Blind Review: Drew Estate: Undercrown 10

“The Rebirth of Cigars” is probably the most appropriate sentence used to describe the cigar boom in the mid-90s. It’s also Drew Estate Cigars’ longstanding slogan. This year marked its 25th anniversary for the company, and the decade anniversary of its popular Undercrown brand. To commemorate this milestone, they introduce the newest member of the Undercrown line to the market: The Undercrown 10. 

In a press release, Drew Estate describes Undercrown 10 this way:

To celebrate the brand’s anniversary in 2021, Drew Estate is getting “All Dekked Out,” a tag line that denotes Undercrown 10’s elegant packaging and reinforces the pride of Undercrown’s ten years of excellence. The new, sophisticated packaging is surpassed only by Undercrown 10’s complex, rich and bold blend of ultra-premium aged tobaccos that includes the highest priming of Mexican San Andres dark wrapper, the very finest Broadleaf binder from the Connecticut River Valley, and a tripa blend of select and rare Nicaraguan tobaccos.

Blend Specifics

• Cigar Reviewed: Undercrown 10
• Wrapper: Mexican San Andres
• Binder: Connecticut Broadleaf
• Filler: Nicaragua
• Size: Toro (6″x52)

Blind Review: Drew Estate Undercrown 10

Appearance & Construction

The wrapper of this cigar is very dark, oily, and toothy, like a tree branch. Visually, it’s a little on the rough side, but it feels sturdy when held between my fingers.  Taking a smell, there’s a faint sweetness coming off the wrapper and barnyard with white pepper spice from the foot of the cigar. Using a straight cut to clip the cigar, I take a cold draw. It has a creamy texture and taste like attic mustiness and wet log, which mirrors the cigar’s tree branch-like visual features.

Flavor and Smoke Characteristics

As the flame from my torch lighter heats the foot, a stream of white-silky smoke wafts past my nose, and I smell the scent of burnt sugar. With my first puffs, I pick up dark chocolate, oatmeal, bitter oak, and a good amount of red pepper spice. The retrohale is overwhelming, with an abundance of red pepper spice that nearly numbs my olfactory senses before transitioning to a slight floral scent on the finish. 

Two thirds into my smoke I find myself finishing more than half a bottle of water due to the spice that’s still lingering on my palate. Nevertheless, the smoke is becoming creamier, and by halfway through the cigar the flavor profile shifts to cocoa powder, raw almonds, oak tree, and red pepper spice. The retrohale becomes sweeter too, but still has an overwhelming amount of spice. 

On a side note, this cigar produces a lot of smoke, even when it’s resting on the ashtray–making me think this could be a Drew Estate product. That said, the overwhelming spice isn’t something I’m used to with Drew Estate so I could be wrong.

In the final third, the cigar seems to take pity on my palate lets up a bit on the spice. I now taste sweet and creamy raw almonds, dark chocolate, bark, and a little red pepper spice. The retrohale is a little less tempered, staying consistently peppery throughout the smoke. 

Conclusion

This wasn’t my first time smoking the Undercrown 10. However, this is the first time I smoked this cigar on a clean palate. It might be the reason why I never realized the true strength of the pepper in this cigar. Even with the strength the overall flavors were balanced and the cigar made sense, especially the raw almond flavor from the second third, which added a creaminess to the mix and made this cigar shine. 

Final Rating: 91