Today Andy Wike and I will be smoking Caldwell's Crafted & Curated Savages Malpensante, available now in highly limited quantities.

[Chris Herath]: Since we heard about Malpensante at PCA 2026, I've been really excited to try it. Caldwell has been really putting out some incredible cigars in their Crafted & Curated line, and before we get into this one, I wanted to talk to Andy a little bit about not just this cigar, but what the Crafted & Curated line is from Caldwell and what really makes these cigars stand out, even in their ever-growing lineup.

Crafted & Curated Series

[Andy Wike]: Caldwell's Crafted & Curated series is basically Robert's playground. About every month or two, Robert's in the Dominican Republic visiting the Venturas and other industry friends constantly playing with tobacco blends. It's something that he enjoys. Even outside of a work brand context, there's something about blending and tweaking cigars that I think just satisfies an itch for him. He's also a perfectionist, and nothing is ever quite done with Robert. There's always ways that things can be improved. There's always new expressions of an experience that he would like to share with the world.

Crafted & Curated is basically an opportunity for Caldwell to take some of these experiments that Robbie's doing in the factory and then share them in small limited runs with the rest of the world. Oftentimes these are blends that, due to certain leaf grades or production methods, you can't really produce at scale. It's really a cool opportunity for those of us who enjoy Caldwell's portfolio to just get a different expression of a familiar experience.

On all of the Crafted & Curated cigars, you'll notice that the primary bands are familiar. In the one that we're smoking now, the Malpensante is a Savages band. We're referring to this one as Savages Malpensante, but it's not the original Savages blend here. We're using the Savages primary as a sort of context clue. For those of you who are walking into a humidor and you're looking for something new and special, hopefully you'll see this band and it will remind you of a Savages experience. It's like a mile marker. It's got Savages' DNA.

[CH]: Yeah, Savages was one that a lot of the Caldwell fans out there, we see it in the comments, as soon as this band was posted in the PCA hype reel from Caldwell, people were like, "Oh, Savages is back." Not the full lineup, that was lost back when the fire happened at TWV, so the whole line is not coming back, but we're getting these quick hits of the Savages DNA, but also in very limited quantities with varietals of the tobacco that's not readily available to really bring the whole lineup back.

What I really love about the Crafted & Curated is the limited nature of it. It's something that keeps you interested in the hobby. I think the new releases are great when they're big lines, but we're always one for trying new things that Robbie's experimenting with that won't be around for long due to the limited nature, but it's something we can basically experiment along with Rob.

[AW]: Here at Smokingpipes we love premium tobacco experiences that's why we do what we do. Whether it's collecting pipes or trying different pipe tobaccos or, in this case, trying a new expression of a Savages blend, the variety is the spice of life.

Crafted & Curated Releases

Robert's done some really cool stuff. Just this year, we've had two Magnum versions of the Queens, Forbidden Fruit and The Last Tsar El Olvidado. It went quickly. We only made 200 boxes, and I'm bummed I didn't cellar more of that one.

[CH]: I had one at PCA and then they were gone.

Savages Malpensante

Let's get into this one. Can you touch on what makes Malpensante really special?

[AW]: I'll start with the name. There's really no great English translation for this, but it means the ill thinker, or more poetically, the cynic. If you guys have ever spent time with Rob, he does have this sort of...

[CH]: He's the most interesting man in the world. He's pretty interesting... in many different ways.

[AW]: He's also deeply skeptical of a lot of things, and he can be a bit cynical at times. So Malpensante is a cheeky, clever name. A lot of folks use Spanish names when they're naming cigars, and Caldwell has historically shied away from that. But I think with Crafted it's a fun little way of us paying homage to the roots of the industry while also having some fun with it.

Mal Caída was the bad apple, El Olvidado is the forgotten one, and then Malpensante is the cynic.

[CH]: We're seeing this very traditional Cuban style, back to the roots of the cigar industry packaging. It's very clean. The packaging is taking itself very traditional, very serious, but then you have that Caldwell spin to it, for people who really appreciate the premium cigar industry, but also can look past the super serious nature of it and enjoy what they're smoking with a little bit of candor attached to it.

[AW]: Yeah, I think that's a really great way to describe it, Chris. I think Caldwell cigars are so good, but they're not pretentious. It's prestigious without pretension, and if you want a really good stick that is not gonna blind you with the flash of the band, and it's just beautiful, they're a great choice.

Versatile & Balanced Smoke

[CH]: Getting into what we're experiencing with this cigar, this is the second time I've smoked it. Last night I smoked it outside after dinner, and now smoking it in the lounge in the morning after a light breakfast, I'm getting a really consistent experience with this.

This one is super versatile, in my opinion. The first thing I immediately got out of this was that it tasted like it had some age on it. There were no harsh edges. It was very smooth. I was getting a light floral, sweetgrass type of note from it. I'm enjoying it even more this morning, and I think the Habano wrapper you mentioned is very interesting. I think that is a lot of what we're getting on this initial first couple inches of it.

[AW]: Malpensante has a Habano Dos Mil wrapper, a hybrid seed that was developed in Cuba in the '90s and typically grown in Ecuador. It's a bit milder than your more full-bodied Habano blends are. I think that it still has a good bit of spice, but I think it's a bit more balanced in the register. There's spice on the retrohale but not so much on the palate. I get a lot of cream and semisweet cocoa nibs. Also a little bit of leather.

[CH]: It's sitting in that space between what you would think of with your traditional Habano wrapper and the Ecuadorian Connecticut being on the lighter side. I'm also getting a lot of freshness still on the palate. It's not one that's wearing out my palate. I smoked it last night, woke up this morning, and my palate still felt fresh. It didn't feel like I was still tasting last night's cigar, which I experience a lot with the darker cigars.

It's gonna be one that you're gonna be able to enjoy throughout pretty much any point in the day, and as we go into the springtime, I think that's what I'm looking for when I'm searching for a cigar. Toro size, on the larger size here, is going to be one you're gonna get over an hour out of, and it won't be one that's going to fatigue your palate after you're done smoking it.

[AW]: Yeah, for sure. I think there is a decent amount of spice to it. I was a huge Savages fan back in the day, before the line was discontinued after the fire in 2022. But that cigar it's much spicier. It's much more pepper-forward. Whereas this one, I feel like it almost smokes like a Queen.

[CH]: Yeah. I can see that. The Queen is my favorite of the Caldwell line-up.

[AW]: If you took the Queen and then added some Savages DNA, this was a pretty good mix of those things, Sumatran binder, and then some really nice Dominican fillers. It's a bit larger for a Caldwell cigar.

[CH]: We've seen that of the recent Crafted and Curateds.

[AW]: Yeah, a lot of them have been Toro, Toro-plus sizes recently, with the exception, of course, of Forbidden Fruit, which was a Magnum. Rob as a blender, as a cigar maker, tends to prefer the smaller, more boutique vitolas. That's really just his own personal preference. He tends to enjoy Coronas, Churchills, or Lonsdales.

[CH]: This one is a little bit different from the Savages Mal Caída. The Mal Caída was box-pressed, which Rob did tell us would affect the flavor of that blend. This one being a different wrapper from Mal Caída, the Savages Crafted and Curated latest release from the Savages line, you're gonna probably enjoy this as well, but it's not gonna be the same cigar. It's a little bit of a different expression.

If you still have some of those left, I'd be really curious to hear in the comments when you smoke those around the same time period how they play off each other. But this is going to be a really fast seller for us, as all the Crafteds have been, mostly due to that limited nature. There's only 400 boxes of these total.

[AW]: Once it's gone, it's gone. It really is a unique opportunity to experience Savage's DNA in a new expression. I'm getting things that remind me of Queen. Savages, of course, is a blend that was originally a spinoff of Long Live the King before it became its own line. I think there's a lot here that reminds me of the King, and Savages was always a bit bolder than the King. I think this one's a bit more medium, maybe medium plus. But it's not a spice bomb or anything like that. It's a very balanced Habano.

[CH]: Habano is one that Rob personally enjoys. He speaks a lot about that as one that he enjoys in high-humidity environments, for spring, summer, and those types of moments. This is perfect for the season we're going into. It's not gonna be one you wanna miss. Very limited in nature. Only 400 total for Caldwell, that means Smokingpipes is gonna get much less than that. So once they're on-site, be sure to check them out.

Let us know in the comments what's been your favorite Crafted & Curated from the Caldwell lineup this year, and we look forward to talking to you guys next time.