Bolivar Petit Corona TUA JUL ‘20 (BRW)

[Capn_Jackson]

Bolivar Petit Corona, TUA JUL ‘20

Had this one a gorgeous Sunday morning. About 80 degrees on the porch and sunny. I often forget how good a Boli PC can be on a morning after breakfast. 

This one had a typical Bolivar feel with a few veins here and there, nice slightly firm texture. Good light brown color, I’ll call it “Bolivar brown,” with quite a bit of tooth. The aroma is kind of a mix of barnyard and cinnamon. After a V-cut, I get a malt and sourdough taste on the cold draw. Slight resistance, but I think it’ll be good. Start time is 9:55am

The opening light has some coffee with milk, and a pleasantly salty finish. After a few minutes this cigar settles into mostly coffee and leather, with some damp earth and spices behind it. Going further into the first third, cocoa takes the place of leather, and everything else remains unchanged. A little bit later, those flavors become dominated by kind of a toasted sweetness. Not too elegant, but pretty dang delightful. Underneath all of this, there’s kind of a barnyard scent like damp hay, tying it all together. Good stuff!

The finish carries baking spices, kind of like a nice oatmeal cookie, and it lasts forever! Right up until the next puff. At the beginning there was quite a bit of salt in the finish, but that died away after twenty minutes or so. I’d say the retrohale brings out freshly baked bread, similar to what I noted in the cold draw. Strength is about med-full with nice bold flavors. Not as bold as the big brother, the BBF, and maybe not as bold as Party Shorts and other PC’s, but still a very nice little smoke. The texture is slightly creamy at the beginning, and just gets thicker throughout. Fantastic smoke production for such a small stick, and the draw is just about perfect for me. 

Going into the second third (ash drops on cue), the finish becomes much sweeter, almost like this thing was dipped in sugar. Towards the middle, a little bit of sweet tea comes in to join the cocoa and spices, and I don’t get as much coffee now. A good bit of nice leather comes back here, like the beginning. This reminds me of a great NC I love, the Tatuaje Havana VI, Hermoso cut. Great sweet tea profile on that cigar, and this PC is hitting that mark at the moment.

Toward the end of the second third, the finish gets far sweeter, still with the cocoa and spices but more like a holiday spice. The retrohale is heavenly. If you know me then anytime I talk about retrohale, “bread” is the word. Through the nose I always get a scent of freshly-baked bread, seemingly no matter what the cigar. This PC is no different, although the sweetness from the palate is still there. I really didn’t expect this one to be so sugary today. It’s not as much wood as I remembered from this cigar, at least not up to this point.

Right at the end of the second third, the oak I was missing finally showed up, creating great harmony with the cocoa and spices. It only gets stronger as I move through towards the end of the smoke, characterized by a nice smoky zing. There is also a note of anise joining the party. A muted barnyard note is still there underneath everything, so this ends up tasting like a chocolate and raisin cookie, cooked over a campfire, right outside a stable. Good stuff!! The finish and texture at the end gets even more syrupy, creating a great mouthfeel to finish off this cigar. I finished at 11:10am, so about an hour and fifteen minutes for me.

I’d give this one a 90, maybe 92. Really I was pleasantly surprised. I’ve got a handful of this box still left, and it has been neglected over the last several months. Love to see how they taste after another 6 months or so!