Pre-light Experience

Seth: The Patina Connecticut Copper is a classic looking cigar. The wrapper is between Claro and Natural in coloring, and it has this light hay coloring. The cigar is silky in texture with small to medium sized veins, and it is firm in hand. The aromas on the cigar are that of soft spices, cinnamon, cedar, hay and cream.
John: The Patina Connecticut Copper has a Colorado claro wrapper. At first glance, it appears to be a Toro vitola, but closer inspection reveals that it is clearly a 6 x 44 Corona. The wrapper appears to be Connecticut Shade or something within the Shade varietal. I weighed the cigar at 13.5 grams and measured the humidity at 61.9% with the HumidiMeter Pro. Aromas from the wrapper included barnyard, light wood and light hay. From the foot, I was getting even fainter aromas of wood and hay.
Jiunn: The Patina Connecticut Copper has a golden brown Colorado claro wrapper shade. Veins are well pressed, seams tight, bunch and roll even and the head is well wrapped and capped. Pre-light aromas give heavy barnyard and subtle green tea.

Patina Connecticut Copper

First Third

Seth: The first third begins with musty wood, barnyard, earth, warm spices, cream and cedar. There are some cinnamon notes present, and the cigar smokes at a medium level for strength and body.
John: The first third kicks off with sweet tobacco, with mild herbal notes through the center. The herbal note combines with mildly dry wood through the finish, while lingering wood sits on the palate between each puff. On the retrohale, some sharp baking spices join immediately, followed by musty wood. Some mild cocoa moves into the retrohale as the first third continues, but it is pushed aside by the intensity of the tannic wood, which continues to build as the cigar progresses toward the halfway point.
Jiunn: The first third gives medium body and strength with flavors of citrus rind, mixed nuts, subtle roasted nuts like natural creaminess, and light but mouth covering tannins. Retrohaling gives sharp cedar. The finish is lingering with slight bitter cedar wood tannins.

Patina Connecticut Copper

Second Third

Seth: The second third continues to deliver the flavors from the first third, and I am getting musty wood, warm spices, cedar and cream. Like before, medium in strength and body.
John: The second third starts with cocoa in the retrohale, followed by medium-strength baking spices and medium-full sharp tannic wood through the center, which lingers well into the post draw. The baking spices through the retrohale carry the profile as the second third continues. The baking spices calm down to medium-minus strength through the bottom half, allowing some musty bread to push through into the retrohale.
Jiunn: There’s one main change that is making the second third less enjoyable. The wood bitterness takes over the profile, which puts an overcast of unwanted dullness. Strength and body is still medium.

Patina Connecticut Copper

Final Third

Seth: The final third continues to deliver the flavor profile from the first two thirds, and it has a nice bit of depth and complexity. Strength and body remain at that medium level.
John: The last third gets going with a combination of hay, mild bitterness and wood through the center of the profile. Bitterness joins the finish as the last third settles in, with dry hay and wood moving into the post draw. By the halfway point, musty dry wood has moved into the center of the retrohale. Through the bottom half, char joins the finish and increases in intensity as the cigar heats up.
Jiunn: The final third is unchanged as the wood bitterness is still dominant, now making the flavors feel that much duller and monotonous. Strength and body finishes the same medium.

Patina Connecticut Copper

Burn

Seth: The burn is very good from start to finish.
John: As with every review, I lit the cigar with my Xikar Tactical single torch lighter. The burn was straight through the entire review process.
Jiunn: Burn performance was perfect, giving an even burn, tight ashes, cool burning temperatures and ample smoke production.

Patina Connecticut Copper

Draw

Seth: The draw is great from beginning to end.
John: As with every review, I used my Colibri SV to make a V-cut. I measured the draw with the Cigar Medics draw machine at 48 inches of water. Subjectively, I found the draw to be one notch towards the resistant spectrum, which puts it in the ideal range between open and resistant.
Jiunn: The draw was also perfect, giving the ideal air flow and resistance.

Overall

Seth: I like the Patina Connecticut Copper. It has a good flavor profile that has depth and complexity. There is not a ton of transitioning, but there are shifts in the flavor profile throughout the cigar that help deliver a good experience. The body and strength match with the flavor profile, and this is a cigar that will speak to many smokers. With a great burn and draw, this is a cigar I will come back to in the future.
John: Blind Cigar #1597 was an interesting cigar in terms of its progression, even though the overall experience ultimately landed in the Average range. The first third started with a fairly approachable combination of sweet tobacco, herbs and dry wood, but the tannic character of the wood continued to build and began to overshadow some of the more interesting elements. The cocoa that appeared through the retrohale was a welcome addition, although it never had enough presence to become a major part of the profile. The second third was the high point of the cigar. Cocoa, baking spices and sharp tannic wood created a much more defined profile, with the baking spices becoming the primary driver through the retrohale. When those spices settled back to medium-minus strength, the emergence of musty bread added another layer and kept the profile from becoming completely one-dimensional. Unfortunately, the final third moved in the opposite direction. Hay, dry wood, bitterness and eventually char increasingly dominated the experience. The cigar became more drying and bitter as it heated up, and the more appealing sweetness and cocoa from earlier in the review were largely gone. Construction was excellent, however. The burn was completely uneventful from start to finish, and the draw landed right where I want it, with just a slight amount of resistance. The two-hour-and-41-minute smoking time was also quite long for a 6 x 44 Corona. Ultimately, I found the Patina Connecticut Copper to be a cigar with a respectable middle third but not enough consistency across the entire smoking experience to push it beyond Average. There were some genuinely enjoyable moments, particularly when the cocoa and baking spices were working together in the second third, but the increasing tannins, dryness, bitterness and char in the final third pulled the overall experience back down. Total smoking time was 2 hours and 41 minutes.
Jiunn: This Patina Connecticut Copper is such a pitfall of an Ecuadorian Connecticut shade (assuming this is the wrapper). That is, inherent bitterness of the leaf that needs to be blended “out.” If there wasn’t such a dominant bitter nature, this cigar would check all the boxes for me of a delicious shade. But as is, it’s not for me.

Seth Geise

SCORE

6.57

Cost/Point

$1.90

Scoring System

John McTavish

SCORE

6.10

Cost/Point

$2.05

Scoring System

Jiunn Liu

SCORE

6.10

Cost/Point

$2.05

Scoring System

Team Cigar Review: Patina Connecticut Copper