event and very thin leaving behind a trail of tightly compacted white ash which held on for about 3/4 of an inch before falling in my ashtray.

Second Half:

Into the second half of the Le Patisseir and the body has started to ramp up now as I find it right in the mid-range of medium/full. The flavor profile is still mostly musk and oak with some light spice and lots of underlying earthiness. The retrohale helps brings out the spice as well as a little cinnamon. It took me a little over and hour to take this cigar down to the nub. I am actually pretty impressed with how slow this burned. I experienced No harness, no extended heat and the cigar burned absolutely perfectly from start to finish.

Overview:

The Crowned Head Patissier is a solid offering. The cigar performed beautifully and offered some good, straightforward flavors. My only complaint lies a bit more on the subjective side of things as I wished the cigar just had a bit more dimension and flavors that matched my personal palate a bit more. I think some subtle sweetness could really push this cigar to the next level. Overall I enjoyed it, will smoke it again, but won’t likely keep this one in my regular rotation. However if you are a smoker who really enjoys musk and oak forward cigars this one is right up your alley. Not to mention it’s regular production and quite affordable.

Pairing:

Firestone Walker’s Brandy Barrel Barley Wine is a Brewmaster’s Collective exclusive beer which features a special barleywine co-fermented with Paso Robles grown white wine grapes which is then barrel aged in brandy barrels. Coming in at 13.8% ABV the beautiful orange beer leads with loads of brandy and wine flavors. I’m actually impressed with how potent the grapes are. Underneath there are nice notes of berry, honey, and really light hoppiness. The beer finishes with even more wine and brandy over mixed fruits. This beer doesn’t carry many characteristics you usually find in a barleywine, predominantly the absence of bitterness. Instead this beer is sweet, crisp, and incredibly smooth with a hell of a brandy bite to it. The fruit really paired well with the flavors in the Crowned Heads Le Patissier while the sweetness really helped bring the cigar out of it’s shell.