Date Added: Saturday 15 August, 2026
Picked this up as a £10 special from C.Gars, which is fitting given the Mitchellero line is Mitchell Orchant’s own house brand. At 4” x 60 it’s a stubby, almost comically thick little thing, and I went in expecting a quick, forgettable smoke. It turned out to be neither. The Peru line is handmade in Nicaragua from a blend of Nicaraguan and Peruvian long-filler, and that Peruvian component does something genuinely interesting to the profile.
The wrapper is a dark, oily natural leaf with decent tooth. Cold draw gave up raisin and a bit of barnyard. Construction was spot on — no soft spots, and while a 60 ring gauge can draw loose, this one had just enough resistance.
The first third opens with cocoa and a coffee-grounds bitterness in the good sense, with black pepper on the retrohale that settles after ten minutes. The middle third is where it earns its keep: cedar comes forward, the pepper recedes, and a leathery, faintly sweet core sits underneath. The final third builds in richness — more espresso, a touch of dried fruit — without tipping into harshness or ammonia, which is u