Wrapper: Connecticut Broadleaf
Binder: Ecuadorian Habano
Filler: Nicaragua: Jalapa, Condega, Ometepe
Strength: Medium → Medium-plus
Body: Medium-plus → Full
Size: Robusto Extra / Box-Pressed Robusto, 6 x 54
Price: ~$149.99 box of 12 / ~$54.99 pack of 5 at JR Cigars
Factory: TacaNicsa, Estelí, Nicaragua
Blender(s): Jon Huber / Eradio Pichardo
Release: JR-exclusive box-pressed vitola; Mil Días Maduro line launched in 2024
Experience Rating: 93
This isn’t a Mil Dias with a Broadleaf wrapper.
It only shares a band.
Other than that, it’s a completely different cigar. The obvious question follows: Then why call it Mil Dias? Simply because Jon Huber said it was worthy of the Mil Dias brand name. Works for me.
Crowned Heads has always been somewhat of an enigma to me. Jon Huber has been around forever, and ever since he and Mike Conder started the company after CAO, I’ve been rather lukewarm toward the brand. It always seemed like their stories were bigger than their cigars. And the hype around the brand made me tune them out.
But I should’ve known better.
I’ve had a few Crowned Heads cigars over the years, and every time, I’ve come away liking them. Not always loving them. Not always feeling compelled to chase down a box. But liking them enough to remember that the cigars are usually better than my indifference toward the brand. That’s the part I kept ignoring. The marketing may have pushed me away, but the cigars themselves never really did.
That brings me to the Mil Días Maduro JR Exclusive Box-Pressed Robusto. I got a fiver on an insane JR deal, and I’m glad I did. I expected Broadleaf darkness, but that isn’t what this cigar gave me. The profile is creamier, livelier, and more aromatic than the name suggests.
The wrapper is smooth, but a little rustic. The wrapper and foot have rich aromas of fresh-baked bread, dried fruit, and deep tobacco sweetness, and the cold draw tastes of fresh berries and hay. I’m anticipating a classic Broadleaf experience.
I light it, and the cigar stands right up, hitting me with a blast of charred cedar, fresh-baked bread, light black pepper, and green peppercorn. Spice arrives soon after and goes right to the top of my palate.
Not exactly the start I was expecting.
As the cigar settles in, spice asserts itself and moves forward to the tip of my tongue. This is followed by flashes of umami, citrus, and floral notes. Then comes a strong hit of crème Danish. My mind is still struggling with the brighter lean of the profile.
Spice starts moving back and forth from the tip to the middle of my tongue. It feels like part of the cigar’s energy. Thick cream enters and immediately settles at the base of the profile. My tongue feels coated.
A flash of earth joins the chorus. The cigar seems to be accumulating flavors, and they float, seemingly suspended within the profile. Meanwhile, the spice’s movement creates tension between itself and the cream.
Further in, more flavors accumulate and begin to cycle through the profile: black pepper, umami, pronounced milk chocolate, more crème Danish, green peppercorn, nougat, and light coffee with cream. Strength is a solid medium, but with the floating flavors and the cream, the body reaches medium-plus, hinting at higher viscosity. The spice continues its back-and-forth migration across my tongue.
Then I notice the wonderfully sweet aroma coming from the foot, and I can’t help but think the Ometepe is flexing its aromatic muscles.
The profile is not at all dark, even with the chocolate and coffee present. But there’s an implicit energy in the cigar. The spice’s ping-pong movement and the accumulating flavors make me think of a ticking timer. Something is building. Toward what, I don’t know yet.
I get my answer just past the halfway point.
The entire profile compresses and becomes denser but not muddy. The cream thickens, oozing like a reduction. Strength moves to medium-plus, and the body is full. The crème Danish is like a central theme in the profile. It doesn’t feel structural, but it’s pervasive and persistent.
Coffee thickens and loses some of its cream. Coffee and Danish anyone?
The other flavors continue to hover within the profile in a constant, slow motion. The cream is definitely the structural center.
As I continue, I can’t help but feel that the shift is yet another stage of preparation.
The cigar seems to hit a threshold in the home stretch. The spice asserts itself again and continues its progression. The tension between the spice and cream intensifies. Strength is flirting with full, and the body thickens even more. Charred cedar and milk chocolate attach to the Danish.
Then the Danish suddenly fades, and the profile erupts with a slow, flowing progression of flavors that reminds me of Pāhoehoe lava. It starts with a blast of thick black coffee that immediately attaches itself to the cream. This is followed by blueberry coffee cake, dark chocolate, burnt caramel, fresh-baked bread, nougat, marzipan, tannic oak, charred cedar, and dark toffee.
In the final inch, the profile compresses even more, but it doesn’t collapse. The spice settles mid-palate and continues its upward tug. Dark chocolate deepens into roasted cacao and replaces the Danish at the center. The spice moves forward again, coats my lips, then moves back to mid-palate on the finish. Active to the end.
The burn rate has slowed significantly. The smoke is thick, full, and creamy. I’m producing dense, opaque clouds of white smoke when I exhale.
Cream is the theme of this cigar.
The roasted cacao adds more tension, and a dry minerality complements the spice on the finish, providing more lift. Lively to the end.
Total smoke time: 1:35
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