Video review HERE.
(Description taken from Cigar-Coop.com website)
Caldwell Cigar Company’s maduro offering, the Eastern Standard Midnight Express had its official launch at the 2016 IPCPR Trade Show.
Eastern Standard Midnight Express uses the Araparica Connecticut Shade Hybrid leaf found on the company’s Eastern Standard line. The difference is the leaf is subject to additional fermentation to transform it into a maduro wrapper.
The Eastern Standard Midnight Express is packaged in 20 count boxes and is available in the following sizes:
Corona (5 3/8 x 46)
Robusto (5 x 50)
Toro (6 x 52)
Pyramid (6 x 50) REVIEWED TODAY
Pricing ranges from $10.00 to $13.80.
The cigar is a dark brown but not the typical look of a maduro cigar. The foot is the largest ring and it tapers quickly and consistently to the cap.
The test draw after cutting the minimum from the pointed cap was very good. The initial flavors at light up were an earthy chocolate and coffee. There is a minor amount of sweetness in the chocolate and comes across as a lightly sweet cedar with some brown sugar. The cigar does not start off overly sweet. There was black pepper rated at a 7 1/2.
About 1 1/2 inch in the burn is already off. I want to try and let it catch up on it's own. I am losing some of the massive earthy notes. The cigar is medium bodied. The finish is a sweet cream with some influence of the chocolate. The sweetness has picked up and it appears to be coming from the brown sugar. This is a rather dark noted cigar but it lacks significant sweetness. 
Around the midpoint I am still fighting the burn. I may have to touch up the cigar. There are a lot of chocolate notes, brown sugar, coffee, minor amount of earthiness. There is now a small amount of butter noted which helps. The cigar is medium to full bodied now. 
With about 2 1/2 inches remaining I had to touch up the cigar. The burn did not even out. The cigar is the best it's been so far. There are a lot of chocolate notes, more butter notes, brown sugar, touch of cedar, and coffee. The pepper is improving and is up close to an 8. The cigar is medium to full bodied. The finish is unchanged. There is an average amount of lingering black pepper. The sweetness has improved greatly at this point.
The cigar ended on the uptick. The cigar continued to get better the smaller the ring gauge got. There are a tremendous amount of chocolate, brown sugar, and cedar notes. The coffee held the base. The slight amount of buttery notes greatly helped the cigar. The first third of the cigar I would rate an 88. The midpoint I would rate a 90 and the final third a 92. In the end I rated the overall cigar a 91. With the cigar improving so much as it burned and got to a smaller ring gauge I wonder how a small ring cigar in this version would be.
Score: 91
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