cigardawg
Active Member
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2005
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Had a poker game over at the house on Saturday night. Hold'em tournament style. I finished second, so I thought, "what the hell, think I'll have a couple of good ones." Of course, I would have thought that had I been first one out. Anyway, I smoked a Bolivar Corona Gigantes and a La Gloria Cubana Series R Limited Edition. Here are my reviews.
Bolivar Corona Gigantes
This was a good looking cigar with a medium-brown wrapper. The wrapper was a little damaged from transport, but all-in-all looked pretty good. There were no appreciable veins or seams. The pre-light nose was mild, but of earth and loam...that great Cuban tobacco smell. Yum. The pre-light draw was pretty tight.
The cigar lit easily, but the draw did not loosen up very much. It stayed just to the annoying side of firm. The cigar did produce satisfactory smoke, but I had to work pretty hard for it. The burn was very even despite the wrapper damage. The ash was a light to medium gray and quite firm. The cigar stayed cool down to the 1 inch mark. Except for the tight draw (which is my biggest cigar-related pet-peeve), construction was very good.
The initial flavors on this large cigar were dominated by sweet coffee, wood, and spice. The spice was slight sweet...not peppery. The tastes changed after around an inch to be dominated by coffee/espresso flavors with a wood/charred wood flavor. I honestly had some trouble picking out the flavors on this cigar. They were good, just a little obscure to my palate. Then at the mid-point, the cigar tightened up and became extremely bitter...tar was leaking from the cut end. I have this happen on figurados, but rarely on parejos. Anyway, a little massaging straightened it up, but the flavor never really recovered. The coffee and wood keep a bitter undertone to the end.
I really liked the initial flavors on this cigar. In fact, the first half was often punctuated with comments like, "nice" and even some "mmmmmms." However, the tight draw and the bitter episode really detracted from the overall experience. I have to give this particular Bolivar Corona Gigante a B-.
La Gloria Cubana 2003 Series R Limited Edition
This massive cigar was one of the Series R that came in the Limited Edition humidors in 2003. This particular cigar was the natural variety with a medium-brown wrapper. There were no visable seams and only one minor vein down one side. The pre-light nose was mild, but mostly of cedar and light coffee. The pre-light draw was very open.
This cigar is huge...it's like smoking a door knob. It took some doing to get the entire thing lit, but once I did, it smoked like a dream. The draw was very open and easy, each puff producing heady billows of thick smoke. The burn was very even and cool, never heating up even down to a nub. The ash was very firm, surprising for a cigar with such an open draw. The ash was also very white. This was a very well constructed cigar.
I had offered one of these to a friend of mine the same night. He smoked it and called it acidic and rather pedestrian. I should have given him a rebanded swisher sweet. This cigar was medium-to-full bodied with huge flavors of smokey wood right off the light. This cigar maintained an overall pleasant smokey quality as the underlying flavors developed into coffee and some sweet cocoa or chocolate. There was a creaminess to the cigar that mixed really well with the smokey wood flavors. It finished much like it began and even developed some cedar on the back end. Great tasting cigar.
I thoroughly enjoyed this cigar. It practically smoked itself and had great flavors in abundance. I have to rate this cigar an A.
Bolivar Corona Gigantes
This was a good looking cigar with a medium-brown wrapper. The wrapper was a little damaged from transport, but all-in-all looked pretty good. There were no appreciable veins or seams. The pre-light nose was mild, but of earth and loam...that great Cuban tobacco smell. Yum. The pre-light draw was pretty tight.
The cigar lit easily, but the draw did not loosen up very much. It stayed just to the annoying side of firm. The cigar did produce satisfactory smoke, but I had to work pretty hard for it. The burn was very even despite the wrapper damage. The ash was a light to medium gray and quite firm. The cigar stayed cool down to the 1 inch mark. Except for the tight draw (which is my biggest cigar-related pet-peeve), construction was very good.
The initial flavors on this large cigar were dominated by sweet coffee, wood, and spice. The spice was slight sweet...not peppery. The tastes changed after around an inch to be dominated by coffee/espresso flavors with a wood/charred wood flavor. I honestly had some trouble picking out the flavors on this cigar. They were good, just a little obscure to my palate. Then at the mid-point, the cigar tightened up and became extremely bitter...tar was leaking from the cut end. I have this happen on figurados, but rarely on parejos. Anyway, a little massaging straightened it up, but the flavor never really recovered. The coffee and wood keep a bitter undertone to the end.
I really liked the initial flavors on this cigar. In fact, the first half was often punctuated with comments like, "nice" and even some "mmmmmms." However, the tight draw and the bitter episode really detracted from the overall experience. I have to give this particular Bolivar Corona Gigante a B-.
La Gloria Cubana 2003 Series R Limited Edition
This massive cigar was one of the Series R that came in the Limited Edition humidors in 2003. This particular cigar was the natural variety with a medium-brown wrapper. There were no visable seams and only one minor vein down one side. The pre-light nose was mild, but mostly of cedar and light coffee. The pre-light draw was very open.
This cigar is huge...it's like smoking a door knob. It took some doing to get the entire thing lit, but once I did, it smoked like a dream. The draw was very open and easy, each puff producing heady billows of thick smoke. The burn was very even and cool, never heating up even down to a nub. The ash was very firm, surprising for a cigar with such an open draw. The ash was also very white. This was a very well constructed cigar.
I had offered one of these to a friend of mine the same night. He smoked it and called it acidic and rather pedestrian. I should have given him a rebanded swisher sweet. This cigar was medium-to-full bodied with huge flavors of smokey wood right off the light. This cigar maintained an overall pleasant smokey quality as the underlying flavors developed into coffee and some sweet cocoa or chocolate. There was a creaminess to the cigar that mixed really well with the smokey wood flavors. It finished much like it began and even developed some cedar on the back end. Great tasting cigar.
I thoroughly enjoyed this cigar. It practically smoked itself and had great flavors in abundance. I have to rate this cigar an A.