Short Smoke: GTO Gold Petite Corona

• Vitola: Petite Corona
• 4” x 44 ring gauge
• Price $5.49
• Purchased at Burns Tobacconist

Background

In the ongoing search for fantastic short smokes…those gems to enjoy on frosty winter or scorching summer days…whenever you simply don’t want to spend more than half an hour or so outside, sometimes you want something short, but also mild, and also very flavorful…and without breaking the bank. You can always depend on that famous white label to give you a great mild experience and they make cigars in just about every size imaginable, but they also start out at nearly $10 a stick for a cigar barely larger than a cigarillo. What to do?

I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest a Gold Petite Corona from GTO Cigars. If you haven’t heard of GTO, it’s most likely because you’re not in the South. Oscar Rodriguez runs the company from a HQ in Birmingham, Alabama, although all the cigars and made in the Dominican Republic. The GTO Gold Churchill is one of my very favorite mild cigars…a true mild Dominican blend with a Connecticut Shade wrapper that has fantastic natural sweet notes of graham and honey. Oscar recently brought this Petite Corona size to the shop and I got excited all over again…I’m always up for a great stick in a small ring gauge…and I just don’t care if the smoke time is only 20 or 30 minute…sometimes that’s exactly what you want!

I’ve smoked a few of these already and decided to pick up one for an “official” write-up here on Leaf Enthusiast. I bought this sample myself.

Notes

The same size band is used on this diminutive cigar as is used on the Churchill and Robusto. It honestly looks too large for this application and the secondary band has to be taken off within 5 minutes of lighting.

Oscar uses “US” Connecticut Shade wrapper leaf. This is known for having a bit of a twang and some bitterness if not aged properly, but Oscar is very good at what he does. I’ve never had a bitter GTO Gold.

The aroma from the wrapper is a mix of hay, natural tobacco and cedar…more aroma than you normally get from a Shade leaf. The foot is mostly just earthy with a touch of breadiness.

In this size and ring gauge, the GTO Gold starts off with a little more punch than it does in the Churchill…somewhere in the mild to medium bodied range, I’d say. It still has an excellent flavor profile of sweet hay, bread and some earthiness underneath. It doesn’t have quite the honey and graham notes of the Churchill, which I miss. Simply put, the blend is still very good, but it does perform quite differently in this size.

This small smoke goes on for a solid half hour and is excellent for a milder smoke to light up in the morning with some black coffee. Do this and do it often!