Culture Vulture Robusto — Review

Culture Vulture Review: Does the Cigar Back Up the Artwork?

Here's my take going in. The Black Works Studio Culture Vulture is the kind of cigar that gets attention on looks alone, and that always makes me a little skeptical. So I'm writing this Culture Vulture review for one reason: to answer whether the smoking experience actually backs up the artwork. It does.

First Light: A Lot Going On

I'll start this Culture Vulture review where the cigar started. Right from the first light there was a lot happening. Complex, colorful, interesting from the start. That's not always a compliment, to be fair. Sometimes a busy opening means a cigar hasn't found itself yet.

So I stayed patient. I didn't judge it in the first inch, and I let it settle in rather than deciding what it was too early. That turned out to be the right call, and it's the first thing I'd tell anyone picking one up.

What I Tasted Once It Settled

Once the cigar settled in, I started picking up an ample amount of fresh bread and wheat. Underneath that came sweetness, honey, chocolate and earthiness.

Those are my notes from my cigar, and I'm leaving it there. Everything in this Culture Vulture review comes from that one smoke, nothing else. I'm not going to pad the list to sound more thorough than I was. What I'll say is that the bread and wheat were the thread running through it, and the honey and chocolate gave it somewhere to go.

Construction: This Is Where It Really Impressed Me

If there's one part of this Culture Vulture review I want to underline, it's this. The construction impressed me as much as the flavor did. The cigar felt dense and properly filled in the hand. It produced a tremendous amount of smoke, and it burned great the whole way.

I want to be specific about one thing, because it's the failure I see most often in cigars built around an unusual wrapper combination: I never got the feeling that this one was underfilled. I didn't have to fight with it. No relights to wrestle with, no babysitting. I just smoked it, which sounds like a low bar until you've had a few cigars that couldn't clear it.

The Artwork, and the Cigar as Part of It

I love what Black Works Studio did here. To me it's a breath of fresh air: bold, different, and much more up my alley than the usual cigar presentation. I like seeing a company take a visual chance, and I like it a lot more when the cigar underneath delivers.

What makes it work is that the cigar itself becomes part of the artwork. The three-wrapper ombre construction puts Ecuador Maduro, Connecticut and Candela on the same cigar, so the thing in your hand is as unusual as the box it came out of. Underneath sits an Ecuador Habano binder over Nicaraguan fillers. If Candela isn't normally your thing, note that here it's one component of something bigger, not the whole idea. Our guide to Connecticut cigars is a good primer on one of the three leaves in play.

What I smoked

The Three Vitolas, and What They Cost

This Culture Vulture review covers the Robusto, but the cigar comes in three sizes, all in boxes of 20. The Panatela is 6 x 42 at $13.50, the Robusto I smoked is 5 1/4 x 50 at $14.00, and the Toro is 6 x 48 at $14.50.

On price, I'll be direct. Fourteen dollars for what I got out of that Robusto is a tremendous smoking experience for the money. This is a limited edition with three wrappers on it, handmade at Fabrica Oveja Negra in Esteli, and it's priced like a regular-production cigar.

Black Label TradingBlack Works Studio Culture Vulture RobustoShop the Robusto

The Verdict

Great artwork can only carry a cigar so far. At some point it has to deliver, and this one absolutely does. That's the short version of my Culture Vulture review: the presentation got my attention, and the cigar earned it.

So here's where I land. I was very impressed. I would absolutely smoke it again, and I'd buy it again at this price. If you've been curious about it, this is one I'd tell you to go ahead and try. Remember it's a limited edition, so it won't sit on the shelf forever. For more from the same house, the Black Label Trading Co. collection is where to look next.

Mardo Cigars sells premium tobacco products intended for adults 21 and older. Please enjoy responsibly.