Armistead by Battleground Cigars Deserves a General’s Name

When we hear about the war between the Blue and the Grey, famous sites such as Gettysburg, Manassas or Shilo and Generals Lee, Sherman and Grant come to mind. But Battleground Cigars, seemingly far from the war by being based in Hazardville, CT follows a Civil War theme in naming its cigars. At the 2015 IPCPR Battleground gave me an Armistead (Confederate General), one of their Widow’s Son series of cigars. General Armistead was wounded and eventually died at Pickets Charge.
The Armistead was 6 ¼ X 54 dark cigar with a Brazilian wrapper, Connecticut broadleaf binder and Dominican long filler blend. The Armistead had a mild beginning and the Brazilian wrapper delivered some sweetness that surfaced as a light molasses flavor. Coffee and burned oak soon followed and by the middle a strong note of pepper arrived. While the Armistead had some complexity, cocoa undertones were present for the 1 hour and 45 minutes it took to smoke this medium bodied cigar.
The smoke volume, draw and ash were good but the uneven burn required a few touchups. The Armistead has an SRP of $9.95, just a tad high. However, I enjoyed the smoke enough to consider that price as “acceptable”. Battleground informed me that the Armistead is one of their best sellers and I can see why. I rate the Armistead a 4 out of 5.