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Cigar Review Drew Estate Liga Privada #9

When Smoked: January, 2025
Obtained from: single purchase from local shop
Rested/aged about one month in my humidor
Size: Corona Extra 6 inches x 46
Approximate cost: US$15
See ratings below

This video is my review of the Drew Estate Liga Privada #9. I haven’t had one in a couple years or more (I believe I smoked the “Flying Pig” vitola a little more recently than that but not the standard vitolas), so I thought I’d revisit it- as I recall, it wasn’t a great cigar in my previous experiences and reviews are not consistently positive.

There is quite a backstory, more mythology surrounds the Liga Privada than any cigar I know of. As the tale goes, the floor workers developed their own private blend (Liga Privada) exclusively for workers to smoke on the shop floor. The blend turned out to be so good that the company decided to release it to the public. The story continues that, after Drew Estate made the Liga Privada available to the public, they asked the factory workers to alter the in-house blend to use a different wrapper because they were hard pressed to meet both public and internal demand – thus the Undercrown Maduro was born. Two cigar origin tales for the price of one!

The Liga Privada #9 was originally blended in about 2006 by Steve Saka, who is now the boss at Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust. That was back in the days when Jonathan Drew was running Drew Estate, when the company was just growing into the major cigar producer it has become. FYI, the Drew Estate brand is now owned and managed by Swisher International Group, who bought it in 2014.

Specs on the Liga Privada #9 – a very dark Oscuro wrapper aged 18 months, with a dark Brazilian Mata Fina binder and blend of Nicaraguan and Honduran filler. The finished sticks are aged another year before boxing and shipping.

Construction is excellent, although I compare it to the Dubarton Sin Comprimiso in the video, the Liga Privada is packed tighter and smoking time is quite a bit longer. Draw was perfect, and it had a straight burn right down to the end. No hint of unraveling or any other problems.

Flavor profile was primarily earthy and espresso coffee, a very pleasant flavor profile. Body and strength are full. All in all, I rated the smoking experience a 9.5/10.

At about US$15 for most of the vitolas, the Liga Privada #9 isn’t cheap but as “moderately priced” cigars raise their prices, the gap is closing and as the price difference narrows the Liga Privada #9 is more and more worth the price.