Caldwell Eastern Standard debuted in 2014 alongside The King Is Dead and Long Live The King cigars, with the trio collectively making up the brand's premiere Caldwell Collection. This unique cigar first caught smokers' attention by its atypical appearance, displaying a pencil-sketched drawing of a bearded fisherman named Hans Nielsen Lahkso.

But it wasn't the cigar's peculiar look that kept cigar enthusiasts coming back. When first released, the cigars included unusually specific information on the fine-tuned Dominican recipe, with exact tobacco varietals and vintages listed on the box. Due to added scrutiny from looming FDA regulations, this is no longer the case. However, the Eastern Standard's beloved refinement remains, showcasing a unique Connecticut Shade / Brazilian Mata Fina hybrid-seed wrapper atop a Dominican Habano binder and Cuban-seed fillers harvested from Nicaragua and the DR. From the outset it becomes clear—this is not your father's Connecticut... Caldwell Eastern Standard lights up with an abundantly smooth texture, soon joined by refined flavors of pepper, oak, heavy table cream, foreign spices, espresso, and aged tobacco.