Blackened

Blackened is what happens when a master distiller, a metal frontman, and a cigar maker who all happen to be friends decide to build something together. The line is a three-way collaboration between Drew Estate founder Jonathan Drew, Metallica co-founder James Hetfield, and Rob Dietrich, master distiller of Blackened American Whiskey. It started with Hetfield and Dietrich, who smoke cigars together regularly, and grew through Dietrich’s longtime friendship with Jonathan Drew. The flagship M81 is named for 1981, the year Metallica formed, and it is built almost entirely from dark Maduro tobacco: a Mexican San Andrés wrapper over Connecticut Broadleaf, with Nicaraguan and Pennsylvania filler, full of coffee, dark chocolate, and pepper. Blended by Willy Herrera at La Gran Fabrica Drew Estate in Nicaragua and made to pair with the whiskey, Blackened cigars hit hard and finish smooth.