Wrapper: Brazilian Mata Fina
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Size: 6 x 55 Toro Box Pressed
Strength: Full
Price: $16.00
Released: April 2025
Quantity Released: 2,000 boxes of 10

My cigars received 2 months of naked humidor time.

THE WHOLE MEGILLAH:
It’s a lumpy and bumpy cigar. It has a nice oily sheen that offsets the drab flat brown. Is this just a fancy $8.00 CAO Brazilia or does the cigar offer up something special.

And father further, will this cigar offer up a richly layered and complex smoking experience or will it be common faire amongst the masses? Or is it further father? (Sorry, an old Marx Bros joke).

The cigar has weight. If it was cocaine, it would be worth a fortune. The genteel wafting aromas from the wrapper include black cherries, fudge brownies, lovely floral notes, exotic spices (cinnamon, cumin, cardamom, and nutmeg), vanilla, barnyard, and spicy red and jalapeno peppers.

I gently stick the cigar with my Humidimeter and it logs in at 64%. A bit low. It should burn well, if not entirely going up like flash paper.

This is the perfect clientele for my PerfecPunch. I have suggested to my little friend that it might want to pull its own weight and get a part time gig. Cigars are expensive. I get a mighty harumph as it swings to and fro in its hammock while trying to figure out how to sip margaritas without a mouth. I laugh at its moronic behavior. It laughs at mine.

The draw is splendonkulous. I don’t need no stinkin’ PerfecDraw…the even lazier older brother of the PP. There are tasty notes of licorice, chocolate, red and jalapeno peppers, espresso, buttermilk biscuits slathered with honey, and deeply rich earthiness.

Enough fol de rol, time to put torch to casket. It’s a kwick stop to Caldonia. Perfect start. Rich with instant depth and enough power to melt my gym shorts. My tambourine falls to the floor and a tiny screech says it’s fallen and can’t get up. Big fat notes of fudge with black walnuts, Turkish coffee made by Agador Spartacus, sweet dried fig, and spicy redonkulousness.

Normally, I prefer to ship my Knuckles directly from sea to shining humidor without a human touching them. But this is a limited release of only 20,000 sticks. Espinosa has had luck with his partnership with Mr. Ferry (his real name) and so these won’t be on the shelves very long. Hence, I feel it is up to yours truly to debunk, destroy, defoul, deduce, and du-oh the meat of this blend before I smoke up my four pack.

I was sitting on a stool at Schwab’s Pharmacy on Sunset hoping to be discovered. I was discarded as day old tripe because I tweren’t pretty or female…and I’m straight. I went headlong into professional bass playing instead. Did you know that trombone players often become bassists? True dat.

The burn is as rigid as a 12-year-old playing Smoke on the Water. Great construction.
Inch one disappears a bit quickly. Takes 15 minutes. Or in dog years, 16 minutes. The low humidity is to blame. The ash is strong and stands at attention. I stare up at the ceiling. Nice smoke output. Chocolate, espresso, almonds, black pepper, and nutmeg. I believe I’ve covered the 5 food groups of cigar tantaleezia.

The earliness of rich earthiness makes the absence of complexity hardly noticeable. Say that three times fast.

The aroma is gentile and non-semitic. Floral with a touch of curry. Nice.

Inch two is delightful. I reviewed the 2023 version of this cigar and did not care for it. It seems that the boys self-corrected and came out swinging. I am comfortable in that I enjoyed the balance of the Espinosa/Fieri outpourings since 2022. Solid blends.

The burn continues to be on the money. I tap the ash because my lap is a sacred place and once you’ve seen an extended ash photo, you’ve seen them all.

The blend will do well with extended humidor time. I’m only scratching the surface with less than two months of house detention. The blender’s intent is etched and easy to read. In case you’ve ever wondered, the Etch A Sketch in 1960 was a bore. It took a real artistic kid to get the thing to perform so the rest of us mortals discarded the thing after 30 minutes of frustration. Same goes for the Slinky. Boomer myths debunked.

The first half bordered on delicious. It’s a very pleasant cigar. But nothing extraordinary. It’s early in the blend’s development so I’m giving it props earned as I believe I can tell that it is going in the right direction. Anytime a manufacturer doesn’t proclaim aging, you gotta assume that it received the obligatory 6 weeks of rest after being rolled. Just enough time for the tobacco to settle and de-roughasize the edges. Then, it’s up to us.

All the go-to’s are there. Refined depth is just below the surface. I swear to the Greek god of Marmotian Envy, Diptherius Andipshitocious, that this is going to be a solid purchase. In the world of 2020’s corporate greed, $16 is mid-range. Not cheap but not outrageous. With promo codes, a doable buy. The days of great $11 cigars are in the rear-view mirror.

It would help if the flavor notes were a tad more prominent. Thankfully, the rich earthiness and depth of field makes up for this slightly lackluster approach. With more time, the flavors may not excel but the complexity will take over and that’s all we care about. No one, including me, sits in our man shed picking out flavor points. We like it. We don’t like it. We like it. We really like it!

Inch 4 dissolves into the ether. The blend keeps my interest in play. More pronounced now are flavor notes of dark chocolate, espresso, black cherries, gingerbread, honeysuckle, cinnamon, black tea, molasses, licorice, and red and black pepper. This will be vital in my final assessment. The sweet spot is there and disclamatory. Once again, showing signs of doing extremely well with do it yourself aging.

Just like that, serious complexity kicks in. Damn, Spencer…the blend is beginning to shine like a new glazed doughnut.

I just notice that the strength has escalated quietly. I haven’t sought out constant sips of water in a vain attempt to quell the brain fire. Only now, in the last third, do I feel the effects of nicotine with its medium/full power.

Technically, this is a Gordo. My experience with the behemoth size is that flavors suffer. Color intensity is often lacking. And more often, only in the second half do we get a real kick to the innards from the depth and complexity a smaller vitola will offer. I’m on board. Cue the Sopranos theme.

The blend is now in luscious territory.

The cigar ends after a two-hour journey that was fun and exploratory. Never once, was it tame or boring. I was invested. A fun blend.

You can purchase the Espinosa Knuckle Sandwich Chef’s Special 2025 from sponsor Small Batch Cigar.

RATING: 94