Greetings again to my Distinguished Ruffian family. Today, I have another new one for you. You’ll be taking the maiden voyage along with me as I sample the Kafie 1901 San Andres. This cigar debuted in 2016 as the company’s final blend. Due to FDA regulations, Dr. Gaby Kafie feared he would not be able to continue making new cigars in the future. As for this cigar, he said it was 2 years in the making for this blend. The cigar is made at the Reyes Factory (Tabacalera Puros Aliados) in Honduras. As you can guess by the name, the cigar has a Mexican San Andres wrapper, a Honduran Habano binder with fillers from Brazil (Mata Fina), Dominican Piloto Cubano, and ligero from Nicaragua. The cigar is a 6×54 hard box-pressed toro with an MSRP in 2016 of $10.50 and are now $8.49. Only 500 boxes a year were released at its beginning. I’m not sure the age of the cigar as it was gifted to me by the Prez, Mitch. A small factoid I found out about this cigar, it was supposed to be called “The Union”, but the rights to the name were already owned by My Father Cigars, San Andres was an easy enough choice as a backup. Lets cut this baby up and get into it.

At first glance, the cigar is a paper bag color with one giant vein on the back of the cigar. Also, the triple cap is barely hanging on and I’m guessing it will peel off after I clip it. The cold draw has a sharp cognac bite with some floral notes and is the perfect resistance for my preference. I used my Zippo single torch to toast it up and get this all started.

Right off the bat is that distinct San Andres aroma that slaps you in the face. Cedar and earth jump right out as the main characters in the first third. The cigar has a HUGE smoke output, almost on Liga Privada levels. After a couple of puffs, as I thought, the cap came right off. I used my plain ChapStick to salvage the rest of the wrapper from coming apart. Retrohale has a ton of wet grass and a slight white pepper bite. A touch of caramel sneaks its way in toward the end of the third. I would say the flavor and strength are both at the medium level. The burn is almost perfect and the draw is still great.

Pushing into the next third, the name of the game is EARTH!! Like a ton of it! It pretty much cancels out every other flavor trying to leak through. Still grass and white pepper on the retrohale, with a touch of floral begging to get noticed. As we near the end of the third, some leather and unroasted coffee beans are mingling with the earth notes. The strength is around Med/Full and flavor is still Medium.

Starting the final third, earth is still the main attraction. Not much changing in the way of transitions. This cigar is smoking so quickly, I can’t believe it’s almost done. I’m barely past the 45-minute mark and there is only an inch left of the cigar. Retrohale is predominately white pepper and floral notes. The cigar finishes around Medium/Full in strength and medium in flavor. It burned well but took me less than an hour for this giant cigar. The humidity was at 67% when I started, so it should have lasted much longer.

Well, a pretty straightforward cigar here. The flavor didn’t change much throughout the cigar. One thing to note is the bunching was super loose. If you’re expecting a nice long smoke, you might be disappointed. I think this cigar would be decent any time of day. I would pair it with something light. A bourbon or dark beer would mute the flavors of the cigar. I paired it with iced tea and it worked out well. Scoring for the cigar is 3/5, I would seek out a 5 pack of these if you like a decent, straightforward cigar with huge earthy notes. I’m not sure how available these are on the market at the current time. I wish I had another to compare it to and see if I had any changes between them. Until next time Ruffians, as always, Do something nice for someone, and smoke well! (*Editors footnote, I will be sending a couple more for T-Money to try and then will update the review with his new findings. El Prez 06/03/2022)

Wrapper –  Mexican San Andrés

Binder – Honduran Habano

Filler – Brazilian (Mata Fina), Dominican Piloto Cubano, and Nicaraguan ligero

Website: www.Kafiecigars.com available for purchase from www.Boutiquesmoke.com

Price: $7.99 – $8.99 depending on vitola

Rating: 3 out of 5 pints