The Stogie Guys

Chattanooga’s Burns Tobacconist put itself on the national radar with its annual “Chattanooga Tweet-Up” event featuring a litany of cigar companies and personalities. More recently, the Tennessee cigar shop further expanded its national profile by introducing a series of exclusive cigars.

Earlier in 2015, a La Aurora 100 Años Cameroon Lancero and Sabor de Chattanooga by Guayacan Cigars (also a lancero) were introduced as store exclusives. Late last year, a Corona Gorda version of Blind Man’s Bluff by Caldwell Cigar Co. was added to the lineup.

Like the three regular Blind Man’s Bluff vitolas, the Corona Gorda (5.75 x 46) is made at the Davidoff-owned Agroindustria LAEPE, S.A. factory in Honduras, which is home to Camacho. It sells for $7.50 each, or $120 for a box of 20 (when you add the discount code BMB4LE).

The blend uses an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper that is medium brown and dry with some visible veins. Underneath is a Honduran Criollo binder, and the filler consists of Honduran Criollo Generoso and Dominican San Vicente.

Pre-light, the Corona Gorda features sweet earth and dried fruit. Once lit, it imparts a combination of wood and damp earth with salt and pepper notes and a slight vanilla sweetness.

As it progresses, the pepper spice falls off slightly as charred oak emerges along with some creaminess. There is a light cocoa powder on the long finish.

Although the cigar feels slightly under-filled, it doesn’t suffer any combustion problems. The draw is ideal, the ash solid, and the burn, while not perfectly straight, is not a problem.

All around, this is an enjoyable cigar. It’s rich with just the right touches of spice, cream, and wood. It has solid construction and decent balance, all at a reasonable price. That earns the Caldwell Cigar Company’s Blind Man’s Bluff Corona Gorda a rating of four stogies out of five.

[To read more StogieGuys.com cigar reviews, please click here.]

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

One of the best cigars I smoked in 2015, and one of only six to receive our top rating, was the Paco Robusto size of the debut blend from Las Cumbres Tabaco: Señorial. So, in 2016, I’m resolving to smoke my way through the remaining four vitolas in the Señorial catalog to see which size best suits my palate. Today I’m reviewing the Corona Gorda No. 5.

To refresh your memory on the background of this blend, recall José Blanco left Joya de Nicaragua in 2013 after creating the critically acclaimed CyB cigar line (formerly Cuenca y Blanco). Some speculated CyB’s sales never lived up to expectations—notwithstanding virtually unanimous praise from the online cigar community.

Blanco, a longtime industry veteran and roving cigar ambassador who is well known for his tasting seminars and extensive travel to cigar shops, headed back to the Dominican Republic (before joining Joya, he spent 29 years at La Aurora). He announced the creation of Las Cumbres Tabaco in February 2014. The venture, which translates to “summits of tobacco,” includes a partnership with Tabacalera Palma, operated by Blanco’s cousin, Jochi Blanco, in Tamboril, Santiago.

The first Las Cumbres blend was officially launched June 2014. Called Señorial (Spanish for “lordly”), it boasts a Habano Ecuardor wrapper, a Nicaraguan binder from Estelí, and Dominican filler tobaccos of the Piloto Cubano and Corojo varieties. Marketed as “full-bodied and truly full-flavored,” it is offered in 5 sizes that retail for $7 to $11: Paco Robusto (5.25 x 52), Toro Bravo (6 x 54), Le Grand (6 x 60), Belicoso No. 2 (6.25 x 52), and Corona Gorda No. 5 (5.5 x 46).

The latter boasts a clean, oily wrapper that’s silky to the touch and traversed by a network of veins that range from thin to prominent. Moderately spongy to the touch, the unlit cigar smells of cinnamon, apricot, and sweet hay. A simple punch cut is all that’s required to reveal a smooth cold draw.

After setting an even light with a single wood match, a toasty profile emerges with notes ranging from red pepper and cedar spice to cinnamon butter and dry wood. Unlike the Paco Robusto, my palate doesn’t find much dried fruit or creamy nut, though there is some molasses and black pepper towards the halfway mark and into the final third. Green raisin makes an appearance from time to time in the medium-bodied blend.

The physical properties were outstanding across the several samples I smoked for this review. Expect a solid white ash, clear draw, even burn line, and above-average smoke production.

In my review of the Paco Robusto, I wrote, “Señorial is the kind of blend that makes you want to expect more from cigars. And it’s the kind of cigar that makes you want to light up another as soon as it’s finished. It delivers handsomely in the departments of flavor, balance, complexity, and construction.” All this remains true in the Corona Gorda No. 5 format, though I have to give the slight edge to the Paco Robusto since—to me, anyway—that shorter, thicker smoke is a little more complex. Still, this is a tremendous cigar, and one that’s worthy of a very commendable rating of four and a half stogies out of five.

[To read more StogieGuys.com cigar reviews, please click here.]

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys