In 2015, James Brown, owner of Black Label Trading Company and co-owner of Fabrica de Oveja Negra, created Black Works Studio (BLK WKS) as way to experiment with tobaccos in different blends featuring Nicaraguan tobaccos.  It’s sort of the mad science laboratory for James Brown.  Our friends at Cigar Federation have a post about its creation here.  They’ve released 4 blends so far, NBK, Green Hornet, Killer Bee and Rorschach, and are releasing their first limited edition, Sindustry.

The Sindustry, slated for release in February 2017, will be released in 3 sizes:

• Robusto:  5 x 50 ($9.50, 20 ct box)
• Toro: 6 1/4 x 48 ($10.00, our review size, 20 ct box)
• Lancero: 7 x 38 ($9.50, 16 ct box)

Blend

• Wrapper:  Mexican San Andres
• Binder:  Nicaraguan Habano
• Filler:  Nicaraguan
• Body:  Full

I was able to find these at Crescent City Cigars ahead of the official release thanks to my good friend, Armando Ortiz, owner of Crescent City Cigars, getting some early boxes.

Pre-Light and Construction

This cigar is gorgeous with a dark brown, oily wrapper.  The wrapper is very smooth and the cigar features a closed foot.  Even with the closed foot, I still able to get a decent draw with flavors of oak, rich tobacco and earth.

First Half

This cigar is a flavor bomb.  The cigar lit up easily and produced a ton of smoke. I got notes of black pepper, caramel, oak, all spice, cocoa and black currant.  The black current was something that was hard to pinpoint at first.  I knew I was getting a fruity note, but couldn’t quite put my finger on exactly what I was tasting.  It came in about an inch into the cigar and it sort of reminded me of black cherry until I read James Brown description of the blend in which he mentioned black currant.  I had an AH HA! moment then.  That is what I was tasting.  The cocoa note and black pepper were the most dominate, but the savory all spice note and sweet caramel note were nice accents.

Last Half

The last half was more savory.  The oak, cocoa and black pepper were still the dominate notes, but I started to get a rich tobacco note along with a nice coffee note.  I really loved the coffee note as it seemed to replace the sweet caramel note I was getting earlier.  The cigar did start to burn a little lopsided at one point, but it quickly self corrected.

Final Impressions

This cigar is outstanding.  I loved everything about the cigar.  The construction was terrific and the notes of oak, black pepper, all spice, sweet caramel, coffee, cocoa, rich tobacco and black currant were sublime.  So far, I’ve been very impressed with the releases from Black Works Studio.  This is a cigar that I must get a box of as soon as possible.  Since this is a limited release, I need to do that soon, as should you.  If you see these at your local cigar shop, snap them up or keep an eye out on Cigar Federation so when they released them to order.  If you like full bodied, full flavor cigars, do not miss out on this one.

*Photo courtesy of Black Works Studio