Cigarro: Ezra Zion Blend CK-4 (Blending Sessions)
Fábrica: N/A
Country: N/A
Capa: N/A
Capote: N/A
Tripa: N/A
Dimensions: 5 x 44
Vitola: Corona
Production: Test Blend
MSRP: $4.00-$5.00 (Blending Sessions 5PK-$25, 10PK-$45, 20PK-$80)
Released: 2015
Fábrica: N/A
Country: N/A
Capa: N/A
Capote: N/A
Tripa: N/A
Dimensions: 5 x 44
Vitola: Corona
Production: Test Blend
MSRP: $4.00-$5.00 (Blending Sessions 5PK-$25, 10PK-$45, 20PK-$80)
Released: 2015
Prelude
Kyle Hoover and Chris Kelly debuted Ezra Zion cigars at IPCPR 2012. They quickly gained traction in the industry with the release of Inception (Jamais Vu) and haven't slowed down. Over the past year or so the duo have released All My Ex's, launched their own mobile app, and now offer swag, coffee, and facial hair management products (not sure if I coined this term, but if I did kudos to me) with the EZ name for purchase on the website. Most importantly, the site offers small batches of cigars to be purchased direct, something most manufacturers neglect to do. And that brings us to the Ezra Zion Blending Sessions. In a nutshell it's a surprise pack of test blend cigars in the various stages of blending. Some cigars are labeled, while others haven't received the attention to detail that a cigar in production would receive. There is no set sample pack as each order will have different cigars. You already know what you're getting into and the price of the Blending Sessions is inviting, especially to get a glimpse in to the world of blend selection. The official product description on ezrazionstore.com states:
"These are blending session cigars not regular production cigars. They haven't been in a cigar press as long. They are done on the fly to taste the tobacco combinations and flavors. A few may have a wavy burn or an open draw. Some might even have a rough cap or foot. It happens when you're down and dirty in the throws of blending. Just smoke it. You'll like it. It's not about ascetics; it's about the tobacco!"
Point deductions have already started; aesthetics should be the word of choice in the last sentence. I only kid. I can proof read over and over, and end up posting a review with a couple grammatical errors. I get it, we're human.
Today I am reviewing the Ezra Zion Blend CK-4, which I easily decipher as being one of Chris Kelly's blends. Most pertinent blend information is unknown. I will reveal some information on this particular blend that I was able to gather from reaching out to them. At the time of smoking I was only sure about one thing, the size. Verified side by side with a Liga Privada Dirty Rat, it is for sure a 5 x 44 corona.
"Before The Flame"
The wrapper is a light medium brown with a fairly deep red hue. Giving it the ole sniff test I smell barnyard, leather, and cedar. A straight cut to the head renders a perfect draw. There are times I take a cold draw on a stick and can't seem to taste anything; this is one of those times. I'm not going to sit here and jerk you around about how I taste vanilla bean ice cream, the waffle cone it sits in, chocolate covered maple syrup, and hints of partially recycled cardboard box pulp on a snowy day, when I don't. But when I do say I taste that, you better believe it is there, in all its corrugated glory! It was a breeze getting this lit with a single flamed Xikar.
1/3 "The Appetizer"
Blend CK-4 begins with a nice strong pepper, sweet cedar, and spice. Once it gets into its groove additional notes of cocoa, cream, and leather bombard the profile. 15 minutes in and the cocoa and pepper are the dominate flavors, followed closely by leather, and then the remaining flavors. As I get further along in the 1st I taste some meatiness along with fruity flavors. This is good! It has a sweetness to it that fits in just right with the profile. It's not on its own, not too far reserved to wonder what, it just compliments the profile.
2/3 "Main Entrée"
Cedar has made its way a little more to the forefront. There is still a nice spice present, along with the pepper, which has subsided a little. The cocoa creates a nice balance with the cedar note. The pepper gains some different qualities to it. Earlier it was a rich and kind of sharp spiciness, now it's bolder and has a heaviness to it. I'm really getting the meatiness on the retrohale. [NOTE: Sometimes while writing a review you get in a groove and then all of a sudden you have a sentence such as the one prior to this and it kind of throws it off course a little. I believe this mimics what happens while smoking. Sometimes it's in a groove and then you get a jolt of flavor. Could be random ADHD as well.] There are some faint earth notes halfway in the 2nd. The cedar and chocolate is the base of the profile. As it approaches the last third earth take some forward strides to be in front of the cedar. Chocolate and pepper are still present but the pepper has lost even more of the spiciness. The spice is lingering behind and the sweetness has decreased as well. All still there giving it a pretty complex profile.
3/3 "Dessert"
Earth continues to be front and center as we make are way to the end portion of the cigar. The earth is bright unlike the dirty dull earth you sometimes get with San Andres tobaccos. Cedar and pepper are still secondary and a generic sugar sweetness has come about from an increase in what was once tapering away not too long ago. The leather note has packed its bags and left in the middle of the night. Just making room for that morning coffee note.
Nub "The Fortune Cookie/Mint"
I had to make an extension of the last third in my review. The profile went through some transitions that I felt warranted a small nub section. Nutty and creamy flavors surge in. The pepper regains focus of the flavor wheel. This transition and additional flavors really makes this a high complexity cigar. There truly are so many flavors floating around I'm sure I have entirely missed describing a couple of them.
Intensity
Body and flavor started out full then settled down to around a high medium-plus in the 1st third. The 2nd third sees an increase in both the body and flavor, getting up to a medium-full smoke. It never got beyond that mark. Strength wise this really isn't going to put you down. The body and flavor may be a bit misleading on this one but some strength is there. I felt it was a medium plus in the strength department.
Construction
This is a very well-constructed cigar with the exception of the ash. The draw, burn line, smoke production, and combustion were all above par. The burn rate was a nice slow pace, not too slow though. So let us talk about this ash. [Disclaimer: this is not a released cigar, it is a test blend.] Okay so the ash was a suicidal grasshopper. Sometimes it would fall at less than a third of an inch. Sometimes at less than a quarter, I'd even go as far as saying the moment the leaf was about to be burned it already prepared to jump off. Maybe it wasn't suicidal and was just attracted to my pink shirt, and the ground, and the chair, and anything else below it. Just maybe the leaves this is composed of have different gravity laws than anything else. That ash, on a near windless day, fell off easier than an unpacked cigarettes ash being held out of a car window going over 35 mph.
Closing Thoughts
Ezra Zion's Blend CK-4 is a diamond with some charcoal edges flaking off (the ash). It is an outstanding cigar. If these were sold with an agreement that you had to ash on yourself to buy them, I probably would sign the agreement and get it notarized. In all seriousness I contacted EZ to find out what happened to this blend. Why was this not put into production? There was no way they would opt out on this blend. No way, no how. Insanely complex cigar, with immense flavors, and balanced just does not get thrown in the discard bin, not even with that foul ash "No Ash At All". So the answer to the question is. This blend sparked what is now known as Ezra Zion Blessed Leaf Doxology. The Blessed Leaf Doxology is a single vitola toro. Far from the corona I was smoking on. Maybe the size helped the ash. Maybe their website shows the Doxology as being sold out and only having right over 1000 cigars released. Maybe this CK-4 in its Corona form just might need to get its own production run. Maybe I need to start a petition, at the least for a limited production run of these, along with an “ash on yourself” card. It'd be worth it. If you have been lucky enough to receive Blend CK-4 in your Blending Sessions, tell not a soul, until after you've smoked it. If you have multiples then I highly encourage that you a share it with a close BOTL/SOTL, as they will really appreciate what you have shared with them.
Smoking Time: 1 hour 34 minutes
Pairing: Zero Water
Scoring: 93/100 (1 Point deduction for ash)
