The latest Crafted & Curated release has arrived from Caldwell Cigars: Savages Mal Caída. Join us as we discuss this sophisticated cigar, perfect for all-day smokes. Only 200 boxes of these cigars were made, so be sure to get your hands on them while we have them.

[Alan Britt]: Hi everybody. We have a brand new release from our boys at Caldwell Cigar Company, part of the Crafted & Curated line. This is the Savages Mal Caída.

A Disruptive Savages Cigar

We're super excited about this. It's an iteration of Savages, which was sadly discontinued after the fire in the Dominican Republic in 2022 that affected quite a few brands and it's a personal favorite among a lot of us here at Smokingpipes.

[Andy Wike]: Yeah. There was a lot of rationalization that had to happen just to make sure that Caldwell customers could continue to receive the core-line product during that turbulent time. Of course, some time has passed since 2022 and things are firing on all cylinders again. The new Tabacalera William Ventura factory is amazing. The whole Ventura family is just so special. The relationship that they have with Robert Caldwell is out of a fairytale story.

They often say that creativity doesn't come from freedom of choice; it comes from the inherent limitations around something. I think the fact that all Crafted & Curated releases are very small runs really gives Rob an opportunity to create something special, and I'm super excited about this one.

This is the first Crafted & Curated release since Caldwell's merger with Laudisi. It was really cool to work hand in hand with Rob on developing this one. The overall direction of this blend is a more abstract interpretation of Crafted & Curated.

This cigar is called Mal Caída, which in some areas is a slang term for misfit. I think Rob literally translated it once to "the one that fell wrongly from the tree." We just had a lot of fun with that and we came up with this idea of the bad apple, like Rob is. Rob has always been counterculture and he's a self-made man and pretty much any choice that he's made has been his own and he's very creative when it comes to problem solving and disrupting some of the traditions of the industry.

[AB]: He's a disruptor, for sure.

[AW]: Coming out of the gate, as the first Crafted & Curated release since the merger, this was a bold nod to his degenerate side. The art on all Caldwell cigars is awesome. The Savages band has always been one of my favorites. It's such a unique shape and I really love the color palette. We were talking about having lighter bands and rings on cigars and how that just really pops.

[AB]: Light bands taste better. So you mentioned that Savages was one of your favorites. It's also one of mine. I have plenty of those cigars still in my humidor.

[AW]: What's really interesting about this is that Robert wanted to bring back the experience of Savages, but not like a one-to-one necessarily. There may be plans in the future to bring back the core line Savages but this is a special Crafted & Curated release.

A Sophisticated, All-Day Smoke

[AB]: Lighting it up, I was joking with you guys and I immediately said that this cigar is like Savages grew up.

[AW]: Yeah, it's very sophisticated. The original Savages is very spicy, especially for a Caldwell cigar. It is more medium- to full-bodied. I think that you're getting some of that here, but you're also getting some of that signature creaminess and the old-school Davidoff-esque flavor profile.

[AB]: Exactly. I think anyone who is into sophisticated Dominican cigars and White Label will love it. I usually don't like to make the Davidoff comparison but I feel like it works here. It's got that signature, musty, Dominican barnyard funk. It has a super powdery mouthfeel for me. It's mild-to-medium, for my palate, since I normally smoke some fullish stuff. I think most would call this medium.

[AW]: My desert island cigar is the Eastern Standard Euro Express. For me, this is like a step up from that in terms of strength and complexity.

[AB]: Yeah, it's crazy complex.

[AW]: I'm getting a lot of those barnyard-y notes. There's some cedar and leather. There's a little bit of spice, but not quite as much as I would associate with the OG Savages blend.

[AB]: I was gonna say like a chai spice.

[AW]: Ooh, I could see that. Almost like baking spices.

[AB]: What's crazy to me is just that mouthfeel. I normally associate this buttery, powdery mouthfeel with very well-aged Dominican tobacco, which I would very much assume this is.

[AW]: Yeah, as far as components go, what we're looking at here is a specially aged Habano wrapper, specially aged Dominican fillers, and a matured Sumatran binder. All the tobaccos in the cigar are pretty well aged, which I think we're seeing in some of the complexity and just the overall finish here. It's super clean. It's very complex but it's not a complexity that lingers on your palate.

[AB]: This is a true, all-day smoke. I feel like I could smoke a box of these in a day and my palate would be just as fresh as it was today, tomorrow.

[AW]: Yeah, I totally agree with that. I think another thing that's contributing to that complexity is the fact that it is a box-pressed cigar in a 6" x 54 vitola.

[AB]: Yeah, they don't do a ton of box-pressed cigars at Caldwell.

[AW]: No.

An Addition to the Crafted & Curated Series

The Crafted & Curated line, for those of you who are unfamiliar, is Robert's creative playground, if you will. Robert is a maniac. He is always going a hundred miles an hour, even when he is resting and relaxing. I've never seen someone R&R so hard. For the Crafted & Curated series specifically, it's a really cool outlet because it allows Rob to continue to create new blends to iterate on ones that he's quite fond of. Most of the releases that you see in this series are like iterations or plays on existing blends. If we look back, for example, Louis the Last was a Last Tsar iteration.

[AB]: I remember when the first batch of Crafted & Curated was released in 2022. We actually had an event with Rob at Low Country Pipe and Cigar and I have maybe never been as excited about anything, because I smoked a lot of Caldwell then. I smoke a lot of Caldwell now as well. Some of the blends were plays on my personal favorites. The Crafted & Curated Athenee was a play on Eastern Standard, which you and I both love.

[AW]: Oh yeah. They're just fun cigars. It's great to smoke a regular Eastern Standard and an Athenee side by side to taste the differences.

[AB]: I believe that one used aromatico tobacco in the filler and different fermentation processes. Those are elements of the cigar that can't be replicated on a regular basis. That's the case here.

[AW]: Yeah, that's exactly right. Not only is it new ideas or new iterations of stuff that Rob's come up with but it's often using special leaf or more gourmet boutique vitolas that are much harder to produce in the factory.

Henderson Ventura Production

These are produced by Henderson Ventura, who is one of the Ventura sons. He has his own factory, Mina del Rey, and that's a super cool factory. Every time that we go to the DR, we visit him and spend a lot of time with him. He's just such a homie. And obviously he and Rob are like brothers, at this point. Henderson also did the 10th Anniversary cigar, which was released last year. I think we can foresee a lot more collaboration.

[AB]: Yeah, and also some of the recent Lost & Found cigar 10-packs, which were awesome and are pretty much sold out everywhere. So if you didn't get it, we're sorry. But they're good. Henderson makes great cigars.

[AW]: Oh yeah, definitely. He does tend to lean more toward fuller-bodied, spicier stuff, which I think is super cool working with Rob and his more traditional palate to create a blend that works so well within the Savages experience but then also has that signature Henderson flare to it. It's not quite the spice bomb that you might expect.

[AB]: Yeah, this isn't what I expect from that factory. Henderson's profile typically tends to be more medium full, and more in your face. This is, in one word, a sophisticated cigar.

[AW]: For sure. I think in the past we've often talked about William Ventura having more of a traditional sort of Davidoff palate, which is very much similar to Rob's, and then Henderson is on the other end of the spectrum with a preference for very spicy, very full-bodied cigars.

[AB]: Very new-school American cigars.

[AW]: Then Weber, who runs Tabacalera William Ventura, sits somewhere in the middle. It's really interesting to see that collaboration with Henderson resulted in this because I think it's probably one of the most complex and crazy-tasting cigars that I've had in general.

[AB]: I waited for this to be my first cigar of the day, which was tough but I'm glad I waited.

Only 200 Boxes Made

This is absolutely killer. I can't wait to put these in the hands of everybody else. These were a super limited production.

[AW]: Only 200 boxes were made. They're 10-count boxes. These will go for about $15 per stick. Be sure to check 'em out. I'm not sure how many Smokingpipes will get, but it's 200 boxes for everyone. Make sure to get on these so you don't end up like those who didn't get those Lost & Found awesome sticks.

[AB]: Get 'em at Smokingpipes or your local retailer and enjoy. Smoke more Caldwell.