“Relax, Unwind, Gather, Celebrate, and Enjoy!”
—Chantel Leavitt
Owner, Bella Dama Cigars
What Makes It An Ace
Acing in poker requires patience and concentration! This medium to full bodied Ace cigar provides the perfect amount of relaxing nicotine to help keep your head in the game, while simultaneously faking out your opponents.
It is absolutely delicious with its chocolatey Mexican San Andres Maduro wrapper. Its Dominican Habano binder and Dominican fillers balance the blend perfectly with its sweet and creamy notes of earth, wood, and perfect little Bella Dama kiss of spice on the retro-hale.
Ever since the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, the cigar industry has been on a heater, with cigar shipments up nearly 50%. Enter Chantel Leavitt, and her poker focused cigar line. She has put in the work! Chantel mentioned her love of cigars started early during her childhood, serving up pancakes to her Father’s friends, who spent many all nighters in her basement playing cards, while drinking and smoking cigars. “Even as a kid, I just thought smoking cigars was just the coolest thing!”
Starting with her first cigar, called The King, in honor of her Father Ralph, a professional poker champion, Chantel has been all in with her Bella Dama cigar company, but has yet to show all her cards.
Stay tuned!
Ace Box Pressed Torpedo
Brand: Bella Dama Cigars
Vitola: 6×52 Box Press Torpedo
Filler: Dominican Criollo, Piloto, Viso
Wrapper: Mexican San Andrés Maduro
Binder: Dominican Habano
Body: Medium Plus Boldness
Price: $13
Visual/Pre-light Draw
Very oily medium brown maduro wrapper that is very smooth to the touch. The very simple but seductive black yellow and red band displays Bella Dama with its seductive red lips resting over a nice cigar. Its secondary black band displays Ace in yellow.
This is a smooth and sexy looking cigar! I get dark chocolatey bold hay notes on the side sniff. Nesquik milk chocolate and more hay notes on the dry foot odor. There is no spice on the very smooth torpedo shaped head, with a nice angled straight cut for an optimal torpedo shaped smoking experience, we get nice floral and raisin oat notes on the dry draw.
First Third
After a nice and proper slow soft flame lighting of the cigar, which produced a chocolatey and freshly lit grill smoke foot smoke odor, we get sweet vanilla bean notes on the palate. The draw is very easy and we get more vanilla bean and fresh hay notes on the retro hale, with a slight spice on the finish. Then a nice transition to charred vanilla with very sweet chocolate on the foot smoke odor. That long ash requires a tap off as the cigar is already becoming creamier in the first third. Superb! This wide box press sits perfectly on the lips and is very enjoyable so far.
Second Third
Those vanilla and earthy bella hay notes blend together for a nice charred pistachio note, very cool. Then whipped vanilla cream notes appear over some light fruitiness as the cigar’s foot smoke fills the room. On the retro-hale we get more whipped vanilla cream now with no spice. Another strategic tap off of that lengthy ash and we continue the party as “everything is fading out.” Lets celebrate our female owned cigar brands with a nice tribute track and video dedicated to female DJs. This euphoric song called Zima by Sultan + Shepard, with Delhia De France, pairs excellently with this euphoric Ace cigar.
Final Third
“This cigar is the dream I cannot hold onto!” Everything has mellowed to a very euphoric creaminess with the perfect little Bella Dama buzz. Those delicious and creamy vanilla notes persist as well as the cigar’s medium boldness, with creamy chocolate cake filling on the finish and delicious lingering aftertaste. There are more beautifully balanced vanilla infused hay notes on the creamiest retro hale as this Bella Dama cigar reminds us “you know it’s me that never ends.”
Visit BellaDamaCigars.com to try your hand at these amazing cigars. Also check out The Players Club, here players earn cards and build their hand toward cash credits for future purchases. This club is fun and the perfect way to show Chantel some Bella Dama Love!
Dark chocolate covered Luxardo cherries with beautiful caramel Rye spice on the finish.
Absolutely delicious!
The Pairing
High N’ Wicked, founded in 2019 by two former Brown-Forman senior executives, W.L. Lyons Brown, III and Kevin E. Sachs, is an importer and specialty bottler of “rare and distinctive whiskeys for the America market.” These include their amazing five year old Kentucky Straight Bourbon and new to market Cask Strength Rye, both distilled by New Riff Distilling. Currently, this is the market’s highest Rye mashbill. At its cask strength of 124 proof, this spicier Rye whiskey should balance out the boldness and chocolaty creaminess of the Bella Dama Ace Maduro perfectly.
“We found that a 91% Rye Mash Bill developed the characteristic we desired in a Rye whiskey. Balanced by 9% malted barley this presented both bright fruit, and spice character while presenting a rich malty cereal grain note in the base. It is distilled through both a Column Beer Still and Doubler, and then aged for a minimum of five years, in seasoned, medium toast, New #4 Char American white oak barrels from the Independent Stave Company in Missouri. Distilled, aged, blended and bottled entirely in Kentucky.” ~ High N’ Wicked
Their new and extremely knowledgeable Illinois Brand Development Manager, Joe McEwen, is excited to be a part of the culture and respectable transparency behind the brand. Joe explained, without those two key elements, “you’re ultimately just selling some bullshit in a bottle!”
Cigar to the whiskey: Dark chocolate covered Luxardo cherries with beautiful caramel Rye spice on the finish.
Whiskey to the cigar: Cherry Rye spice mellows to creamy white chocolate as “what goes around comes back around!”
Cigar smoked whiskey: Candied cherries melt to a caramel bomb finish, “a dream forever” in my head.
With this delicious High n’ Wicked Bella Dama pairing, we’ve got a Royal Flush, nothing beats it!
Cheers!
Ciao Bella!
Acknowledgment & Live Pairing
Thank you High n’ Wicked Illinois Brand Development Manager, Joe McEwen, and Bella Dama owner, Chantel Leavitt, for helping us navigate this amazing pairing.
Learn more about Chantel and her early love of cigars on this absolutely hilarious and off the rails episode of the The Great Cigar & Pipe Show:
Photography by: James Archie
