Despite offering nearly a dozen blends under three core lines (Ferio Tego, Metropolitan, and Timeless), Ferio Tego had only introduced two core offerings throughout their first two years on the market. This was due to the unique formation of the company, which was born out of the unfortunate closure of the venerable Nat Sherman brand during the COVID era. Seizing the opportunity to continue Nat Sherman’s legacy while simultaneously carving their own path, former Nat Sherman executives Michael Herklots and Brendon Scott acquired the rights to Nat Sherman’s premium cigar lines, kicking off Ferio Tego in 2021 with a full suite of familiar favorites.
In addition to the re-branded Timeless and Metropolitan cigars, the company launched the Generoso and Elegancia lines, both receiving high praise from Cigar Dojo in their inaugural releases. This leads to the Summa cigar, the first original core-line project from the company to be made available on a regular basis. The project was first announced in the summer of 2023, being shown off at the PCA 2023 trade show only one week later.
While the cigars feature Sumatra tobacco—and made their debut during the summer—the Summa title signifies neither. Instead, the name represents the Latin concept of ‘a comprehensive work,’ as described by Michael Herklots: “The word summa means a ‘comprehensive work’, a ‘summary’ or a ‘synthesis of the body of work thus far.’ Ferio Tego Summa is a blend that embodies the diversity and complexity of the Ferio Tego portfolio.”
Summa Corona Gorda Breakdown
- Wrapper: Ecuadorian Corojo
- Binder: Ecuadorian Sumatra
- Filler: Dominican Republic | Nicaragua
- Factory: Tabacos de Exportación (Dominican Republic)
- Production: Regular Production
- Vitola: 5¾″ × 46 (Corona Gorda)
- Price: $18.00 (MSRP)
Thus far, Ferio Tego has continued Nat Sherman’s manufacturing ties, with all cigars coming out of the Plasencia Cigars (Nicaragua), Tabacos de Exportación (Dominican Republic), and Diadema Cigars de Honduras (Honduras) factories. With Summa, the project comes from the Quesada family’s Tabacos de Exportación facility, debuting in four formats in 2023 and expanding to include a fifth size early in June of this year.
- Corona Gorda: 5¾″ × 46 | $18.00
- Robusto: 5″ x 50 | $19.00
- Toro: 6″ x 50 | $19.50
- Torpedo: 6¼” x 52 | $20.00
- Gordo: 6″ x 60 | $21.00
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Appearance
The cigar is slender but not overly so, having a nice feel in the hand. It’s triple capped and boasts a darker-than-natural hue that’s comparable to medium-roast coffee beans. There are medium and fine veins running down the leaf, having nice-looking seams and a few subtle lumps from the binder beneath. The cigar has a sturdy, springy feel when squeezed, though the foot (at least on the cigar used for review photos) looks to be on the under-filled side.
The wrapper shows notes of root beer candy and Charleston Chew, being on the subtle side and finishing with a mineral component. The foot brings rain-soaked oak, damp soil, and semi-sweet chocolate; it’s also on the subtle side in terms of aromatics. With a cut, the pre-light draw has more damp hardwoods, being joined by molasses bread and nutmeg.
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Smoking Experience
Summa kicks off with cocoa powder and a coffee aspect that’s reminiscent of Kahlúa. Continuing the powdered chocolate vibe, this character expands to be more along the lines of a tray of chocolate-powdered chocolates [cue the Forest Gump quote…]. The profile is only barely sweet at this point, being on the bitter end of chocolate and coffee. Meanwhile, the retrohale is surprisingly subdued in spice, allowing full retrohales of espresso powder and coffee-infused rum.
The burn produces a solid chunk of near-white ash, being without flakes or layers from top to bottom. The draw has a good resistance to it, bringing in a medium to medium-plus amount of smoke on each puff. It’s not the thickest smoke in appearance, but the feel is quite chewy, clinging to the tongue with a medium intensity on all fronts (flavor/strength/body).
Despite being balanced in character, certain notes rise and fall from the forefront. Burning past the two-inch mark, the profile feels toasty, with flavors of charred oak and a subtle anise. This section is quickly overrun with a more intoxicating concoction of warm gingersnap cookies dipped in rum (there’s definitely a boozy vibe throughout). As you might expect from the notes laid out, this area of the smoking experience picks up in sweetness, bringing out bread pudding, chocolate fudge, and anise cookie. With the cigar firing on all cylinders, it’s now medium-full in flavor, medium in strength, and medium-plus in body.
Each puff is sweet upfront, transitioning to mineral and toasted hardwoods through the finish. Still without a pinching spice in the retrohale, touches of nutmeg and ginger are about as punchy as the experience gets through the nostrils. Perhaps the cigar’s signature quality, the chewy texture increases from start to finish, adding root beer and cream before heading into darker territory through the finale. It becomes goo-like in texture in the closing minutes, coming across like anise syrup, roots, and dark chocolate.
Would I Smoke This Cigar Again?
Affirmative! The Ferio Tego Summa feels on par with Dojo favorites Elegancia and Generoso. It’s perhaps not as complex as the former, and not as sweet/balanced as the latter, but it brings a chewy texture and fuller intensity to stand out as a top experience from the company. All this, and I haven’t even given this the toro test yet (which will make it easier to compare to the former two cigars), which is certainly on my short list at the moment. For those in the right price range, I’d peg this as an easy recommendation to add to the regular rotation.
- One of the only criticisms I have is a little bit of inconsistency between samples. As hinted at above, the cigar that was photographed for review did, in fact, seem to be under-filled, and was significantly less enjoyable than the experience described above (still good, just not great).
- Kidding aside on the cigar’s confusing title, I do find the branding and price structure to be a bit at odds with the company’s Elegancia and Generoso lines. For starters, the cigar uses the same primary and sub-bands, only differentiating itself with its color scheme and name on the sub-band (remember, the Summa is a standalone line from the other two). Then we get into the price point, which is technically more affordable than the Elegancia/Generoso, but not by much ($19.50/toro for the Summa vs $23/toro for the other two). Then we have to take into account the boxes, with the Elegancia/Generoso having dramatically upgraded displays, including a humidor-caliber build and an embedded NFC chip that provides information on the cigar when your phone approaches the display. On the other hand, the Summa’s display is bare bones. I don’t know the specifics on box costs, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the box cost of the Elegancia/Generoso more than makes up for the gap in price between the former two and the Summa, placing the cigars at about the same cost (or perhaps even more for the Summa). Sure, there are other differences, with the Elegancia/Generoso being made in limited/annual batches that can vary from release to release, but I just get the feeling of cannibalization between the lines—why pay more for the Elegancia/Generoso when the cost seems to be going straight towards the box? All this and I’ll finish with the fact that each of these cigars are fantastic smoking experiences, it just feels like the Summa could fit neatly into the Elegancia/Generoso line (or vice versa).
- The Ferio Tego Summa was awarded Cigar Dojo’s No. 14 Cigar of the Year for 2023.
- The Summa currently ranks in the top 17 percent of cigars on the Dojoverse leaderboard, and is scored as “97% Smokable.”
- Flavor: Medium / Full
- Strength: Medium
- Body: Medium / Full
- Cocoa powder
- Fudge
- Rum cordial
- Gingerbread cookie
- Anise
- Smoke Time: 1 hour, 25 minutes
- Pairing Recommendation: Barrel-aged rum | Barleywine | Old fashioned | Cola Black Russian cocktail
- Purchase Recommendation: Box
Short Link:
- Over-the-top chewy texture
- Lots of flavor to sink your teeth into without losing balance
- Slow and steady progression that doesn't lose the plot from start to finish
- Some inconsistencies between samples
- Some samples were under-filled, becoming hot, dry, and occasionally showing off-notes