cuppajack
New Member
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2006
- Messages
- 741
You would be hard pressed to find a more unassuming Habana; the Corona was solidly built, and covered in a coco-brown wrapper covered in a fine tooth and a web of thin veins. Not quite “rustic” the no-nonsense vitola was adorned with a fittingly unpretentious band and smelled of leather, soil, and the tobacco of the island that we covet so much.
I clipped the triple cap and was so eager to get to smoking I completely neglected to test the pre-light draw. The foot took to flame and soon the stick was delivering a smooth and aromatic smoke rife with wood and earth tones with the Habana spice peaking through in the finish. It was much more mild that I was expecting, and the predominant flavor was very straightforward tobacco: a flavor to match the modest appearance of the stick. Throughout the first 1/3 I would pick-up subtle hints of cedar, chili, coco, and loam.
The spicy quality was very restrained, unlike the last Habana I smoked (a Cohiba that tasted like a bowl of salsa,) and the smoke had a unique mouth-feel. It was assertive without being heavy or chewy, and the lingering finish was fantastic: predominantly a rich, woody sweetness but with spice creeping in from the sides of the pallet. The complex and exceptional finish slowed my smoking pace considerably as I savored every long puff.
The room-note was also notable: very sweet with hints of clove and cinnamon, which I found odd since I didn’t really pick up on many of these flavors when smoking. The ash was bright-white marbled with very dark gray streaks. It was firm and held very well.
At about the ½ point I started to pick-up some new flavors, most notably a very distinct anise-flavor in the background. The earthiness of the cigar also developed, and entering the final 1/3 the anise flavor began to dominate. It was a flavor I had never experienced in a cigar before, and I quite enjoyed it.
After an hour and a half of smoking I was getting close to the nub and things were beginning to turn a little sour so I gave up on it before it got nasty. Overall it was a very intriguing smoke. While it certainly had that Cuban flavor, the cigar was very mild in comparison to ISOM cigars I’ve smoked in the past, and yet it was very complex. The way the different flavor notes would “peak through” the predominant tobacco/wood/earth flavors was fascinating and I immediately wanted to smoke another to see what else I could pick-out. The Rafael Gonzales Corona Extra seemed almost proletarian at first glance, but there is an underlying intricacy to the cigar. I think this is a cigar one could smoke regularly for many years and still not discover all it has to offer.
