Drew Estate’s cigar portfolio houses some of the most high-end cigar blends on the market. Drew Estate has a unique backstory compared to some of the other cigar brands in the industry. The brand was founded in 1998 by Jonathan Drew and Marvin Samuel when they opened a 16-square-foot kiosk in the NYC World Trade Center.

As the brand grew, Drew and Samuel moved their operation to Nicaragua, the home of some of the highest quality tobaccos. Even today, it is the largest producer of premium cigars in Nicaragua. The Drew Estate brand has a catalog including big names such as Acid, Liga Privada, Undercrown, Herrera Estelí, 20 Acre Farm, FSG, Deadwood Tobacco Co., and La Vieja.

With such a wide arsenal of cigars, it is no wonder why Drew Estate has experienced the success it has over the years. Their selection of cigars caters to almost every palate!

Don’t forget to get the limited-time sampler in the link below.

Country of Origin: Nicaragua

Wrapper: San Andres Mexican

Binder: Broadleaf

Filler: Nicaragua

Length: 6

Ring: 52

Strength: Medium-Full

Smoke Time: 120 Minutes

The first cigar on our list from Drew Estate is the Undercrown 10 in the Toro size. This cigar is significant because it commemorates the 10^th anniversary of the Drew Estate brand. During Undercrown’s freestyle event, it was shipped unbanded as a mystery cigar before the name was actually announced.

The Undercrown 10 was crafted in Esteli, Nicaragua by industry legend and master blender Willy Herrera. According to Drew Estate’s founder, Jonathan Drew, the Undercrown also represents a story about a humble and valiant prince who will someday be crowned as king.

A very clever play on words with this cigar line!

This cigar has flavor notes of chocolate, leather, honey, cappuccino, and brown sugar. This blend is available in the Toro size in packs of 20. Order it on JR Cigar today!

Country of Origin: Nicaragua

Wrapper: San Andres Mexican

Binder: Connecticut Broadleaf

Filler: Nicaragua/Pennsylvania

Length: 6

Ring: 52

Strength: Full

Smoke Time: 120 Minutes

The next cigar on our list is the Blackened from Drew Estate. This cigar is the result of a 3-way collaborative effort between Drew Estate, James Hetfield, the singer & guitarist from Metallica, and Rob Dietrich, the master blender from BLACKENED American Whiskey.

This blend uses a wide variety of Maduro leaves including a Maduro wrapper grown from the rich volcanic soil of Mexico’s San Andres Valley, a Connecticut broadleaf binder, and fillers from Nicaragua and Pennsylvania. This blend is acclaimed for using the boldest ligero Pennsylvania Broadleaf Tobaccos in Drew Estate’s arsenal.

If you’re looking for a luxurious and full-bodied smoking sensation for your palate, look no further. The Blackened is associated with coffee, leather cocoa, cinnamon, mint, and clove flavor notes.

This blend is available in the Toro size in packs of 20. Order it on JR Cigar today!

Country of Origin: Nicaragua

Wrapper:  Habano

Filler: Honduras / Nicaragua

Length: 5.37

Ring: 60

Strength: Medium-Full

Smoke Time: 110 minutes

Next up, we have a blend that Drew Estate releases annually in conjunction with the Chinese Zodiac New Year. This blend is known as the Liga Privada Unico Serie Year of the Rat. This cigar was manufactured at the La Gran Fabrica Drew Estate Factory in Nicaragua.

This blend has an interesting backstory tied to the NHL’s Florida Panthers. During the team’s 1995-96 season, Scott Mellanby killed a rat in the locker with his stick before the team’s home opening game. Mellanby went on to score 2 goals during the game with that same stick.

The first iteration of the Liga Privada was released in October 2016. This was around the same time that Drew Estate announced that they would be sponsoring a cigar lounge at Florida Panther’s BB&T Center. For a while, this cigar was only available at the arena’s lounge. But the cigar was rereleased in January 2020, now sporting a gold foil sleeve between the band and foot of the cigar.

This cigar is a medium – full-bodied smoke with rich flavor. Notes of leather, pepper, nutmeg, and spice. This blend is available in packs of 20. Order it on JR Cigar today!

Country of Origin: Nicaragua             

Wrapper: Connecticut Shade

Binder: Honduran Habano

Filler: Nicaragua

Length: 6

Ring: 52

Strength: Medium

Smoke Time:  120 Minutes

The next Drew Estate Blend on our list is the Florida Sun Grown 20 Acre Farm.  This blend was named after Jeff Borysiewicz’s 20-acre plot of land in Clermont, Florida, where the Florida Sun Grown Farm is located. This cigar uses an Ecuadorian shade-grown wrapper and Honduran Habano binder with filler tobaccos from Esteli and Jalapa.

The FSG 20-acre farm showcases the Florida Sun Grown Tobaccos’s unique traits to create a medium-bodied smoke experience to add to Drew Estate’s exquisite portfolio. Truly a well-balanced stogie that could be enjoyed by any cigar aficionado.

The Flavor notes of the 20 20-acre farm consist of oak, cedar, pepper, citrus, and earth. This blend is available in packs of 20 and can be found at JR Cigar.

Country of Origin: Nicaragua

Wrapper: Brazil

Binder: Connecticut Broadleaf

Filler: Nicaragua

Length: 6

Ring: 52

Strength: Medium-Full

Smoke Time: 120 Minutes

The last cigar we think you’d truly enjoy from Drew Estate is the Herrera Esteli Brazilian Maduro. This cigar was crafted by none other than Drew Estate’s renowned master blender, Willy Herrera.

This cigar was debuted at the 2018 PCA Trade Show. Drew Estate introduced this cigar as its 4^th addition to the Herrera Estelí line.

This blend uses a Brazilian mata fina wrapper, a leaf typically used as a bander or in the filler of a cigar. By using this type of wrapper, it provides. This blend comes equipped with flavor notes consisting of earthy, chocolate, and sweet tobacco.

If you’ve spent more than five minutes within the cigar world, then you definitely have come across a cigar that comes from the Drew Estate umbrella. Drew Estate is an iconic company that hails from New York City. Starting off with a passion-turned career, founders Johnathan Drew and Marvin Samel didn’t start like most cigar companies. No, they didn’t start in the fields of Nicaragua. Yet, they started selling cigars in a small kiosk in the World Trade Center in New York City around 1996.

Fast forward 26 years later,  Drew Estate is one of the biggest companies within the industry and has an even bigger following. From amazing events such as the Barn Smoker, to delicious private labels such as the the Nightshade, Drew Estate is for everybody who loves cigars.

So without further ado, here is Nick, covering the Top 5 Drew Estate Cigar for 2022. Don’t forget to click the link below for a limited-time sampler.

 Country of Origin: Nicaragua

Wrapper: Connecticut Broadleaf

Binder: Brazilian Mata Fina

Filler: Nicaragua/Honduras

Wrapper Shade: Maduro

Strength: Full

Size Available: 5 x 54

Smoke Time: 65-75 minutes

Leading off the Top 5 Drew Estate Cigars is the one cigar that put Drew Estate on the map in 2005. The Liga Privada No. 9 is an award-winning smoke that even novice smokers want to enjoy on the daily basis. When Nick Melillo of Foundation Cigars and Steve Saka of Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust were members of Drew Estate, the two perfected the cigar for enthusiasts across the globe.

After being hand-fermented over an 18-month period, once the cigar is rolled, it’s aged another year. Lushy and earthy flavor notes flow throughout the smoke once it’s lit. Rated 90 on Cigar Aficionado’s Top 25  Cigars of the Year in 2013, Liga Privada No. 9 is available in nine different sizes comes in a box of 12 and a box of 24.

 Country of Origin: Nicaragua

Wrapper: Mexican San Andres

Binder: Nicaragua

Filler: Nicaragua

Wrapper Shade: Maduro

Strength: Medium-Full

Size Available: 5 x 50

Smoke Time: 65 Minutes

Next up on our Top 5 Drew Estate Cigars is a cigar honoring a brand line that turned 10 years old in 2021. Undercrown has been making extremely successful cigars since 2011 all thanks to master blender Willy Herrera. For the Undercrown 10, Herrera created this delicious smoke by utilizing a Mexican San Andres wrapper cloaked over Nicaraguan tobaccos in the binder and filler.

Landing number 2 on our 2021 Top 25 list for a good reason, some delicious flavor notes you’ll detect while smoking the Undercrown 10 are chocolate, cocoa, leather, and honey.

Chose one of the five different sizes that come in a box of 10 to celebrate Undercrown’s achievement of making top-tier premium cigars over the past decade.

 Country of Origin: Nicaragua

Wrapper: Ecuador Habano

Binder: Honduras

Filler: Honduras/Nicaragua

Wrapper Shade: EMS

Strength: Medium-Full

Size Available: 7 x 48

Smoke Time: 95-105 minutes

Last year we were fortunate enough to have a handful of manufacturers create special cigars for us to celebrate our company’s 50th anniversary in the cigar world. We reached out to Willy Herrera and Drew Estate to see if they’d partake in our celebration. Both sides were eager as anything to collaborate after the success of the Drew Estate NightShade. So landing smack dab in the middle of our Top 5 Drew Estate Cigars is the Herrera Esteli JR 50th Anniversary.

This 7 x 48 Churchill is a medium to full-bodied smoke that is only available in a box of 10 in one size. Very limited and rare at this point, the Herrera Esteli JR 50th Anniversary has delicious flavor notes of chocolate, oak, black pepper, and espresso throughout all three thirds.

If you’re new to cigar smoking and are looking to just get a quick taste of what Drew Estate is all about, then the Herrera Esteli JR 50th Anniversary is the one for you.

 Country of Origin: Nicaragua

Wrapper: Mexican San Andres Maduro

Binder: Honduras

Filler: Nicaragua

Wrapper Shade: Maduro

Strength: Full

Size Available: 6 x 44

Smoke Time: 85-95 minutes

Next up, comes the hands and mind from master blender Willy Herrera, who seems to have his creative minds and hands in a lot of the cigar lines under Drew Estate. The Hererra Esteli Norteno is in fact the first line that was created when Willy joined Drew Estate back in 2014.

Tobaccos utilized in the 6 x 44 Lonsdale were created with only the fine handpicked tobaccos from the Esteli and Jalapa region in Nicaragua. Cloaked in a Mexican San Andres Maduro wrapper gives off delicious flavor notes such as chocolate, roasted nuts, black pepper, and cocoa on the backend.

Available in six different sizes, that come in a box of 25, the Herrera Esteli Norteno is the perfect cigar to see what Willy Herrera’s blending process is all about.

 Country of Origin: Nicaragua

Wrapper: Connecticut Habano

Binder: Indonesia

Filler: Dominican Republic/Nicaragua

Wrapper Shade: Maduro

Strength: Medium-Full

Size Available: 5 x 52

Smoke Time: 85-95 Minutes

We’ve talked about this cigar at nausea at this point, but this cigar is so damn good we shouldn’t stop talking about it! NightShade by Drew Estate was a private label created by…you guessed it, Willy Herrera for us here at JR Cigars.

This medium to full-bodied smoke comes in eight different sizes, but the 5 x 52 in this sampler is the more popular one due to its smoke time and the flavors you will experience once it’s lit.

Some flavor notes you’ll detect while smoking this gem are raisins, chocolate, pepper, and espresso on the backend. When this came out in 2020, the NightShade just added to the titan that is Drew Estate and further established this brand as a top-notch brand that rules the industry.