REVIEW: E.P. Carrillo Short Run

Up for review comes a cigar from a veteran in the cigar industry. Ernesto Perez-Carrillo, Jr. is the founder of El Credito Cigar Company in Miami, famous for making the original La Gloria Cubana cigar. A few years ago, Ernesto sold his company to Swedish Match and in 2009, split away entirely from that project to start fresh. With his daughter and son as business partners, Ernesto founded the EPC Cigar Company LLC and produced their first stick, the E.P. Carrillo Edicion Inaugural 2009. Hot on the heals of the Edicion Inaugural release is the cigar I smoked last night, the E.P. Carrillo Short Run. I want to throw out a huge thanks to Ernie (Ernesto's son) for sending me a three pack of these a month or so ago, and after resting a bit in my cooler, I was very excited to light this up.


Specifics
Vitola: Delirios
Length: 5.875
Ring Gauge: 52
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sumatra
Binder: Nicaragua Criollo
Filler: Nicaragua and Dominican
Price: $6.30 each in boxes of 24
Smoking Location: My back deck
Beverage: water

Pre-Light  

My E.P. Carrillo Short Run is visibly a very natural looking cigar. The sumatra wrapper has lots of different tones of browns and yellows in it and looks like it could be fresh out of the drying barns. The stick is very smooth to the touch with a nice give to it when squeezed. You can tell when holding this cigar that a lot of expertise has been taken in its construction. The unlit stick's aroma is clean natural tobacco until you get to the foot, where you can pick up a strong sent of graham cracker. After clipping the triple cap, the cold draw is nice and free and tastes of fresh tobacco.

First Third

Using a Lotus triple flame lighter, my E.P.Carrillo Short Run lit up easily and was drawing perfectly. The initial flavors I got were of a mild spice on the front of my palate with lots of natural tobacco rounding out the profile. I've never been a user of chewing tobacco but I have smelled it and the natural tobacco flavors I got from this cigar reminded me of the smell. That might sound like a bad thing to some, but to me it was enjoyable. The burn on this cigar was a little wavy, but corrected itself over time without the need of touch ups. As you can see in the picture above, the ash on this stick was very strong. I smoked the entire first third of this stick without ashing once, and it still took a good knock on the ashtray to get it to fall. The body was a relaxing medium.

Second Third 

The second third of my E.P.Carrillo Short Run started to hint at what this smoking experience would turn out to be. The spice that was up front before fell off into the back, allowing a very tasty sweet graham flavor to come to the forefront. Although the sweetness was very strong, it did not over power the spice that was now noticeable only on the finish. These two flavors played nicely with each other and held my interest. The burn again was a little wavy, but nothing that caused any problems or ever had me reaching for my lighter. The body stayed a relaxing medium throughout this section of the cigar.

Final Third and Final Thoughts

This is where things really start to happen. As I started the final third, I picked up another familiar flavor...bitter chocolate. I am a big fan of this flavor in cigars when it mixes with some spice, and the spice was already present. Along with these two flavors, the sweet graham notes were still kicking and added a nice balance to the bite of the bitter chocolate. This cigar was good up to this point, but had become great in the last third. The burn and construction of the cigar were the same as the first two thirds.The body was similar, if not ramped up just a little bit. Getting closer to the nub of the cigar, the bitter chocolate flavors took over and dominated everything I could taste.

My final thoughts on the E.P. Carrillo Short Run? Like I said above, this cigar was good, but in the final third, it turned great. I was sad to finish this stick for a couple of reasons: one, because I don't have any more at this time, but mostly because the experience at the end was just really amazing. I am very excited to see how these will age. Maybe after even longer time these sticks will blend more, and hopefully not just the last third will be so excellent. If you have not tried one of these do yourself a favor and pick some up. You can get them here, and for the price, I think this cigar is a steal. If not only for the final third of the stick.

Would I buy it again? This is a no-brainer. I will definitely be picking up more of these.

Would I buy a box? I would buy a box to age some. The problem is I would be tempted to smoke them all and not let them sit.

Dan