Vitola: Toro- 6” x 50 ring gauge
- MSRP $15.00
- Samples provided by manufacturer
Background
A couple years back I was gassing up my car and saw a sign declaring that Lex12 was “unlike any cigar you’ve ever tried.” I took a picture and sent it to the manager of my local cigar shop, jokingly asking if he wanted me to pick up a few for him. I’ve seen the signs in quite a few other windows since then and not thought anything else about it until I today when I began researching this new blend from a new company: Cornelius & Anthony Premium Cigars.
Turns out Cornelius & Anthony is the premium arm of a 150 year old tobacco business called S&M Brands…and they are the makers of the Lex12 brand (and a few others). The first release for the company is the Cornelius, a tribute to Cornelius Bailey, the great-great-grandfather of C&A brand owner, Steven Bailey. “Cornelius was the first of 5 generations of Bailey family to run the family tobacco company that was established in 1866.”
For this initial blend, they turned to one of the most respected crafters of premium cigars still operating in the United States, El Titan de Bronze, located in the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami. Cornelius uses Nicaragua fillers, along with binder and wrapper leaves from Ecuador. The blend comes in boxes of 20 and, like pretty much everything from Titan de Bronze, it’s not a cheap cigar. Prices range from $12 to $15 per stick. It comes in 3 vitolas. My local rep gave me a Corona Gorda, which was quite tasty, and the company sent me a pair of Toros. I am smoking the second one for this review.
Prelight
The banding looks very nice for the price point. It is classy and old-school…very heavily wrought with design, giving it a definite throwback look, but not looking really dated. The C&A logo is not quite clear at first, but after you first out how the “c” is the curving part of the “a” it is clever and cool. The “Established 1866” text is a little misleading as the premium cigar business really didn’t start until 2016…at least not under the Cornelius & Anthony name (I won’t assume that they’ve never made premium cigars until now).
The wrapper was a peanut butter brown color that had little mottling and very few veins of any consequence. It was smooth and oily, with an aroma of earth and leather. The foot had more pungent earthiness, along with natural tobacco and cedar aromas. The cold draw was very good and the prelight flavors were of cedar and molasses mostly.
Flavor
I got the Cornelius lit and it started off with a big hay and cedar flavor right out of the gate, followed closely by notes of Nicaraguan earthiness, a touch of molasses sweetness and a dash of red pepper at the back of the palate. On the nose, I picked up more cedar and some nuttiness, as well as a lot more red pepper. As I got further into the first third, I picked up some more floral notes in the mix, too. Late in the first third I got a strong vegetal, almost cabbage-like, note. Not the most pleasant thing I’ve tasted in a cigar.
The vegetal flavor faded into the background during the second third, while more cedar and grassy notes came back to the fore. The pepper faded, too, but not completely. There was an underlying molasses sweetness that balanced everything pretty well, leaving a sweet, almost syrupy finish.
The final third had little of the vegetal note, but tons of sweet hay, with an underlying current of earth and cedar riding on a very creamy smoke. The pepper never really came back as is often the case, but with the flavors so nice, I didn’t miss it.
Construction
The draw was perfect in all samples I had. The burn line had to be touched up a few times, but nothing major. The ash was solid. The only problem I had was with the Corona Gorda I smoked, which had a hollow in the first half of the bunch; I didn’t smoke that one for review, so it’s not counted against points here, but I did find it worth noting.
Value
There is no denying that this is an expensive cigar and that’s often a hard sell. I think the best way to justify it is this: if you liked the Warped La Colmena and found it worth the price of admission, you will probably like this and find it even more worth it.
Conclusions
Cornelius is a very nice first release from Cornelius & Anthony. I enjoyed the medium-to-full bodied cigar with its mostly excellent flavor profile and pleasing amount of complexity. The price point will be an issue with some people as it gets into that area where it competes with long-established brands like Davidoff (specifically the Millennium Blend and Nicaragua) and Padron (1964 Natural), as well as newer brands like Warped (La Colmena) and La Palina (Goldie), but I do think it’s worth the price overall, especially if you do gravitate toward any of those examples I’ve stated.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10
I’m interested!