Bolivar Corona Gigantes No Date Code (BWRC )

[Str8BlkCoffee]

I stopped by the Habanos cafe today to enjoy the Liberation/National weekend with a nice cigar. I was poking around the humidor and came across a box of Bolivar Corona Gigantes and decide to give one a try having never seen one in the wild. I asked the assistant what the box code was and he tore off the label on the bottom and no date code. He said it was probably mid to early 2000s only 5 left in the box I grabbed the darkest, most oily wrapped monster I saw, had it clipped and began my experience. Being that I am a Cuban noob I didn't didn't realize that these had been discontinued.

First impression, rolled in the fingers with no real soft spots to speak of nice and firm, wrapper was dark milk chocolate color with a large vein in the leaf. Cold it smell like hay, light barnyard. Cold draft was sweet hay.

First light was nutty leather, as the first third developed a sweet date flavor became the predominate flavor. This lasted all the way through until the first ash. The draw was rather tight having to utilize the puff-PUFF method in order to coat the palette properly. The ash after a little over an inch had to be coaxed off and was very firm. However the tightness of the cigar changed, it loosened up and began to draw much more easily.

2nd third began and I began to taste a phenol or bitterness during a retrohale that hung on for more than I cared. I thought it might have been my choice of accompaniment which was a cappuccino However, the bitterness grew as did the phenol taste and smell. I was really becoming unhappy with the flavor I was getting from the cigar when suddenly the cigar lost its ash after 1/2 inch just missing my lap and everything change. Bitterness was gone as were the phenols, replaced again by the sweet date, leather and growing deep earthy tobacco flavor.

Very quickly the dates were gone and the deep earthy tobacco was in full force, growing more and more heady. Well into the final third the draw had perfected itself, a slight sweet stewed fruit slipped in to touch the tip of my tongue as the deep earthy tobacco mellowed and continued through until the heat took over and we were done.

A very beautiful day, to sit al fresco on the patio, watch the people walk past, see the yachts slip past in the emerald water by the marina and enjoy a fantastic cigar.

Sorry for the fuzzy pics, that camera takes awful photos