Kristoff Sumatra Corona
Size: 5×44
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sumatra
Binder: Brazilian
Filler: Dominican and Nicaraguan
Started in 2005 by Glen Case, Kristoff Cigars is one of the fastest growing boutique cigar manufacturers in the industry. They have numerous lines with different blends made from tobacco from all regions all over the world. The Sumatra was released in August of 2009 at IPCPR with much fanfair and the new corona size was released this year.
I’ve had a all of the lines that Kristoff Cigars offers in many sizes. I started my love of Kristoff cigars with a Maduro that was given to me by a good friend Wes a few years back. The Sumatra has been one of my favorites and seeing a new corona size, I had to try it.
First Look: The first thing that draws me to Kristoffs is the pigtailed cap and closed foot on many of thier cigars. It really doesn’t make a hill of beans with the flavor, but its eyecatching to say the least. A smooth and semi oily chocolate brown Sumatra leaf wrapper covers the cigar that has small minimal viens. The wrapper has a cedar aroma and the foot has a sweet and cedary aroma to it. A darn near perfect draw on this cigar with a guillotine cut.
First Half: The first few puffs are accompanied by equal amounts of sweetness and spice. Nothing overpowering at all, but a good amount of both. The spice comes from the Nicaraguan tobacco. The sweetness comes from the Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper. The sweetness reminds me of dried apricots. An off-white ash with a nice set of rings emerges from the even burn. The ash holds for about 3/4″, a little less than I had hoped. I am really liking the mix of sweet and spice from this cigar. The sweetness is still reminding me of dried apricots with a faint taste of dried bananas.
Second Half: The spice of the first half seems to ease off and is slightly overpowered by the sweetness. The sweetness is now accompanied by a musty earthy flavor. The earthiness comes from the Brazilian binder. Towards the end, you get sweetness, little spice, then earthiness all in the draw (in that order) with a sweet finish. Being such a small cigar, I didn’t expect much complexity, but I was wrong. You can taste three different flavors/senses all in one cigar. At times, all in one draw. At the very end of the cigar, the sweetness and spice are completely gone and the earthiness takes over.
Final Thoughts: A good drawing cigar that has a good complexity. Flavors of dried apricots, spiciness, with earthiness in the background. The sweet finish is very pleasant, but not overpowering. The burn was very good, not dead-on, had a few uneven parts; but needed no touchups or relights.
A good medium smoke with some good complexity of flavors that would fit into anyone’s flavor profile.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
I’ve never smoked a single Kris and I have no idea why. My g/f likes sweeter cigars so ill keep an eye out for it at the shop. Pigtail cap makes it look like it came from a cigar tree. Leo_botl
An interesting fruity cigar; its size is deceptive indeed; it packs a lot of flavour! I couldn’t quite place the wrapper, but you’re right; apricots.
I’ve been begging my shop to start carrying Viaje and Kristoff, but no dice so far. By the way, who ended up winning the Cromagnons?