Construction: Any product made by La Flor Dominicana is going to have great construction. And by saying that I do mean that this Coronado line is no exception, the construction is absolutely amazing. This wrapper, like many other Sun Grown cigars, has a slight red tint with a medium brown base color. The Coronado has very fine veins and a slightly oily wrapper. It is firm, filled with tobacco, and will never give you any problems unraveling during the smoking process.

Draw: Perfection. Coronado by La Flor has the kind of draw that pours great smoke on your palate but requires the correct amount of resistance.

Burn: This particular Coronado had been aged for approximately two years. The aged cigar had a slower burn that was still perfect and did not require any types or corrections. If you were to pick up this stogie fresh from your local B&M you can expect the Coronado to burn a bit quicker, and again, still perfect. Your ash created will be very solid and will only come off with a nice firm tap.

Taste: Coronado by La Flor is a very complex cigar that will please anyone with a medium-full body palate.

Initially you will get a great sense of the tobacco being used as it is introduced with a real peppery finish and a nice creamy smoke coating your palate. After your first puffs you will notice that your cigar is not overwhelmed by pepper but it acts as a partner to the complex flavors trickling in. Earthiness, leather and spice are the primary flavors.

At the middle of the cigar it is still hard to describe the complexity of the Coronado as it bombs your palate with rich flavors. The smoke is thick and creamy and the primary notes you will pick up are caramel and leather with perhaps a slight sun grown spice. It is possible you will pick up a bit of earthiness lingering in the background.

The best part of the Coronado by La Flor is that you never loose the taste of the tobacco being used. Instead it amplifies the leather, caramel, spice and creamy smoke that you are experiencing. It is consistent from start to finish and I promise it will leave you wanting to smoke another to see if you can pull out individualized components.

Final Verdict: Price range is $8.xx at the local B&M wile online it hovers around the $6.xx-7.xx sticker. I didn’t do the Coronado by La Flor any justice in trying to describe the smoking experience it delivers. Just take my word (and everyone else on this planet) that this cigar is truly amazing. The full body smokers will enjoy the cigar if smoked relatively fresh. The medium-full body smokers will absoulty fall in love with the Coronado with as little as 1-2 years worth of age. So my suggestion would be to buy a box now for smoking and a box for aging!

Quick Notes

Construction: Very smooth looking brown wrapper with a few veins that can not be felt with the hand. Tobacco is packed in nicely and there are no soft spots. The construction is really great overall, typical of Tabacalera Tropical cigars.

Draw: Casa Fernandez has a good, medium draw that requires very little effort.

Burn: Casa Fernandez had an amazing ash. Ash is very firm, solid, and bright white. Burned at just the right pace and with a straight line.

Taste: Good clean smoke so far with a medium body. Very straight forward tobacco with a medium dry spice. Flavorful and interesting on the palate. Smoke is light and easy to do nose test. The ash on Casa Fernandez is white and solid.

Ash is most amazing aspect of the Casa Fernandez, very solid and white. Clean smoking with a slight dryness and a hint of sweetness. Coffee is lingering in the palate with some spice.

Cigar is consistent finishing like the midpoint of the cigar. Flavors are becoming more muted. Sweetness has disappeared. Smoke is still clean leaving the palate feeling good.

Final Verdict: The Casa Fernandez will be in the $9.xx. price range. Casa Fernandez is a very well built cigar that delivers an enjoyable smoke that can be had anytime. The quality and clean smoke alone make it a cigar that you should try and odds are you will put some of these cigars in your humidor. However the price tag is not justifed, it was not a unique enough cigar. Save your cash on a box purcahse and go with something else.

Partagas Black Clasico is a cigar that is produced by General Cigar Company. Daniel Nunez is the mastermind behind this blend and he has “…spent 10 years perfecting the Medio Tempo wrapper and the La Vega Especial binder“.

Medio Tempo wrappers, according to the General Cigar marketing machine, “are darker, heavier and richer than other wrappers because they are harvested only after they have been allowed to age on their plants 50% longer than other wrapper leaves“.

While I am not entirely sure if this is factual or strictly good advertisement: The classic Partagas Black cigars are dark, oily, and one of the best cigars you can-and-should have in your collection.

Construction: First thing you will notice of the Partagas Black cigars is the dark, dark, dark color of the wrapper.  The perfectly wrapped cigars are oily and covered with small veins that do not effect the burn. Like most General Cigars the Partagas was firm and had no soft spots.

Draw: Punch or cut the Partagas Black is going to give you a good draw.

Burn: In my box of Clasico cigars I would say that half of them burned a little jagged but gave me no problems while the other half burned perfectly. Either way the cigars burned at just the right speed.

Taste: Your first couple of puffs on the Partagas Black will deliver a slight spicy taste.  The spice is second to a earthy flavor that is easy on the pallet.  Ending the first third of the cigar introduces a sweetness that stays through the entire smoke. Ash on the cigar is peppery and solid.

The second third of the cigar is when the spicy after taste becomes more prominent. The finish is now earthy and still leaves a sweet aftertaste on the pallet. At this point the body of the Partagas is starting to creep a little more into the full range.

You reach the strongest part of the cigar at the end (like most cigars) but it is still in the medium range, the dark oily wrapper had more bark and not so much bite. The flavor profiles stay very consistent through the entire smoke. So I can only tell you that it had spice, an earthly flavor, and sweet finish.

Final Verdict: The Partagas Black is a must buy cigar. The cigar it self retails for about $6 a stick and is easy on the wallet. Thanks to the way General Cigar Company sells their products to everybody and anybody (even 7-11 carries their brands) you can find a box of Partagas Blacks online for $70. If paying $3.5 a cigar wasn’t enough incentive – most of the online retailers will even send you a hat or shirt for taking a General Brand cigar out of their inventory.

Ashton VSG Belicoso is one of my all time favorite cigars. I was looking for a good way to introduce the VSG to you, the readers, but could do no better than the Ashton website it self. And after reading about who is involved in creating this amazing stick – you too will realize that the Ashton VSG is something special:

“For those who desire a powerful and intoxicating flavor with a complex rich finish, look no further than the Ashton VSG. The VSG is blended exclusively for Ashton by Carlos Fuente Jr. using 4 to 5 year old aged Dominican tobacco taken from the finest and most fertile plants. The distinct flavor of VSG comes from its wrapper grown on a private estate in Ecuador owned by the Oliva family where this proprietary wrapper leaf is grown for the Fuente Family exclusively for Ashton VSG.”

Construction: Dark, spicy, and perhaps rugged are just three words I would use to describe the look of the Ashton VSG wrapper. The Ecuadoran Sun Grown wrapper has an oily sheen that not only looks amazing, but makes this cigar such a great build. Little veins run through the firm stick but do not effect the cigar in a negative way. Smoking down to the nub will not be an issue with this perfectly rolled stick.

Draw: Belicoso shapes do not leave many options for obtaining your draw: Cut or V Cut. Choose your preferred method of cutting and enjoy because the draw is perfect. In reality this is the kind of draw I wish every cigar had.

Burn: How picky do you want me to be about the burn? Had this cigar been in the 5 dollar range – I would say it was perfect. Except this cigar sits in the $10-$12 range (depending on markup, taxes, etc) so I have to say… the burn is good. While it does get a little off track the stick did a great job of correcting itself.

Taste: Let’s start by giving the Virgin Sun Grown cigar the “nose” test. Doing so will give you an indication of the spice you will soon encounter, the sweetness, and what I would call a light mocha smell.

The 1/3 of the cigar punches you with an amazing amount of spice – it is a medium-full bodied smoke from the start. Once you overcome the spice you get an amazing nutty flavor with a hint of coffee – or perhaps a light chocolate(?). The smoke is full and flavorful giving you a nice creamy finish and a firm white ash.

At the 2/3 point (midway of the cigar) the spice of the Ashton seems to die a bit and take backseat to a sweeter taste. This “sweet” taste only introduces what’s to come: leather, woodsy, and cedar like notes. The body is now in the full spectrum and the smoke is just as creamy. The ash is still white and firm but burned a little uneven.

Grand Finale: The VSG is still in the full range and the leather flavor is what dominates the smoke. The leather taste is supported by the spice (this spice never fades) and something else I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Perhaps it is a sweeter cedar – but it compliments it very nicely making the Ashton VSG easy to smoke to the nub. Again the smoke is creamy and the ash is firm and white. I would like to note the uneven burn corrected it self.

Verdict Is: This is a cigar you should have in your normal rotation and can easily be found in many retail tobacco establishments. I also found that the VSG is even more amazing when aged. So while this is a bit expensive to some (or anyone who smokes everyday) it is okay to buy some and save the VSG for that perfect day.

Other Cigars:

At this current time the only other cigar I can recomend (as in same spciy taste, full body smoke, and quality) is the Opus X.

The Chateau Fuente King B was officially released in 2005 at the then RTDA convention. Released to the market as a limited cigar; you can usually find this cigar at your local B&M – and you can surly find this cigar online.

Story has it that the King B was named after a local tavern that Carlos Fuente Jr very own grandfather liked to frequent. This tavern was conveniently located behind his grandfather Arturo’s house and it was the place all the cigar makers would meet. The King B tavern no longer stands but this cigar gives proper tribute.

Chateau Fuente King B comes well protected in a cellophane wrapper. Underneath the wrapper is a large cedar sleeve secured with the signature black ribbon across the bottom. The King B has a beautiful presentation and I almost hesitate to undress the cigar.

Construction: The reddish brown color wrapper looks familiar to Fuente’s other sun grown cigars in the lineup.  Small veins covered the entire King B – however they were small enough to not effect the smoke. It was tightly wrapped which enabled it to hold its composure while smoking (no unwrapping). Again – the Chateau Fuente is a quality build from the Fuente family. Nothing is unusual with this.

Draw: I would have to say the King B has a medium draw, depending on the stick you happen to select. I usually have perfect luck with the Fuente products but many sticks in this box required me to double cut. Either way I given it has a medium draw – or a draw that you can fix with very little effort.

Burn: The Chateau Fuente King B burned perfectly. I was a little hesitant with the cigars that had the tougher draw – but stick after stick my worries were put to rest. King B created a thick white ash that was well formed.

Taste: As expected the King B had the initial taste of the cedar it was wrapped in and a bit of sweetness that just stays in your mouth. I detected a hint of spice throughout the finish of the first third of the cigar.

Two thirds of the cigar brought out the pepper and the spice stayed around to make it a great smoke for me. Everything is really smooth and compliments each other quite well.

The King B is still a medium bodied cigar and it remains a medium body cigar through the entire smoke.

Finally the spice seemed to fade away as the cigar was coming to an end. You could really get more of the earthy type of flavors. This finish was still smooth but there seemed to be a hint of bitterness that just faded into the cigar.

Final Verdict: You can add this cigar to your humidor. Going into a cigar lounge to purcahse the stick will cost you around $9.xx. You will not have any trouble finding this cigar online and the price is a bit better at $7.xx.

The Chateau Fuente King B is easy to smoke in warm weather, cold weather, morning, day or night. It’s a versatile cigar that everyone should at least try.

This would be a great pick up at the $7 range but I as you get into the upper $9 range there might be some better cigars out there. If you don’t have a cigar budget – or have everything else in stock – then pick this King B cigar up.

Other Cigars:
Lower Priced: JFR
Same Price: Fuente Cuban Belicoso
Higher Price: Ashton VSG

The Oliva Serie G Maduro is a world class cigar that has a pricing point anyone can afford. I do not have much of an introduction to this amazing cigar. Read the review and follow my advice at the end.

Construction: Dark, oily, and looks like silk. Oliva G has got to have one of the best wrappers for the price of this cigar. I happened to smoke the torpedo during the photo session (actually remembered my phone) but every cigar in the line feels and looks absolutely wonderful. The lines on the wrapper were clean and the maduro cigar felt firm, but not too tight. There were no wrapper issues during smoking.

Draw: By the feel of the cigar I thought the G would have a slightly rough draw. I was wrong. Sorry for the doubt Oliva; this produced a perfect draw.

Burn: Perfectly even throughout the entire cigar, nice white ash that stays on, and it didn’t get too hot. Can I say anything else?

Taste: Oliva G Maduro gives you the full maduro taste without being overpowering, even for people who are not used to smoking maduros. From start to finish the G is just super creamy and leaves your pallet wanting more. Throughout the smoke you get a hint of coffee and dark chocolate. The spice from the Nicaraguan filler was introduced in the beginning of the cigar but seemed to fade out as I continued to smoke. Around the mid point of the cigar I would say the G really graduates to the big boy club. Everything that I thought was fantastic – turned GREAT.

Verdict Is: GET THIS CIGAR NOW. Add some to your humidor if you don’t have any already. This is the kind of cigar that you purchase by the box. If you must try it out first, which is understandable, you will also notice that this stick retails for about $4.00.

Again, if you are new to cigars, new to maduros, or afraid to try it because of the wrapper – don’t be. This is a great cigar that everyone will love.

Other Cigars:
Higher Priced: Casa Fuente by Arturo Fuente
Same Price: I would also consider the JFR Maduro by Tabacalera Tropical.
Lower Priced: Yet to be discovered.