The Mark Twain Brand

The Mark Twain brand has become well-known for offering high-quality cigars at an affordable price. It is named after the author Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain. He was famous for his cigar habit, which saw him consume as many as 40 cigars a day. While this number seems far-fetched, he certainly consumed at least 22 cigars on an average day. The brands that Twain preferred are lost to history, but he now has a brand named after him. Mark Twain Cigars is a small, independent brand that it not owned by any major cigar company. Despite the lack of support that could come with being part of a major brand, Mark Twain cigars are quite popular and can be found in smoke shops across the country. Read on to learn more about where and how the Mark Twain cigars are made.

Where & How Mark Twain Cigars Are Made

Mark Twain Cigars produces three cigars: their standard stick, simply called the Mark Twain, the Mark Twain Steamboat, and the Mark Twain memoir. For this article, we will be focusing on the original blend Mark Twain cigar.  The Mark Twain original is made in Nicaragua, as are most high-quality cigars currently sold in America.

The Types of Tobacco Used in the Mark Twain Cigar

The Mark Twain cigar uses several varieties of premium tobacco. Perhaps the most unique type of tobacco used in the Mark Twain is its wrapper. The wrapper of the standard Mark Twain is a silky Connecticut shade. The binder and filler are both made out of high-quality Nicaraguan tobacco. The binder and filler are also aged to ensure a mature taste. It should be noted that all of the available sizes of the Mark Twain cigar are very large "Churchhill" sizes that ensure a long-lasting smoking experience.

Mark Twain Cigar Tasting Notes Pre-Light

The cigar looks fairly unremarkable at first glance. Its Connecticut shade wrapper is a silky medium brown with just the slightest hint of an oily sheen. The cigar is extremely thick and long. It is a bit squishy, showing that it has not been packed as tightly as possible. There is some minimal veining, but it is hardly noticeable unless you look closely.

The pre-light aroma of the Mark Twain is a rich, nutty scent with a hint of leather. A cold draw reveals a strong taste of nuts and leather, with an appealing hint of vanilla.

First Third

The first few draws of the Mark Twain offer little to no resistance, which is often a sign of a cigar that has not been packed as tightly as possible. However, these draws do produce a bountiful amount of resinous smoke, which is thick but not overly so. The finish is quite short, but that is to be expected with a more affordable cigar.

The flavors of nuts and leather dominate in the first third of the cigar, though there is a noticeable taste of wood. The woody taste is a little bitter, but still quite pleasant. Overall, the first third of the cigar is tasty, though it does smoke down very quickly. The woody flavors continue into the mid-third of the cigar.

Mid-Third

The woody flavors from the first third of the cigar continue into the beginning of the middle portion of the Mark Twain. The cigar's flavors develop nicely throughout the first third, and the short finish lengthens pleasantly. The woody flavor gets less bitter as you make your way through the middle part of the cigar. Also, the nutty flavor continues throughout the middle portion of the cigar.

The body gets a but smaller in the middle part of the cigar, but it was still on the larger side. The nutty and woody flavors continued through the final portion of the middle of the cigar as it transitions to the final third of the stick.

Final Third

The final third of the cigar is similar to the mid-third. The dominant woody and nutty flavors that ran through the first third are also the main flavors of the cigar's last third. The woody and nutty flavors continue to mellow out and get smoother. The final third does begin to get squishy with roughly an inch still left of the stick. 

This is hardly surprising, considering the other hints that the cigar is not packed as tightly as it could be. It is also worth noting that the cigar's smoke became quite hot with about an inch left of the stick, at roughly the same time that the cigar became a bit squishy. It's probably best to simply throw the cigar away when there is only an inch left instead of smoking it all the way down to the nub.

The Mark Twain Cigar is Worth a Try

In conclusion, the Mark Twain cigar is a solid but imperfect smoke. It has nice mellow flavors of wood and nut with a hint of vanilla sweetness thrown in. It does have a slight bitterness in the mid-third, though this fades away. The cigar's main problems all stem from it not being packed as tightly as possible with its tobacco. This leads to a bit of a squishy stick before you start smoking. It also leads to the large cigar smoking quite quickly. Finally, loose packing also causes the smoke to get hot and the last part of the cigar to get squishy. However, the low price of the Mark Twain cigar means that it is still worth a try.