J.C. Newman has been celebrating their Bricktoberfest for six years with Brick House cigars and in 2022 they released for the first time a limited edition cigar for the promotion. For 2023 they are releasing a similar iteration to the 2022 Bricktoberfest with a 6 x 52 cigar, but have gone with an Ecuadorian Habano Rosado wrapper instead of the Nicaraguan Jalapa wrapper which was on the 2022. I was interested in the wrapper change because Habano wrappers are one of my favorite, but I also tend to gravitate to Nicaraguan Habano over Ecuadorian. The cigar is blended to be paired alongside a märzen-style beer that is most commonly consumed during Oktoberfest, but for me I only review with water so I wont be able to comment on how good the pairing is but hope to try it out one day.

“My grandfather, J.C. Newman, was born in the only house made out of brick in a small village in Austria-Hungary,” said Eric Newman. “He lived with his family on the second floor while the first floor was the local tavern and general store. The ‘Brick House’ cigar label depicts his family’s home. My ancestors gathered in the original ‘brick house’ to relax and celebrate with beer and cigars 150 years ago, and Bricktoberfest is the perfect way to celebrate the season with beer and Brick House cigars today.”

Under the Lid

The box the cigars come in is a nice dark wooden box with a golden accented theme. The box is outlined with the classic Brick House design that is old school with a modern twist. The cigar is wrapped in a reddish brown wrapper that is smooth with mainly thin veins and few slightly thicker ones. The wrapper seam is slightly raised in one area and just slightly away from the cigar. The cap has a nice pigtail with a couple of nice caps underneath. The cigar has two bands, the main band is a beige theme with the Brick House name and logo with a secondary band in red background and gold writing theme with Bricktoberfest limited edition written in red.

• Wrapper: Ecuador (Habano Rosado)
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Nicaragua
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Vitola: 6 X 52 Toro
• Factory: J.C. Newman PENSA
• Release Date: September 2023
• Number of Cigars Released: Limited release with unknown quantitiy
• MSRP: $10.00 ($100 for a box of 10)

The cold draw gives off hints of fig like sweetness and a mild pepper that tickles the tongue slightly. The foot gives off aromas of must grape almost like wine in a cellar, and the wrapper gives off aromas of barnyard.

Performance Notes

First Third: The Bricktoberfest 2024 opens up with notes of baking spice, oak, and leather. The baking spice and oak are more upfront in the profile with the leather playing a role in the background. The baking spice reminds of a light cinnamon and a hint of ginger spice. The palate stimulation is mainly middle and back of tongue with a mild amount of cheek stimulation, mildy salivating. As this third develops the profile brings in a hint of citrus occasionally but the core flavor notes of baking spices, oak, and mild leather are the predominent flavor notes. Every few puffs there seems to be a bit of muddling in the profile and flavors become slightly hard to pull out. The retrohale adds a depth of spice with some pepper, oak, and mild generic sweetness. The finish medium in length and leaves me with a mild spice and mild leather.

Second Third: The second third continues with the core flavors of baking spices, oak, and mild leather. The baking spices become a bit more generic and its hard to pull out each core component and is adding a bit more bite compared to the frist third with the spice. As the second third continues, the oak takes on a slight toasted note that lingers a bit more into the finish. The profile overall becomes slightly more muddled and more puffs are becoming harder to pull each different flavor note from, but there is nothing off putting about the flavors which is nice. The retrohale still adds some pepper spice, oak, and a mild sweetness. The finish is lingering slightly longer than the first third with mild spice, and leather.

Final Third: The final third starts off with a sharp turn down and becomes quite overly muddled and hot. It becomes quite hard to pull anything out more than charred oak, and pepper during most of this third. The palate becomes quite dry due to the overly woody profile and I find myself reaching for water to get through this third. The retrohale is a redeeming quality still with a consistent pepper, and oak addition but the sweetness is almost fully gone. The finish is even more lingering on the palate and as mentioned previously I find myself consistently gravitating to water to cleanse the palate.

Core Flavors: Baking spices, Oak, Leather

Strength: Mild + to Medium

Body: Medium

Complexity: Mild to Medium

Smokin Experience: The Brick House Bricktoberfest 2023 starts out with some generic and nice flavors of baking spice, oak, and leather with some minor transitions through the first third and an overall pleasent profile during the time. Unforutunately the profile slowly starts to muddle through the second third and greatly drops off adding some unpleasent drying and char flavors during the final third with a heavily muddled profile. The burn for all samples were great, but the draw for one sample started out quite tight and opened up slightly in the second third. At a $10 pricepoint and knowing that the Brick House brand is a bit more on the budget side of things the cigar fell in line with my smoking expectations. The cigar may be good for someone who really likes a more linear flavor profile with a wood and baking spice dominent flavor experience. The overall experience was similar between the 2022 and 2023 bricktoerbefest cigars but as you will see the scores are quite different due to the fact that I have been adjusting my reviewing process and scoring systems.

Purchase Recommendation: Not Recommended

Smokin Facts:

• There is a QR code on the back of the Bricktoberfest bands that leads you to their website to learn more about the cigar you are smoking
• The 2022 version had the year denoted on them, but the samples we received did not have the year denoted on them which to me is a bit of a miss
• There was a das boot stein promotion with the cigars where you would receive a branded stein if you purchased five bricktoberfest cigars from participating retailers

Smokin Wrap:

Cigars Smoked: 2

Average Smoking Time: 1 hour and 55 minutes

Score: 84

Mitchell Santaga – Product Reviews

Mitchell Santaga started his journey into tobacco in 2011 by trying different flavored and machine-made cigars while enjoying a handle of Jack Daniels whisky. Shortly after that he yearned for a more premium experience and dove headfirst into pipe tobacco that his local tobacconist blended, and soon after started indulging in premium cigars.