On this episode of Smoke Rings, I sit down with Lead Copywriter Truett Smith to discuss Warped's recent limited edition release: the Flor de Valle Sky Flower. Comprised of 100% Aganorsa leaf, this Nicaraguan puro adds rare medio tiempo leaf to Warped's celebrated Flor de Valle blend, really highlighting the old Cuban-style characteristics of the cigar. Due to the rarity of medio tiempo, Sky Flower cigars are only produced when Warped has harvested enough of the special leaf, which only occurs in fewer than one out of every 10 tobacco plants. Check out the limited edition Flor de Valle Sky Flower today.

[Tim]: Welcome everyone to a special edition of Smoke Rings. I'm Tim Vanderpool, the cigar specialist for smokingpipes.com and also the retail manager of our brick and mortar location, Low Country Pipe and Cigar. Today I'm here with Truett Smith.

[Truett]: And I'm the lead copywriter for Smokingpipes.

[Tim]: And the reason this is a special edItion, we just got a cigar in. You guys have seen part one of my video, hopefully, but today we're smoking the Flor del Valle Sky Flower from Warped Cigars. It just arrived yesterday, so we haven't got to smoke any of these because we just got them in. So our review is going be limited to about the first forth and our dry draw on what we think so far.

But we want to give you a little background on this cigar and go ahead and talk about it. First, what do you think of the dry draw and everything, before we get into the blend tasting?

[Truett]: Yeah, it's a more mellow cigar from Warped. Not as mellow as La Colmena. It's got a little more body and oomph compared to that. But similar type of nuances, subtle sweetness. I know Kyle describes it as having notes of stone fruits and cedar, and I'm definitely picking up on some of those notes in the first third or first quarter here.

[Tim]: Yeah, it's definitely sitting between La Colmena and Corto. It's that medium to medium plus; lots of complexity so far even in the half inch that I've gotten down to, so, we'll see how it goes through the interview and see if we can get some more complexity in this.

[Truett]: Yeah, tell us about the blend and what's in this cigar.

[Tim]: So, this blend is a Nicaraguan puro, 100% Aganorsa tobacco. We've got a Corojo 99 wrapper, a Corojo 99 and Corojo 98 filler. This is the third installment of the Sky Flower: 2015, 2017 and now 2019. The reason that there weren't releases in 16 and 18 is because the medio tiempo, which you'll talk about here in a second, didn't meet Kyle's standards for those releases, so they just didn't bother putting one out, because he didn't want to put out an inferior product.

So, this is the third release like we said. The only difference is that it has the medio tiempo in it, which roughly is a higher priming of ligero. I'll let you go ahead and talk a little more about it since you're the copywriter. You've written many of things about medio tiempo.

[Truett]: Right, so, like the rest of the cigars in Flor de Valle, this has the same filler blends, the same wrapper, except it has the inclusion of medio tiempo, which the other Flor de Valle cigars don't have. And like Tim said, it's the highest leaf on a cigar plant, but fewer than one out of ten plants actually have the medio tiempo leaf.

[Tim]: Yeah, it's a rarity, they don't know when it's coming up. It just sprouts off.

[Truett]: You can't plan for it; you can't grow specifically for medio tiempo, so when it happens, you've got to capitalize on it. And so that's what Warped has done with the Sky Flower, and that's why this is only the third release even though it first released four years ago or so.

And so that makes this really exclusive, really limited, because they're mitigated by the crop itself; they can't just make it whenever they want, and it means that low production as well.

[Tim]: Yeah, very, very low production. So we've got a little bit about the blend that you're going to be tasting. Let's just say this is a 5 5/8", or 5.625", by 48 cigar, which is traditional for Warped and Kyle. It's not your standard Toro, not your standard Corona. But, I mean, it's a great size to have it in. I'm glad it's not larger. I think it's going to be good enough to get people what they want.

[Truett]: Definitely, and per Warped and per Kyle, it has a lot of Cuban characteristic in it. Medio tiempo is pretty indicative of old-style Cuban cigars and that's what we've got in this right here. I'm getting a lot of Cuban notes already, and I would guess this is going to age really well also.

[Tim]: If they last long enough, they will age very well. You know, it's funny, I'm getting the stone fruits, but I'm also getting a lot of sweetness, like, sugary molasses, like a thick molasses taste to it so far, so it's living up to every expectation.

[Truett]: Yeah, if you like cigars with creamy subtle sweet profiles as opposed to that bold punchy spice, if you like the more creamy variety, this is right up your alley, and this is a really, really good cigar.

[Tim]: Definitely, so 5 5/8" by 48, this is also only a 10ct box. And they are limited production. The last thing we want to touch on, which is, I think, pretty cool, is that the 2019 Sky Flower has scannable QR codes, so you can see on the back of here like this.

We scanned it with iPhones and it worked, or if you have a QR reader, it will work. No one in the cigar industry is using this technology right now except Kyle and Warped. This is the first cigar that it's been released on, but all of Kyle's brands will have it in the future. Kyle discovered it through his experience in the wine industry. A lot of wine vendors use it who have a problem being counterfeited. So, Kyle's been asked if being counterfeited is a good thing ,and on the outside looking in, yes it's good because people want to counterfeit your product. The bad thing is, people are paying a price for an inferior product, which is not a good thing.

So, with this code, you can actually scan it, and it will bring you up to a separate page that tells you who made your cigar and when it was rolled, and the bubble tag is proprietary to the cigar. So when you scan it, if this doesn't match what's on there, you have a fake cigar. So, that's pretty interesting technology, and it's kind of fun to play with.

[Truett]: Yeah, and just informationally, not only does it verify that your cigar was made by Warped and was distributed by them through their retailers, it gives information about the cigar blend, the tobaccos used, so if you're ever wondering what exactly is in this cigar, use the bubble tag and it has all that information for you.

[Tim]: Yes sir. So, that's quick and easy. I haven't gotten to smoke too much more of this to get more of the blend profile on it, but I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far.

I'm gonna continue to smoke it, and maybe we'll post a follow up. Or at least look for us on Instagram or Facebook, and we'll give you our tasting notes. With that being said, the 2019 Sky Flower is on sale now. It is a limited quantity so we are limiting orders to two per customer per day, but come back every day and buy more if you choose to. And while you're there, check out the rest of our Warped products and other available cigars at Smokingpipes. Thank you everyone, thank you Truett.

[Truett]: Take care.