Cohiba Coronas Especiales REG JUL 18 (SRW)

[slowsmoke]

This is now my fifth one of these, out of a quarter box from 24:24 in December of last year, listed as REG JUL 18 *Mostly.  Every one of them has been excellent.

Paired with a Mount Gay XO “peat smoke” rum, which I have also been loving lately.  It has a medium sweetness, with a slightly smoky, spiced vanilla finish.

Wrapper on the cigar smells overwhelmingly of honey, with some straw/hay underneath.  So enticing.

The cold draw is all straw, maybe a hint of graham cracker or short bread.  But that honey wrapper scent still gets in nose and teases.

The draw is tighter than the others, but borderline acceptable, so I forgo the perfecdraw.

First puffs are sour, but not the dry sour wood I get with almost every cigar, it has a texture to it like a dried fruit.  This quickly becomes an awesome sweet truffle twang.  The tight draw requires very slow puffs.  Barely halfway through the first third and this thing is a Cuban showcase.

By the second third, the draw has opened up perfectly to my liking.  Flavors are all honey, sweet grass, light graham cracker.  Minutes after the last puff, the finish on the back of palate is just pure honey.

I got a little aggressive with retrohaling, and things went a bit funky, but still so good, toasted tobacco coming in.  A slight but definite salt on the tip of tongue.  Occasional mild sourness.

The rum is a bit strong and the alcohol kills the palate if I puff too soon after a sip.  I dropped in an ice cube to mellow it a bit.  But with the right timing, that spiced vanilla finish goes so well with the honey-sweet-grass-tobacco.

In the final third, some black coffee and char comes in, signaling the end of the ride, but even then it is so light compared to something like a young Bolivar.

It randomly dies on me. Wrapper feels damp, probably the result of sitting outside in 79% RH for over an hour now.  The relight brings some nutty medium roast coffee.

Overall, this is an easy 93 for me.  Part of that rating might be my excitement at finally “getting” what Cohiba is about.  After trying many CoRo, Siglo, even an Esplendido (all young, admittedly), that were absolutely nothing special, this is the first vitola to make me believe that Cohiba can in fact be something very special.  I picked up a box and am really looking forward to seeing how they develop.

[Kaptain Karl]

Great review! 

CCE is the cigar I'm holding off on purchasing a box until I can hit some sales goals because I want a box so bad...great motivation!!! So thank you for the great review!

[Astar20]

@Kaptain Karl there is one I put in the box on its way to you tomorrow! It's from 2016.

[Kaptain Karl]

10 hours ago, Astar20 said:

@Kaptain Karl there is one I put in the box on its way to you tomorrow! It's from 2016.

I’ll definitely be snagging it! Thank you!