Drew Estate Blackened Cigars

Drew Estate BLACKENED Cigars

BLACKENED Cigars began with three men, a shared appreciation of cigars and a rather predictable lack of interest in making anything timid.

The project brought together Metallica co-founder James Hetfield, BLACKENED American Whiskey Master Distiller Rob Dietrich, and Drew Estate founder Jonathan Drew. Rather than simply putting a famous name on an existing cigar, the collaboration developed its own blends, beginning with the formidable BLACKENED M81 Maduro to the Core.

The name M81 tips its hat to Metallica's formation in 1981, while Maduro to the Core describes the cigar rather accurately. Mexican San Andrés Maduro forms the wrapper, Connecticut River Valley Broadleaf Maduro the binder, and the filler combines Nicaraguan Maduro and Pennsylvania Broadleaf Maduro tobaccos. It's Maduro from one end to the other, essentially.

M81 established the character of BLACKENED with a decidedly dark flavour profile. Espresso, dark chocolate, leather, earth and pepper are all commonly associated with the blend, accompanied by the richness and underlying sweetness of heavily fermented Maduro tobacco. Strength is firmly towards the fuller end of proceedings.

BLACKENED subsequently grew beyond that original blend with S84 Shade to Black. Created by the same Hetfield, Dietrich and Drew partnership, S84 approaches the idea from another direction, combining an Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade wrapper with a Mexican San Andrés Maduro binder and Nicaraguan and Pennsylvania Broadleaf fillers. Drew Estate launched it nationally in 2024.

That pale wrapper might suggest a mild-mannered companion to M81. It isn't.

Drew Estate describes S84 as a medium-to-full-bodied cigar, retaining plenty of the darker tobacco character associated with BLACKENED while introducing the creamier qualities of Connecticut Shade.

Both blends are handmade at Drew Estate's La Gran Fabrica Drew Estate in Estelí, Nicaragua, one of the world's largest premium cigar factories and the home of ranges including Liga Privada and Undercrown.

There is an obvious Metallica connection here, right down to the black-heavy presentation and M81 name, but BLACKENED has earned considerably more attention than the average celebrity cigar. The tobacco is the interesting bit.

M81 is dark, earthy and unapologetically Maduro; S84 brings Connecticut Shade into the equation while keeping plenty of Broadleaf and San Andrés underneath.

Rather like Metallica themselves, BLACKENED started heavy and then discovered there were several different ways of going about it.