Ezra Zion Ugly Christmas Sweater 2020 (XNYRW4)

[sho671]

I heard about Ezra Zion and Nomad cigars last year and reading their descriptions made me salivate. I ended up picking up a few samplers late last year and early this year and have only been disappointed by all of them. 

 

Here is EZ's description of this cigar:

"UGLY CHRISTMAS SWEATER 2020 is a full-bodied, medium-strength prensado box-pressed 6x50 toro with a flag cap (‘cuz it looks like a Santa hat!) Visually, it's completely stunning. The wrapper is a silky 12-year-aged Corojo 99 rosado leaf. Fillers are secret...but are all aged between 9-13 years!

First light is a wave of brown sugar, buttercream, nutmeg, and mocha. Immediately following are caramel, cedarwood, and walnut. The finish adds a lingering creamy richness. The retrohale brings a warming cinnamon burn.

As it progresses, raw leather, graham cracker, and white pepper appear. The blend gets even smoother with notes of heavy cream, nutmeg, and raw cane sugar. 

Halfway, the blend gets even richer! Toasted almond, white chocolate, and vanilla bean are added to the mix. Hints of Tootsie Roll, whiskey barrel, and cashews wash over the palate on the very clean finish. Absolutely phenomenal!

The last third everything intensifies! Cappuccino, white frosting, and black pepper emerge. Flavors of black tea, cocoa powder, aged leather, and the "barnyard" notes (that we love so much) make the complexity hard to even describe! All I can say is "Wow!""

 

Here is mine:

First off, this was the roundest box pressed cigar that I have ever seen. Lastly the cigar was full of generic tobacco notes and nothing else. It was so boring I stopped smoking it soon after taking the second picture.

0-1/5

[Ford2112]

They could have at least made the label long enough.

[sho671]

18 hours ago, Ford2112 said:

They could have at least made the label long enough.

That would make it a ugly Christmas onesie not sweater.

[Ford2112]

1 hour ago, sho671 said:

That would make it a ugly Christmas onesie not sweater.

I get the concept. Maybe in order to keep it a true ugly sweater cigar they formulated it to be a dog 🐕  rocket 🚀. 

[sho671]

21 hours ago, Ford2112 said:

Maybe in order to keep it a true ugly sweater cigar they formulated it to be a dog 🐕  rocket 🚀. 

Whether or not it was their intention, it is what they achieved.

[Islandboy]

Damn, if the cigar in their description even exists...I want 100 of ‘em.

[sho671]

5 hours ago, Islandboy said:

Damn, if the cigar in their description even exists...I want 100 of ‘em.

All of their cigars sound gourmet but none have lived up to the expectation thus far. I still have a couple more to smoke from them but I'm not expecting much.

[Jeffersonc]

Hilarious review, I have had similar experiences with most of their line. The worst offenders being the dessert named cigars (pecan pie, chocolate whatever, etc). My favorite of the ones I’ve tried so far has been the 9th anniversary, have you had that one?


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[sho671]

2 hours ago, Jeffersonc said:

Hilarious review, I have had similar experiences with most of their line. The worst offenders being the dessert named cigars (pecan pie, chocolate whatever, etc). My favorite of the ones I’ve tried so far has been the 9th anniversary, have you had that one?


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I haven’t had that one but I have a couple others from those samplers I bought. I doubt they’ll be any good though.

[Jeffersonc]

I haven’t had that one but I have a couple others from those samplers I bought. I doubt they’ll be any good though.

I hear ya, I definitely was suckered in by the whole super limited production and now realize that they’re probably marketing their meager tobacco supply as a feature oh well you live and you learn!


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[B44]

And count me in on that as well. I have unopened 5 packs of almost every edition from this year 🤕

[sho671]

4 hours ago, Jeffersonc said:

I hear ya, I definitely was suckered in by the whole super limited production and now realize that they’re probably marketing their meager tobacco supply as a feature oh well you live and you learn!

Whoever their marketing person is has done well, but they just don’t have the product that stands up to the hype.

4 hours ago, B44 said:

And count me in on that as well. I have unopened 5 packs of almost every edition from this year 🤕

That’s quite the investment…

[B44]

I’m a sucker for nice packaging lol