The Blood Medicine B Positive by Crowned Heads
Trying out the second release of the Crowned Heads Blood Medicine line, the limited edition B Positive. It's the same blend as the regular Blood Medicine but uses a Nicaraguan Corojo wrapper, because everything is Corojo right now. I wonder if these trends in tobacco like Corojo wrappers being so prevalent in new releases right now is customer demand driven? Or is it more a case that the growing environment was suited to turning out a good crop of Corojo so it's plentiful and affordable? Or is it a concerted marketing effort to turn out new variants just to drive customer demand for the newest release and corojo is just coincidence? I guess only the key insiders know, but it feels like it's "Corojo all the things!" in the industry right now.
BRAND / CO: Crowned Heads
CIGAR: Blood Medicine B Positive Limited Edition 2025
VITOLA: Toro - 6" x 52
STRENGTH: Medium - Full
WRAPPER: Nicaraguan Corojo, Natural
BINDER: Ecuador (Connecticut)
FILLER: Nicaragua
ORIGIN: Nicaragua, D’Hatuey Tabacos S.A. (TacaNicsa - Tabacalera Pichardo)
APPEARANCE & CONSTRUCTION: Good
It's a warm, reddish medium brown with nice sheen, heavy mottling and a very light tooth. The seams blend to the point they're almost indistinguishable and the triple cap is neat and clean. There are quite a number of veins, but they're all thin and don't affect the roll or feel of the cigar. There's a nice firmness here. The band is the same design as the standard blood medicine but with a cream on burgundy color scheme and "B Positive" added to the graphics. The red foot band however is far more attractive than the cheap looking "Limited Edition" band added to the regular Blood Medicine.
DRAW & BURN: Good / Good
The draw is a hair on the tighter side but still flowing will. The burn starts nice and even. The ash is a light gray with a lot of darkness peeking out between the cracks from the filler ash. That fine tooth is resulting in a lot of oil crystals as well. The burn never fully evens out, but it stays well controlled and stacks nicely.
FLAVOR PROFILE:
It kicks off with a lot of earth, leather and charred oak flavors, but not much else. Corojo is supposed to pack a "spicy punch" and I'm not getting any of that in the first inch. This is flat. As. Fuck. There's a very mild caramel sweetness and barely there baking spice. But it's very leathery. This needs to do something quick because I'm an inch in and it's bland.
By the second third, the caramel and baking spice have picked up slightly. The only distinguishable spice is cinnamon and it's very mild at this point. There's a dark, molasses laden, graham cracker breadiness that's creeping in, along with some mild chocolate. It's helping to pull back the leather and charred oak flavors that dominated the first third, but nothing is hitting a really robust flavor point or achieving harmony either. It's improving, but slowly. This blend is dark and a little savory, but also dry and bland. It feels like it's hitting at a mesquite profile, but it's falling short on the flavor and spice. It's just very leathery and charred without the supporting flavors.
The final third looks like it might have a little fight left in it. Pepper is finally starting to raise its head, but it's too little too late to save the smoke. This is getting better, but it's not amazing. The pepper that's finally appearing is also pushing the blend to be a little harsh. But that promise of mesquite is finally arriving, and it's not bad, but it's not amazing either. It would be a far better cigar if this had been the entire experience, but alas, it wasn't.
OVERALL EXPERIENCE: Average
Jon Huber from Crowned Heads said he wanted a "darker, meatier expression of the Blood Medicine blend," which this is, but I'm not getting the "entirely new dimension in flavor and intensity," he claimed the Corojo delivered. I got the dark and meaty in spades, but but the new dimension in flavor and intensity was totally missing. There was just too much blandness in the first half. Maybe this fits some of your palates better, but I was underwhelmed, especially as I enjoyed the regular Blood Medicine. Maybe this needs more time to rest? I'll give it some time before I revisit it but overall I found this one disappointing and a miss for my palate.
Purchase Singles or By the Box HERE
Reviewed by Sean McCloskey of The Collective