The Dirty Rat Coming Soon to Stores

David Savona
Posted: August 26, 2010

The Dirty Rat is finally heading out of Nicaragua.

The pigtailed corona, the first in the Liga Privada Ünico Serie of specially shaped cigars, is being packed at La Gran Fabrica Drew Estate and will be on cigar store shelves by early September.

The smoke, which Drew Estate executives have been showing off at least since the Nicaraguan cigar festival held late last year, is a five inch long, 44 ring gauge corona with a pigtail. The company has been handing out samples of the cigar adorned with a simple, white band reading "Dirty Rat." It's now complete, and has become one of a group of special cigar sizes made in the Drew Estate factory using a blend that's different from the standard Liga Privada No. 9 or the Liga Privada T52.

"At this point, we have made 200 or more Liga Privada blends," said Drew Estate's Steve Saka. "There are probably nine or 10 of them so far that are exceptional….They're cigars that work as a particular size, such as a lancero or corona, with the blend being unique to that particular vitola. The Dirty Rat is a great example of this, so we have decided to introduce this as the first cigar in the Ünico line."

The Dirty Rat is made with a dark wrapper grown in the Connecticut River Valley. While it resembles broadleaf (which is used on Liga Privada No. 9) it's actually a Havana-seed wrapper grown in limited quantities in the Valley (the wrapper is used on the Liga Privada T52). The binder is Brazilian, and the filler is a mix of Nicaraguan and Honduran tobaccos, very heavy on Nicaraguan tobacco from the Estelí Valley, which is prized for its strength.

The Dirty Rats are not dirt cheap—the cigars have a suggested retail price of $12 per cigar. It won't be a limited edition, but will be made in small batches.

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