Drew Estate Blackened M81 Robusto Maduro (Single Cigar)

• Length: 127mm
• Gauge: 50
• Flavour: Full
• Wrapper: Mexican San Andres
• Binder: Connecticut Broadleaf
• Filler: Pennsylvania & Nicaraguan
• Hand Rolled

Drew Estate BLACKENED M81 Maduro to the Core Robusto

Some collaborations look as though three famous names were put in a room by a marketing department. BLACKENED M81 has a rather better story behind it.

The cigar came from the friendship between Metallica co-founder James Hetfield, BLACKENED American Whiskey Master Distiller Rob Dietrich, and Drew Estate founder Jonathan Drew. Hetfield and Dietrich were already cigar smokers, and during development the pair sampled Drew Estate cigars, keeping notes on what they enjoyed until the character of M81 began to emerge.

And they weren't aiming for anything delicate.

The phrase on the band, Maduro to the Core, is quite literal. A dark Mexican San Andrés Maduro wrapper surrounds a substantial Connecticut River Valley Broadleaf Maduro binder, while the filler combines Nicaraguan Maduro with Pennsylvania Broadleaf Maduro. Drew Estate even selected some particularly powerful Pennsylvania Broadleaf ligero for the blend.

The result is a dark, rich and decidedly full-bodied cigar.

Espresso, dark chocolate and leather are the flavours most consistently associated with M81, backed by pepper, earth, toast and the natural sweetness of those heavily fermented Maduro tobaccos.

This Robusto measures 5 inches by 50 ring gauge, giving all that heavy tobacco a relatively compact format. It is handmade at La Gran Fabrica Drew Estate in Nicaragua, the home of Drew Estate's premium cigar production.

Even the presentation suits the cigar. A dark wrapper carries a stark black BLACKENED band, while the foot band announces M81 – Maduro to the Core in black and copper. There's little chance of mistaking it for something intended for a gentle half-hour before Sunday lunch.

The name M81 is itself a nod to Metallica: the band formed in 1981. More importantly, what could easily have become a celebrity novelty is backed by a genuinely interesting all-Maduro blend.

Big Broadleaf, dark San Andrés and plenty of strength. One to smoke after dinner rather than before breakfast – unless breakfast has gone terribly wrong.