VSG Corona Gorda (Pix)

8/17/08


I haven't done a review in awhile and wanted to really concentrate on this smoke so I figured this would make for a good review. I picked this cigar up a few days ago and was destined a fiery death. When I purchased it there was plume on the cigar indicating it may have been there for awhile. Purchase price was $8.99.

Atmosphere

Outside on the porch. Temps in the high 60's. Gorgeous. Listening to the end of the Brewers game. Drinking water to start.

Prelight

The cigar was firm with no soft spots. Had a nice dark brown color. Wrapper was toothy with a few large veins. Aside from the veins it was beutiful. Prelight smell was a little spicy and sweet. The anticipation was building. Clipped it with my Xikar, albeit a bit poorly. Draw was a little tight and tasted a little green.

First third
The first draw on this had a little sweet flavor with not much spice at all. Seemed to be on the lighter side of a medium bodied cigar. When exhaling through my nose there was no burn whatsoever. Could exhale the entire puff through my nose. The main flavors coming through were of cedar. There was a very faint peppery taste. So far it was a very smooth smoke even though it wasn't producing a lot of it. The spice began to pick up near the end of the first third.

Second third
There seemed to be a burst of some type of flavor that I could only describe as a sweet citrus. This is probably not the correct assement but my lack of detecting flavors causes me to reach I did detect a little cocoa in a few puffs. The main flavors in this part were a mildly spicy cedar. The spice was once again lost near the end. At this point I switched drinks from water to a Sprecher Pub Ale.

Last third
This end was really cedary. There were a lot of flavors going on in this last part that I'm going to have trouble describing. There were some floral notes coming on with a little spice near the end. An almost sweet medicine taste...I know it's very similar to Madagascan vanilla, but that's the only way I could describe it. I was at a beer tasting last week and had a very hoppy IPA, where the beer tasted floral...there were times when a few puffs reminded me of this. I accidently dropped the cigar after becoming a little to enthusiastic when the Brewers took the lead in the 10th. This messed up the flavor for a bit but I purged and she got back into form. Near the very end it got a little leathery but that was the only time I tasted that.

Overall Impressions

This was a medium bodied stick that was pretty complex. I enjoy spice so I was disappointed there wasn't much. I've smoked some other VSGs and thought there was more spice. Maybe the age on this mellowed her out. Overall I was thoroughly pleased and look forward to smoking another. The burn was perfect and never required any touch ups.
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