There's a certain kind of cigar I reach for when I'm not trying to be fancy about it — when I want something that shows up, burns right, and delivers flavor from light to nub without making me feel like I'm attending a seminar. The Brick House Maduro has been that cigar for me for years. And now J.C. Newman has given it a bigger brother.
The Commodore. A 5.5 x 70 that just started shipping in June 2026, priced at $11.50 a stick. It's big. It's bold. And based on my time with it on the back porch here in Jacksonville, it earns the name.
What Is the Commodore?
The Brick House Maduro line has been around long enough to prove itself — Cigar Aficionado has rated it 93 and put it in the Top 25 four times, most recently as the No. 10 Cigar of 2024. It's one of those blends that just works, year after year, without drama. The Commodore is J.C. Newman's answer to the growing demand for larger ring gauges in the line: a 70-ring vitola cut to 5.5 inches, which keeps the smoke time in the 90-minute range rather than the marathon two-plus hours you get from some 7 x 70s.
It's made at Newman's PENSA factory in Estelí, Nicaragua — one of the most consistent production facilities in the business. The blend is unchanged from the rest of the Maduro line: a Brazilian Arapiraca maduro wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and filler. Dark, rich, and built for evenings when you mean it.
Construction and Cold Draw
I picked up a humidor bag of five. Out of the bag, the first thing you notice is the wrapper — dark chocolate brown, faintly oily, with a slight tooth. No soft spots, no hard lumps. It's a round vitola, not box-pressed, which suits the working-man character of the brand. Pre-light draw has just the right amount of resistance: slight but not tight, with a cold flavor of dark cocoa and dried cherry that honestly made me want to skip the paperwork and get straight to the patio.
The 5.5-inch length is smart product design. Most 70-ring cigars run six or seven inches and can hold you hostage for the better part of three hours. The Commodore gets you home by 10 o'clock. That's not a small thing when you've got work in the morning.
First Third: Bold Right Out of the Gate
Light it with a torch, let the foot char evenly, and you're immediately in dark territory. First puffs hit with dark roast coffee, cracked black pepper, and a backbone of cedar. The Arapiraca wrapper announces itself early — this is not a slow-starter. It comes in swinging at medium-full and stays there through the whole smoke. If that sounds like a warning, it isn't. This is exactly what the cigar is supposed to be.
The burn line held even across two of the five sticks without any touch-ups needed. Draw was effortless — maybe a touch on the easy side, but smoke production is generous and cool throughout the first third. No heat, no bitterness, no char. Just tobacco doing what good tobacco does.
The Long Game: Middle and Final Third
Around the 30-minute mark, the pepper starts to pull back and the chocolate and leather come up. There's an earthy sweetness that reads like dark brown sugar layered under the tobacco — not cloying, just a richness that keeps the stick interesting. If you retrohale, you'll get espresso and wood spice that opens up the sinuses in that satisfying way only a well-made maduro can manage.
The final third is where a 70-ring gauge cigar can go sideways. Bigger vitolas trap more heat, and if the blend or construction isn't right, the last inch or two turns bitter and punishing. The Commodore doesn't do that. It comes in slightly stronger in the final stretch — which you'd expect — but it never crosses the line. The cocoa and toasted oak notes I picked up in the second third carried all the way to the nub. I smoked it down to about an inch and a half before putting it down, and it never gave me a reason to quit early.
The Bourbon to Light Next to It
For a cigar this dark and full-flavored, you need a bourbon that can hold its own. Delicate, fruity, or soft pours get buried — skip anything wheated and under 100 proof. What worked best for me alongside the Commodore was a pour of Wild Turkey Rare Breed Barrel Proof, sitting at 116.8 proof with notes of caramel, dark fruit, vanilla, and serious barrel char. The high proof cuts right through the Arapiraca wrapper's oils, and the charred-oak sweetness in the whiskey mirrors the cocoa in the cigar without one overwhelming the other. They push each other without stepping on each other's toes — which is exactly what you want from a pairing.
If Rare Breed is hard to find in your market — and depending on the week, it can be — a Knob Creek 12 Year Single Barrel at 100 proof is a solid fallback. A little more restrained, but the caramel and toasted-oak notes echo the cigar's final-third sweetness in a way that makes the combination feel intentional.
5.5 x 70 Nicaraguan maduro — available now in boxes of 25 or humidor bags of 5 at $11.50 per cigar.
Final Verdict
The Brick House Maduro Commodore isn't trying to reinvent anything. It's taking a proven blend, putting it in a format a lot of smokers have been asking for, and keeping the price where honest people can afford to buy five at a time. At $11.50, there's nothing to overthink. If you like big-ring maduros with real flavor, consistent construction, and a smoke time that fits a weeknight, this is your cigar for the summer of 2026.
The fact that it's shipping now — not a trade-show-only tease or a fourth-quarter release — makes it even easier to put in the rotation. Pick up a bag of five, clear a Tuesday evening, pour something with proof behind it, and let the Commodore do the rest.