The Caldwell Long Live the King Manzanita takes one of Robert Caldwell's original 2014 blends and distills it into a wonderfully old-school 4" x 42 Short Corona. Long Live the King was created as the richer, more assertive side of Caldwell's early portfolio, and the tobacco bears that out. A reddish Dominican Corojo wrapper and Corojo binder surround an unusually interesting combination of Dominican ligero and Pelo de Oro, Nicaraguan Habano and Peruvian tobacco. That's a lot of character packed into a very small cigar, and it's precisely the kind of slightly unconventional recipe that helped put Caldwell on the map.
The Manzanita is an especially good size for this blend because a 42 ring gauge leaves nowhere for the wrapper to hide. Corojo spice and cedar arrive early, followed by earth, roasted coffee and dark chocolate, with the richer filler tobaccos adding weight underneath. There's pepper here, certainly, but also a natural sweetness and occasional floral quality that keep the cigar from becoming one-dimensional. Caldwell calls Long Live the King full-bodied, and in this compact format the flavors are concentrated from the outset rather than requiring a long warm-up.
If you appreciate traditional ring gauges and cigars that favor tobacco character over sheer size, put a few Manzanitas in the humidor. This isn't a quick-smoke compromise—the 4 x 42 proportions are arguably one of the most interesting ways to experience Long Live the King, keeping the Dominican Corojo prominent while concentrating the complexity of that unusually diverse filler blend. For the seasoned smoker looking for a smaller cigar with genuine depth and plenty of personality, the Manzanita is an easy Caldwell to recommend—and one you'll likely want more than one of once you discover what this little cigar can do.
