Origin : Nicaragua
Format : Short Figurado
Size : 4 x 60
Wrapper : Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro
Filler : Dominican, Honduran
Binder : Brazilian
Hand-Made
Price : $12.00

For Liga Privada fans, this was the holy grail of cigars for quite some time. The No. 9’s are plagued by limited supplies making them more desirable than the T-52’s. Other than their rarity, most people that I know of prefer the No. 9’s to the T-52’s. The guys at Drew Estate are coming up with a slew of new releases, so will the famous No. 9 Pigs hold their desirability. So let’s see how the pigs have evolved since their most recent release shall we?

Appearance : Rating:
The Flying Pig is a stumpy, fat, double torpedo that is covered in a thick, dark, almost prehistoric looking wrapper. The wrapper is very toothy and has some minor veins here and there on the surface. The wrappers of several of the samples were covered in large amounts of vegetable glue. Definitely not the most traditional of vitolas, it also poses as an awkward smoking experience due to its shape. It can’t be held in the mouth, and to hold it means possibly burning your fingers eventually.

Construction : Rating:
With such a small amount of space on the foot to draw from, the Flying Pig is quite easy to dry puff on once the head is cut. It has just the right amount of resistance before and after toasting the end of the cigar. The cigar was somewhat difficult to light due to the thickness of the wrapper. The burn line was a little jagged, but that is common to me in figurado shaped feet. One touch up was all that was needed on the cigar and all was well in burn town. The smoke was thick and plentiful and the ash was dark grey, pebbly, and held on for a good amount of time.

Flavor : Rating:
The smoke tends to zap the moisture out of my mouth, but delivers an initial attack of dried raisin, currant, and cognac flavors (w/ some woodsy and coffee flavors in the background). There is some slight bitterness after lighting the foot, but that goes away about an inch into the cigar. It then transitions into a comfortable creamy profile of raisin and cognac. Halfway through, a lot of complexities have been lost and flavors of dark/heavy wood and dark chocolate take over. Past the middle point I got some cereal that came through and mixed in with the previous dark chocolate notes. Close to the nub, the initial flavors came back but in a heavier, brooding form.

Value : Rating:
These cigars are sometimes easy and then sometimes difficult to get a hold of. The last I looked they could be bought from online retailers very easily. Trying to get them on the aftermarket is difficult because many people don’t want to let them go. Months ago when Drew Estate notified the aficionados that replenishments of the No. 9’s would be affected by wrapper supply/quality problems, cigar smokers everywhere scoured the earth to get their hands on what was left at the time of the No. 9’s.

Overall Rating : Rating: (3.75)
I have smoked several of the No. 9 vitolas and have to personally say this is not my favorite. I just have my feelings that the incredible wrapper flavors are lost in the large ring gauge in this particular cigar. This may be actually my least favorite vitola of all the No. 9’s. Don’t be mistaken, this cigar is good, but you won’t be seeing me selling off relatives to acquire them. More of an overachieving novelty, the Flying Pig will never live up to the expectations of its relative, the Dirty Rat. Therefore I got to relegate the Flying Pig to 3 star territory.