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Caldwell's Eastern Standard Cigars: Not Your Daddy's Connecticut
Produced Chris Herath and Nicole Weed | Edited by Nicole Weed
Eastern Standard was one of the first three core releases when Robert Caldwell started the Caldwell brand over 10 years ago, alongside The King Is Dead and Long Live the King. In this edition of Smoke Rings, I sat down with Andy Wike to smoke Eastern Standard and talk through what makes it different from a typical Connecticut cigar.
Note: The following transcription has been edited for clarity and brevity.
The Backstory
[Chris Herath]: Andy, catch us up on this blend and the backstory of how this came to be in the Caldwell portfolio.
[Andy Wike]: Eastern Standard was one of the first three Caldwell core releases when Robert started the brand over 10 years ago. There was Eastern Standard, The King Is Dead, and Long Live the King. All of those were very avant-garde for the time. I think Robert went about creating these first three core line editions as a way to challenge our notions about specific cigar varieties and families.
Eastern Standard is a Connecticut cigar, but it is really full-flavored. It's medium-to-mild on the nicotine, but it's really robust in terms of the actual smoke itself. There's a lot of volume, a really great mouthfeel, and tons of pepper.
One of the original taglines was, "Not your daddy's Connecticut," because most people associate Connecticut cigars with really light-bodied smokes. This is not like smoking air. This is my desert island cigar. If I could only smoke one cigar for the rest of my life, it would be the Eastern Standard Cream Crush.
[CH]: A lot of people who got into cigars and gravitated toward Connecticut wrappers had experiences where it was like smoking air. I think the Caldwell Eastern Standard delivers more than that. It has that creamy mouthfeel, it's very pleasant, and it keeps your palate very fresh.
[AW]: You could smoke back-to-back Eastern Standards and it doesn't fatigue the palate. It's very creamy and almost buttery, but there's a hint of pepper and some vegetal notes that remind me of nice Red Virginias. It's like a Virginia flake — you can smoke it and enjoy whatever you're doing, but if you pay attention to it, it unveils these layers of nuance.
The Wrapper and Filler
[CH]: Let's talk about what's in the cigar. The star of the show is the wrapper, and that's really what makes this different from a normal run-of-the-mill Connecticut.
[AW]: The wrapper is an Ecuadorian-Connecticut hybrid Arapiraca. It takes essences from both of those varietals and combines them into something that's more than the sum of its parts — full-flavored, with a sweetness, but also a bit richer and darker than you'd expect from a Connecticut wrapper. The fillers are interesting too. There's some really nice aged leaf in here, particularly Criollo and Corojo leaf.
[CH]: Even grabbing it out of the humidor now, it smokes like something that already has a bit of age on it, with that cedar quality, but there's also an underlying bit of power. We saw there was some Nicaraguan leaf in there as well.
[AW]: Yes, in the filler, there's a little bit of Nicaraguan leaf, which gives it a little extra oomph. That's where you're getting some of that pepper from. It adds some body and strength, and earns that tagline, "Not your daddy's Connecticut."
Why Reach for It?
[CH]: For me, there's a couple different reasons I would reach for this cigar. First, situationally — it is typically a morning cigar. It is also a good one if somebody wants to start trying Caldwell cigars and get an idea of what the portfolio is built around.
[AW]: Rob's palate tends to be medium-to-mild in terms of strength. He's not a huge fan of really full-bodied or spice bomb cigars — he likes an elegant, classic expression of tobacco, and Eastern Standard delivers on that.
[CH]: This one has high repeatability. It's a cigar you can go back to for a comforting but versatile experience. If you're taking cigars on a trip and don't know whether you'll be smoking in the morning or after dinner, this has a little bit of everything in it.
[AW]: It also ages incredibly well. I smoked a Cream Crush from one of the very first production runs over 10 years ago. It had that signature Eastern profile, but more settled — like when Virginias age and take on a molasses-like quality — a deeper, darker sweetness. I prefer them fresh, for the same reasons I prefer Virginia tobacco fresh — I like to experience each component as an individual varietal. I like the hay-like notes, the citrus — things that tend to mellow out with age.
The Look and the Lore
[CH]: I know aesthetics don't always translate into taste, but this is a very clean, minimalistic, and monochromatic look. I'm a sucker for white bands on a Connecticut-style wrapper.
[AW]: It works really nicely — it makes your eye focus on the wrapper itself. I think when Robert was originally designing these brands, he wanted cigars that didn't look like cigars, and packaging that didn't look like cigar packaging. Almost all of the Caldwell Core Collection has these beautiful portraits — queens, Anastasia, or our friend Hans.
[CH]: Speaking of Hans, there's a piece of Caldwell ephemera that used to go in the packaging — a little letter about Hans Nielsen Lasko, a boat hand whose ship sank off the coast of Iceland in 1916, who was raised by a school of fish, moved to Cuba, invented dirt, and kept it in a wooden box next to his blankie — which is why Eastern Standards come in a wooden box. It's a silly story, but it adds to the myth of the brand, and of Caldwell as a lifestyle.
Vitolas and the Caldwell Lifestyle
This cigar is a great representation of Caldwell as a lifestyle. On the surface, it may look like a regular Connecticut, but once you get into it, it gives you more than what your average Connecticut would. Not your daddy's Connecticut, and a great place to start if you're getting into the Caldwell line.
[AW]: Or even if you're just getting started with cigars in general. It's accessible — you don't need a strongly developed palate to enjoy it, but as your palate develops, you'll appreciate it more and more. It also comes across a bit differently on each vitola in the line.
[CH]: I'm smoking the Euro Express, a shorter format I like in the morning. Andy's smoking a Churchill, and his favorite is the Cream Crush. It also comes in a pyramid and the other vitolas you'd expect from a premium cigar like this.
[AW]: With Caldwell's own spin on it — that is one of the essences of the brand, the boutique premium experience, in the tobaccos and in the vitolas they're offered in. And the naming conventions — Caldwell cigars have specific vitola names rather than Toro or Robusto, because they often don't match those canonical terms exactly. Rob blends these for the best expression of the blend in that specific size, rather than following industry conventions.
[CH]: Caldwell Eastern Standard is a perfect place to start or revisit the Caldwell line. Thanks, Andy, for being here. Let us know in the comments if you've tried the Caldwell Eastern Standard, and what Caldwell cigar you want us to talk about next.
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