The Las Calaveras is an annual release from Crowned Heads that pays tribute to friends and family of the company’s staff who have passed away over the course of the year. I’ve personally experienced the deaths of both friends and family in 2024 so, yeah, it fucking sucks. But nothing can cure the blues quite like a great cigar. Let’s see how she smokes!
THE CIGAR – LAS CALAVERAS EDICIÓN LIMITADA 2024 LC52 by CROWNED HEADS
Size: 5 x 52
Wrapper: Nicaraguan (habano-seed)
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Price: $14.95 (samples were purchased for review BUT you can head over to Famous Smoke Shop right now where the entire Las Calaveras is currently on sale and get $20 off your purchase of $100 or more by using promo code TNCC20)
The Las Calaveras Edición Limitada 2024 LC52 features a medium-brown wrapper that’s devoid of surface oils but not devoid of a series of small veins running up, down, and all around. Sniffing the foot of the cigar directly reveals both sweetness and an aroma similar to fresh basil. The Las Calaveras is firmly rolled with just a slight give to it and, it’s worth mentioning, that the color scheme of the primary band (hot pink, black, emerald green) really pops visually. I dig it.
The cold draw is alive with floral, salt, and cedar. Upon torching the foot, a crackling spice lights up my nostrils while a dry woodsiness backed by black coffee pours in through the draw. At around the 1” mark a slight creaminess begins to develop underneath the pepper spice. After that bold introduction, the cream is a surprising but most welcome new player in the game.
Construction so far has been good, the Las Calaveras is drawing smooth and the burn line is fine. Speaking of smooth, the introduction of cream via the retrohale has smoothed out the cigar’s overall profile considerably. The spice still tingles upstairs (that isn’t a negative) but both it and the draw’s now-bold coffee note needed a disruptor to drop in and settle things down. Enter the cream.
I realize that by typing that previous sentence I’m fully opening myself up to an endless amount of jokes and zinging at my expense. But the cream did enter, how the fuck else can I explain it? “The cream gradually developed”
I finally feel compelled to thump off the impressively strong ash of the Las Calaveras right before the fifty yard line. The woodsiness is currently buried underneath the draw’s primary coffee flavor but the heavy whipping cream is now present downstairs as well (that’s a positive). A winning combination of Nesquik vanilla milk and toasted marshmallow suddenly appears on the retro and these notes complement the cream and spice nicely.
The Las Calaveras continues on the path detailed above for some while. Look, can we all just forget about that whole “Enter the cream” thing from earlier? Let’s be grown ups here. While the slightly wavy burn line was never problematic, it has admirably straightened itself out over the last 36 minutes. The pepper’s strength begins to increase and with that shift in gears the complimentary flavors are pushed out of the way. Soon after the uptick in spice, the cream vanishes from both the retro and the draw.
The final act of the Las Calaveras is somewhat of a return to its beginning. The peppery retrohale working side by side with the draw’s primary bold coffee note. While the Las Calaveras has teetered occasionally with becoming a full-strength cigar, the body has been straight-up medium from start to finish.
THE NUB
TNCC FINAL SCORE = 93
The Las Calaveras Edición Limitada 2024 LC52 is an extremely balanced, at times complex, impressive cigar from Crowned Heads. The flavor additions and transitions in the middle portion of the 66 minute smoking experience were the highlight for me. Factor in the fantastic construction and you can count me in on buying more of these before they’re gone forever.
