Purple by Micallef

Joe Murdie
11 minutes ago
3 min read

Hey team, Don José here back with another review.

Today we have the

'Purple'

by Micallef

If this is your first time here, my reviews rate each cigar on 10 factors and each factor gets a rating out of 10 giving me an overall out of 100. The 10 factors are: Construction, Draw, Burn, Flavour, 1/3 overall, 2/3 overall, 3/3 overall, Journey (how well it flows), Complexity & Value for money.

Overview

Announced at the 2025 PCA Convention & Trade Show, Micallef have added a fourth stick to their 'colours' line: The Purple.

The first cigar released in the series was the Micallef Black. Its blend was derived from the Leyenda blend and uses a Mexican San Andrés maduro wrapper. Next came the Micallef Blue, with a Mexican San Andrés sumatra-seed wrapper. The third cigar in the series was Micallef Red, which used a Mexican San Andrés habano wrapper.

The Purple, quite interestingly is a blend between Blue and Red, borrowing the Mexican San Andrés wrapper and fillers from the Blue line, then the Nicaraguan binder and other fillers from the Red line.

Details:

Size: 5x52 Robusto
Wrapper: Mexico (San Andrés Sumatra)
Binder: Nicaragua (Broadleaf)
Fillers: Dominican Republic, Mexico & Nicaragua

Additionally at PCA they hinted at a 'Green' too which does looking interesting with Brazilian Mata Fina Wrapper, Mexician San Andrés Negro binder and fillers from Dominican Republic, Mexico & Nicaragua.

But lets get back to the Purple today.

About the wrapper.

Sumatra is a black tobacco leaf that was originally found in Indonesia, but the most popular version is Ecuador Sumatra which is actually a hybrid between Sumatran and Habano seeds.

Mexician Sumatra is much less common, I know that A. Turrent grows roughly 30 to 40 hectares of Sumatra in the San Andrés valley each year, so it isn't unheard of but there are not many cigars currently promoting that their Sumatran wrapper is San Andrés grown.

Sumatra is only used as a wrapper.

let's get into the review.

First thoughts

Great looking cigar, not as dark as you would expect from Sumatra wrapper, more of a light brown / classic tobacco tone.

Cold draw give natural tobacco, cocoa and earth.

Construction

Great construction, in line with all Micallef I have had to date.

Burn & Draw Burn is near-perfect, draw is great giving plenty of smoke.

Flavour & Complexity Some good complexity, and some great flavours throughout; Nuts, cocoa, pepper, chocolate, leather and cedar are the ones noticed the most.

Strength 70% - Mid-full

Enjoyment / Journey This was a great, smooth smoking cigar. Plenty of flavour and near perfect smoking.

Overall So right now, the Purple isn't readily available in NZ.. but I would not be surprised to see it soon, Its a great smoke and a good addition to the ever growing line available here.

I rate this cigar 92 points!

A look at the numbers.

Construction -- 9/10

Burn -- 9/10

Draw -- 10/10

Flavour -- 9/10

Complexity -- 8/10

First 1/3 -- 9/10

Second 1/3 -- 9/10

Third 1/3 -- 10/10

Journey -- 9/10

Value -- 10/10