A Few Family X Loyalty Cigars

Over the past year or so I’ve gotten to know, and become friends with, Phil from comedycigarsmusic.com. He produces some engaging content, using video, podcast, and written formats. I look forward to his “Phil Switch” and “1st and 15th” podcasts (the latter with Kaplowitz), for their entertainment value, although they are light on cigar content. It’s my understanding that the next 1st and 15th show may finally tackle the long awaited “Cigar 101” topic. I’m not holding my breath. All that to say that I sent Phil some cigars a while ago, and he, despite my cautioning not to, sent me a pack of cigars, may of which I hadn’t yet smoked. Chief among these were three cigars with enormous, brightly colored bands from a company called Family X Loyalty. I had never heard of this brand before, and I’ve heard of a lot! Information about this brand is elusive. They have a nice website, although there is no “About” page. I can’t seem to glean any information, even their address listed is incomplete. I suppose I could dig into the “whois” and all, but who has the time, as long as the cigars are good. The cigars were good (a little digging leads me to believe these may be made at Jonas Santana’s Blackbird factory in the DR. I can see this as that factory produces some excellent cigars) . I started with the Skoll. This has a yellow band covering the majority of the cigar. This is a Gran Toro (6″ x 54) wrapped in a Brazilian Cubra wrapper with a Criollo 98 binder and Nicaraguan fillers. “Criollo” is consistently misspelled on the website, by the way, unless there’s a “Crillo” tobacco I don’t know about. This cigar started with a bitter espresso flavor, but smoothed out to a medium to full bodied black coffee. I really quite liked this cigar.

Next I ventured into the Geri. This has an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper with the Criollo 98 binder and a filler blend of Criollo 98, Corojo, Nicaragua, and Pennsylvania. Again we have a mix of tobacco naming conventions, where is the Criollo and Corojo from? What varietals are coming from Nicaragua and Pennsylvania? I have an in with Blackbird, perhaps I’ll inquire, but probably not. I’m nit-picky about info on websites. This cigar, again, was very good. I noted that it started out with a brightness, which I suppose is a light spice. It had some wood and pepper notes. This is another cigar I would smoke again, very good.

The final cigar in the trilogy was the Freki. I wish I could find some back story about this brand and the naming. To my eye, they have sort of a Nordic feel to the names. I’m not sure. Looking at the bands, I’m more inclined to believe that they come from the same factory that makes Blackbird, who also uses large, colorful bands. These do tend to stand out, so there’s some wisdom to using this type of bands. Mental note, I need to get some more Blackbird Crows. The last cigar was called Freki. I got curious just now and Googled “Freki”, and is seems like Geri and Freki were Odin’s wolves in Norse mythology. It looks like Skoll is also a wolf, as is Hati, another one of their blends. I’ve uncovered the theme, I think, maybe the wolves on the bands could have been some sort of hint? I also enjoyed the Freki. I got started much later than I would have liked. We got cheap tickets to see “John Wick Chapter Four”, and spent the day watching th 2nd and 3rd movies, with some hockey interspersed, so I really wanted to sit and relax in a non-violent way. This cigar has a San Andrés wrapper, with the Criollo binder and the same fillers as the Geri. I’m guessing it’s the same blend with a different wrapper, which is fine. This was maybe the strongest of the bunch, with some nice earthy sweetness. It has some dark chocolate and some pepper. Interestingly, I think I liked all three of these cigars about the same, usually there’s one that stands out. All were excellent, and thank you again to Phil for sharing these with me. I send cigars to people and don’t expect retribution, but it’s pretty great when I get to try some new stuff!