Crowned Heads Moonflower Toro and a Bourbon-Forward Boulevardier

Preparing for some Sunday afternoon relaxing on the screened porch, I turned to the humidor to select a cigar to light up. I spied the Crowned Heads Moonflower cigars I had picked up exactly one month earlier. I’d been anxious to try them, and now that they had reached my preferred minimum rest time, that moment had arrived.

Earlier in the day I had been thinking about making a Boulevardier to sip while enjoying a leisurely afternoon, and it still seemed like a good match for what I had in mind for the Moonflower.

The Crowned Heads Moonflower is a new regular-production cigar introduced earlier this year. A Nicaraguan Corojo wrapper grown in Namanji, double binders from Estelí and Jalapa, and fillers from Estelí, Jalapa and Condega make up the substantial 6 × 54 Toro size that I had picked up.

The Moonflower opened with sweet cream and nuttiness. The draw was more open than I prefer, and the cigar started out a bit muted. As it warmed, soft hints of white pepper and cedar joined the mix. The last half of the cigar picked up a blend of milk chocolate and coffee.

Since I expected the cigar to feature sweet and creamy notes rather than the darker, espresso-leaning profile typical of a Nicaraguan puro, I made the Boulevardier a bit more bourbon-forward, using a 2:1:1 ratio of bourbon, Campari, and sweet vermouth. I selected Michter’s US*1 Small Batch Bourbon as the whiskey component.

The cigar’s pepper notes were light and well-balanced. Still, I thought the bourbon-forward Boulevardier rounded that spice and helped amplify the cigar’s creamy, nutty sweetness. The bitterness of the Campari kept the combination from becoming too sweet.

The 6 × 54 Toro provided an enjoyable 80-minute smoke, giving the flavors plenty of time to develop. The Moonflower smoked quite well despite the relatively short humidor rest. I did need to relight it once, though that was likely a result of enjoying the conversation with my wife rather than paying attention to the cigar.

The Moonflower and Boulevardier turned out to be a better match than I’d anticipated, particularly with the bourbon-forward recipe and touch of orange bitters. It’s a combination I’ll happily revisit.

I had initially thought about smoking a well-aged Foundation Wise Man Maduro Toro with the Boulevardier before diverting to the Moonflower. I think that cigar will also make an interesting pairing for the tweaked Boulevardier.

So many choices, so little time.

Cheers!