Vitola: Corona Gorda
Size: 5.75” x 46 ring gauge
Price ~$11
Purchased at Burns Tobacconist
Background
Back in May, I took a look at the Eastern Standard, one of Robert Caldwell’s newest creations from the “Caldwell Collection” of Caldwell Cigars. If you’ve ever wondered how many times “Caldwell” can be used in a short sentence…the answer is three. At the time Robert visited Burns, I also picked up a couple samples of Love Live the King, his Dominican Corojo cigar. Robert told me during his visit that one particular company likes to refer to its leaf as the only “true Corojo” tobacco, because nearly everything else is a hybrid of some sort, meant to better resist blue mold. Turns out that Caldwell found one other location that was growing original unhybridized Corojo and that was in the Dominican Republic.
The makeup of this cigar uses quite a bit of that Dominican Corojo as well. The wrapper is a 2008 leaf. The binder is a 2009 leaf. About half the filler is composed of 2006 Ligero Dominican Corojo, with the balance made of Nicaraguan Habano Ligero (2007) and Peruvian Pelo de Oro (2008). I’ll just stop right here and say that I really, really love the makeup sheets Caldwell is putting on these boxes. Crop year. Percentage. Country of Origin. Varietal. It’s all there…and anyone trying to copy the blend will still fail because they won’t have the exact same storage, handling, microclimates, bunchers, rollers, quality control people…all these things end up being important. The fact that Caldwell regularly buys up all the stock of a certain important component also makes it difficult to replicate the blend. I bought a Corona Gorda and a Lancero at Burns, smoking the Lancero that night of the debut. I saved the Corona Gorda for this review, so this is the second time I’ve smoked this blend, but the first time in this vitola.
Prelight
From the rich colors, to the heavy, texturized paper stock, to the use of gold foil, Caldwell pays attention to packaging, design, banding, boxes…everything. Some say “fancy packaging is just a gimmick to hide a poor cigar.” I say a great cigar with lousy packaging is asking for trouble because no one will both picking it up to try. With 400 brands and over a 1000 facings in a tobacconist’s humidor, you really need to stand out from the crowd in some way. The creativity with marketing I see here does that and I believe it may help people discover the brands quickly. In the debate between “great blend” and “great marketing”…I really don’t see why you can’t do both.
The wrapper leaf on LLTK was oily and velvety to the touch and had a light brown hue with plenty of reds in it; the reds were enhanced by the burgundy color used in the band. I gave the wrapper a sniff and got an aroma of earth and leather, with just a touch of sweetness. The foot had a slightly riper earthiness and a little cedar. Clipping the head, I got an excellent cold draw that had flavors of wood, earth, and a little bit of pepper.
Flavor
LLTK lit easily and soon was chugging out plenty of medium-bodied smoke that carried flavors of cedar, leather, earth and black pepper. Whereas the more famous Honduran Corojo-heavy blends tend to be full-force pepper from puff #1, the spice on this cigar was muted at first, allowing for a fuller range of flavors to emerge. The retrohale was cedar and pepper. A few minutes into the smoke a nuanced sweetness emerged on the palate. Robert told me the addition of the Peruvian was for sweetness and, sure enough, it carried a bit of the orange peel flavor I’ve picked up from it in other uses. As the first third progressed, I started picking up a mustiness that I’ve gotten from other Dominican blends in the past and the body started to ramp up to full fairly quickly.
In the second third the sweetness got overshadowed by a much stronger influx of musty earthiness and cedar, while I started to get a constant low-level pepper burn. In the last third, the LLTK was fully in the full-bodied range with lots of earth and pepper, and just a bit of sweetness for balance. Toward the end I got a pretty good nicotine hit, which is something that doesn’t happen that often, especially from just a single cigar.
Construction
Construction was mostly very good. The draw was always fantastic, but the ash got a bit flaky and banana-peeled on me, while the burn line was jagged throughout. The cigar went out on me once completely even though I was maintaining a fairly even amount of puffing. I’m wondering if some of this would correct itself with some extra time for the tobaccos to marry.
Value
The cigar was a little pricey, but not out of scale for something this satisfying.
Conclusions
Long Live the King was unique and powerful, totally unexpected for a Dominican-heavy blend. Which goes to the point Robert Caldwell has been trying to make that the Dominican Republic can grow more types of tobacco than just about anywhere else on the planet. I can’t recommend this for newer smokers because of its full body and nicotine strength, but if full is where you like to live, give this one a try. I would say to smoke one now to see if you like it; if you do, buy some more to lay aside for a few months, as there seem to be some issues that a little age might iron out.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 1.5/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8.5/10
Thanks for the review. I just got a couple of those from a friend. He had issues keeping it lit. Mine will def age a while.
Beautiful review, rich in detail. I can almost taste it. The advice to age for a little while adds a nice touch.
never smoked a caldwell before, looks good
Cool review. Awesome concept of putting all the details in the box. Have never heard of or seen these before.
Good looking cigar.. lots of great competition in that price range.
Smoked one recently. Good stick.
Smoked my first of these today. Had never seen nor heard of them; I bought it blind. An excellent smoke. Liked it enough that I smoked another. It’s well worth the price (which isn’t over-the-top). I heartily recommend them. (And, no, this is not a paid advertisement.)
As much as I appreciate Caldwell’s other cigars—the Eastern Standard, the Hit & Run, The T and the Anastasia, in particular—the Long Live the King I had this morning was a supreme disappointment. The construction was poor. The burn line was erratic. The flavor was empty. And my lighter was empty by the end of the cigar. A $12 stick that smokes like a stick is just an expensive chew toy. Heck of a fancy band, though. I’ll give this one a negative 2.5.