Liga Privada Unico Staff Review
I’m smoking a Liga Privada Unico from Drew Estate in a coveted 6.25-by-46 Lonsdale, called the Velvet Rat. Liga Privada cigars are handmade at La Gran Fabrica Drew Estate, the company’s sprawling factory in Estelí, Nicaragua.
When Jonathan Drew and his crew at Drew Estate introduced the original Liga Privada No. 9 cigars in 2008, they quickly ran into inventory issues, unable to make enough cigars to satisfy consumer demand. They came out with Liga Privada T52 soon after, but both lines required tobaccos from multiple countries and regions, making sourcing the raw materials for the cigars challenging. Eventually, they tweaked the blends with more attainable tobaccos from lower primings on the plants, creating the Liga Privada Undercrown line.
Today, the team at Drew Estate has resolved many of the issues with its Liga Privada inventory. However, the Unico collection includes some of the most sought-after Liga Privada sizes, such as the Dirty Rat, Feral Flying Pig, L40, UF-13, and the Velvet Rat I’m smoking today. The Unico Velvet Rat features a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, a Brazilian Mata Fina binder, and Nicaraguan and Honduran long-fillers in the center. This dark, oily smoke is finished with a twisted and flattened fan cap on the head. These intricate details are found on small-batch editions of Liga Privada sizes and highlight the advanced skills of the factory’s longest-tenured rollers.
Liga Privada Unico Velvet Rat cigars retail for around $20 apiece, and they’re packaged in 10-count boxes with the brand’s crown-and-lion logo on the top. The Velvet Rat is very firm to the touch, but the cigar displays perfect airflow when I clip the cap and take a few cold draws. Dense aromas of leather, hay, and chocolate precede a sweet and spicy flavor in the cold draw. Tasting notes of dried fruit, black pepper, and dark chocolate introduce the cigar before I’ve even lit it.
After toasting the foot for a few minutes, thick streams of smoke usher in a powerful current of dark chocolate and leather, showcasing the cigar’s Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper. Supporting notes of black coffee and pepper develop throughout a deep, malty profile. Unico Velvet Rat exhibits a distinct creaminess that dissipates in favor of the cigar’s spicier tendencies as it progresses.
Hints of paprika and cedar mingle with the cigar’s creamy, leathery texture, with a continual hint of chocolate coming through. Despite its complex blend of tobaccos from Brazil, Nicaragua, and Honduras, the Unico Velvet Rat emphasizes notes you’ll only get from an authentic Broadleaf wrapper. A hearty profile of leather, earth, and chocolate dominates the second half with nuances of cumin and dark fruit.
Liga Privada cigars are generally made well, and the Velvet Rat reveals an even burn from beginning to end as I zero in on the nub. However, I am surprised the Velvet Rat combusted as fast as it did, despite its density. The ash was also uncharacteristically flaky, which prevented me from straying far from the ashtray to avoid a lapful of ashes. The Velvet Rat clocked in at well under an hour, around forty-three minutes.
If you’ve enjoyed other Liga Privada cigars from Drew Estate, I recommend trying the Velvet Rat in the Unico line. Select sizes of Liga Privada Unico cigars are also available with a Cuban-seed wrapper harvested in Connecticut, in lieu of the Broadleaf. Try all the variations of Liga Privada cigars that the blenders at Drew Estate have introduced over the years before you decide which one is your favorite.
