H

ey everybody, I'm Shane Ireland. Today I am joined once again by my good friend, Robert Caldwell. Join us as we discuss Caldwell Cigars' Blind Man's Bluff ST, Sweet Tip, adding to the Blind Man's Bluff line of cigars in this episode of "Smoke Rings."

[Shane Ireland]: Robert, good to see you. Thanks for being here.

[Robert Caldwell]: Pleasure.

[SI]: Today we are smoking and discussing the latest addition to the Blind Man's Bluff line. This is the Blind Man's Bluff ST, or Sweet Tip. What is a sweet tip?

[RC]: It's a little bit of sweetness in the vegetable glue that is put on the cap.

[SI]: Yeah.

[RC]: So when you put the cigar in your mouth, it adds a little touch of sweetness. And there's varying amounts. Some cigars are really sugary. So we had a lot of demand for this cigar. A lot of guys ask, "Hey, when are you going to do sweet tips? Sweet tip, sweet tip," that type of thing. So then we decided to do it, but we want to do it in a much more authentic way. So in the cap of the cigar, the vegetable glue that's used to adhere has a small amount of sugar in it. It's just a small little bit of sweetness when you put the cigar in your mouth. And actually once you get 20, 30, 40 puffs into it, it wears off.

[SI]: Sure, sure.

[RC]: So you do lose that after a while, but it sets up your palate in a unique way where you have the sweetness, almost like you ate a little dessert or something and then decided to smoke the cigar.

[SI]: Interesting.

[RC]: I find that actually particularly prominent in Maduro, where you get a bit more spice, depth, and body to it.

[SI]: Yeah.

[RC]: And then the little tiny bit of sweetness is just a really nice thing. It's like eating a piece of chocolate cake, or a piece of chocolate, and then lighting a cigar.

[SI]: Interesting. How often do you think as consumers we're smoking a cigar that has a little bit of sweetness added to it that maybe is not a feature, nor is it disclosed, or a part of the branding? Is it common practice?

[RC]: Nine out of 10 times, when you think you are, you are.

[SI]: Really?

[RC]: Even if it's not disclosed. I think that a lot of guys maybe put a little something in there. Maybe a little honey, or a little bit of, maybe not honey, probably more like sugar. But they put a little bit of sweetness in there, sometimes. But there's a lot of cigars that I'll smoke and I'm like, yeah, there's no way, tobacco just isn't that. It could be sweet when you're smoking it, but it's not going to be that sweet on your palate.

[SI]: Just on your lips. Yeah, interesting. So basically, where does this fit into a cigar smoker's rotation, in your opinion? I know there are folks out there who enjoy sweet tips on cigars who requested them. I'm making some assumptions here because coming from the world of pipe tobacco, obviously we're pretty used to a lot of flavor enhancements and sweetness added to the blends. When is an appropriate time to smoke a sweet-tip cigar? Or what do those consumers look like? Do they smoke both? Is it primarily that they favor sweet tips? How does it fit into a regular smoking rotation?

[RC]: That's a great question. So I have no idea because the request that we get from the sweet tips, I mean, it's a guy going in and buying a Liga Privada or something really strong and full bodied, and they also want a Connecticut sweet tip. So it depends. I have a hard time pin-pointing who exactly the target guy is.

[SI]: Yeah.

[RC]: So as you know, we were talking about that prior. I've never been a big sweet-tip smoker, but sometimes I have smoked them and enjoyed them.

[SI]: Right.

[RC]: Very much. I really enjoyed Baccarat a long time ago. They had a Corona Maduro and that thing was really, really good.

[SI]: Yup.

[RC]: So there is a place for them, I think, in what you smoke.

[SI]: Yeah, yeah, for sure. I could definitely tell on the cold draw that there was some added sweetness there. But even just a few minutes into the cigar, I feel like it amplifies the flavor. A lot of times you talk about pairings, which we won't get into because that's a long discussion, I think contrasting flavors is the way to go.

For example, if you're going to drink a smoky scotch, it's nice to pair it with something sweeter than you're smoking, because it brings out the antithesis. With the Maduro, especially right now, I feel like I'm getting more of the rich notes and more of the woodiness on the palate and through the retrohale, whereas the sweet tip is definitely coming through on my actual lips.

[RC]: Yep.

[SI]: So you said if it's not your go-to smoke, like a sweet-tip cigar in general, what are the challenges of developing a line of sweet-tip cigars if it's not something that you're normally reaching for yourself? Like was that an interesting departure?

[RC]: Not necessarily, because a lot of cigars that we produce, I don't smoke anyway after they're developed. But it's a very easy process. You just build something that you like anyway.

[SI]: Yeah.

[RC]: So both of these cigars were stand-up cigars when we blended them, and then adding a little bit of sweetness and seeing what that did, while also playing with and calibrating the amount of sweetness that it has. The problem that I had when we were working on this blend was the level of sweetness — it just kept coming in too sweet, to the point where I'd get a quarter of the way through the cigar and I felt like I had to put it down. I felt like I had powdered sugar on my lips the whole time.

And then, we brought it down to a very nominal amount of sweetness, just a little something where I feel like once you get about a half an inch or three quarters of an inch into it, it's just gone. And what it does instead is, when you start to smoke the cigar in the beginning, it just kind of...

[SI]: It kind of primes you.

[RC]: Yeah, it primes you. It sets up your palate in a way where you enjoy the cigar in a slightly different way. And again, I'm not a big smoker of sweet-tip cigars, but I'm a purist.

[SI]: Yeah.

[RC]: I don't pair anything. You know, guys are like, "What's your favorite pairing?" Room-temperature water with no ice.

[SI]: Sure.

[RC]: It's been very well received. I mean, sitting here and smoking it again, I haven't smoked it in a few weeks. I mean, they're good cigars. They're excellent. It's like 9:30 in the morning right now.

[SI]: Right.

[RC]: And I usually don't smoke 'til after lunch, but this is something that you could have with a morning coffee, or just after a morning coffee, and it's a really complementary, good-morning smoke. On the opposite end, I would say it's a night cap also. A little bit of sweetness is pretty nice.

[SI]: Yeah, sure.

[RC]: So for me, when I were to smoke this cigar, it would probably be a morning cigar or a nighttime cigar. Because I think that's where it would fit into my palate and my personal rotation.

[SI]: One thing I will say, too, that's interesting here, and again, coming from the world of pipe tobacco, this sweetness is amplifying the richer notes of the cigar for me, especially on the retrohale. Now this could either be because the leaf and the raw material going into this is well aged and well fermented. But I'm getting pretty strong aged-tobacco notes out of this.

And I wonder if that's because of the materials themselves or if it's the sweet tip tricking me into thinking that this is smoking like a much older cigar, in my opinion. And I think it's because one thing we associate with older tobacco is not only those fermented flavors, and some of the fruitiness that comes with it, but typically a development of sugars as well. And it has that vibe. It really tastes like a 10-year-old cigar.

[RC]: Yep.

[SI]: That's really interesting. It's shocking to me how much I'm enjoying this because again, I'm also on the purist side of things with all of my tobacco enjoyment. And I think this is a pretty excellent crossover. If you're used to smoking more flavored pipe tobaccos, or sweeter pipe tobaccos, and you want to add a cigar to your rotation that is going to scratch that same itch but give you a different dimension than you're used to, this is a very good candidate for that.

So we've got two different versions. We've got Connecticut and Maduro. Can you tell us a little bit about the components, the differences there, and a little bit about the sizes available?

[RC]: Sure. So both of them are Honduran and Nicaraguan fillers. And then you have the Maduro wrapper, which is going to be a bit stronger than the Connecticut. Connecticut's got a hay flavor and a little bit of a sharpness to it that the Maduro doesn't have.

The Maduro maybe has a little bit more smoothness, but more depth and richness. There's a little bit more of a chocolatey experience going on with this. And this one's got more of a creamy experience. And then both of them are coming in the Robusto Toro 6" x 60 size. So all the Blind Man's Bluff cigars are Robusto Toro 6" x 60. It's consistent with the line.

[SI]: Nice.

[RC]: Through these as well.

[SI]: Fantastic. Give both of these a shot. Try 'em in the morning with your coffee. Try 'em as a dessert smoke. And, like I said, if you're a pipe tobacco guy, get these in your rotation. It's a nice change of pace and it's something that's going to give you a different experience than smoking either pipe tobacco or just a regular cigar. Thanks, Robert.

[RC]: It's been a pleasure. Thank you.