Vitola: Double Corona
Size: 7” x 58 ring gauge
Price $8.75 MSRP
Review Sample from Eddie
Background
I’ve been trying to do this series in order and sort of on time but things just got away from me. I couldn’t tell which order the last three were supposed to be in because the number was blurry on all three of them. This happens to be the last release in the 2013 series, released in December. It is a Nicaraguan puro with a Habano wrapper from Esteli. They come packed in 20 count boxes and the production was limited to 500 boxes. Eddie was kind enough to send me this cigar for review and it was the only one I smoked.
Prelight
The wrapper on this cigar was very red in color almost like the one on the San Lotano Habano, but a darker shade. There were some spots of darker mottling and some medium veins to the wrapper. The wrapper was also pretty oily with a slight amount of tooth. The stats state it is 7″ long but it felt shorter than that in my hands. The cigar was fairly firm to the touch and I couldn’t find any soft spots. When I put my nose to the wrapper I smelled the intense aroma of leather, with an intense barnyard coming from the foot. After clipping it and taking a cold draw on it I got a good draw with what I can best describe as the flavor of balsa.
Flavor
Like most Nicaraguan cigars this one starts off with a blast of spice on the tongue and retrohale. After a few puffs I noted tastes of leather, cinnamon and cream. The spice did start to mellow out as I got into the first third. A sweet finish started to be noticeable the further I got into it as well. The flavors pretty much stopped at the end of the first third. That doesn’t mean it was without flavor for the rest of the cigar. That means that they were pretty much the same the rest of the way through. The spice did start to come back in the final third. The strength started at the upper end of medium and finished in the medium full range.
Construction
The draw was perfect and in spite of the gusting wind I was dealing with there were no burn issues at all.
Value
A limited edition under $10 is a great deal in my book any day.
Conclusions
Unfortunately how consistent the flavors of the cigar were made it kind of boring to me. I don’t know if it was just that day or the cigar since the flavors it produced are ones I normally really like. I do know I’ll be giving it another try to see whether it was me or the cigar. The cigar I would compare it from the Wild Bunch series would be the Big Bad John and if you liked that one I’d definitely give this a try.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 3.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8.5/10
This review originally appeared on Tiki Bar Online.
