Yeah I know, this is a machine-made cigar… but it is a Cuban machine-made cigar.

La Corona Coronas – 5 1/2” x 40

Appearance and construction (8 of 15 points possible)

Yikes! This was one ugly cigar. The wrapper itself was coming loose and it was veiny and discolored, I think it was supposed to be Claro. I noticed one especially ugly green spot on the tapered(?) “cap”. It was solid in my hand and no soft spots were present. I took a pre-light draw which was firm to even.

Flava (19 of 25 points possible)

Alright, I was a little worried with the appearance and I thought this was going to be one of my first Cuban dog-rockets, but the flavor wasn’t all that horrible. It started off peppery, then mellowed quickly and was consistently leathery and dry. Not complex at all (but I didn’t really expect it to be). The finish was a little harsh which intensified as I got closer to the end.

Smoking Characteristics (24 of 25)

Okay, I really tried to find some faults here but I could not. It smoked dead even, I never had to relight it and I got a decent amount of smoke from every draw. It got a little warm closer to the end, but not unbearably so. What really surprised me was the ash, which I thought would be short and flaky, but it was actually over an inch long and it didn’t blossom out at all. Can some CC experts tell me what kind of filler they use in these (it didn’t seem to be a lot of short-filler to me).

Overall Impression (29 of 35)

I gave this a high(ish) overall score because I am comparing it to my expectation of a machine-made cigar, which may be unfair so sue me. This cigar was butt-ugly, but it smoked very well. The flavor wasn’t complex, but it wasn’t horrible. For under $3, I guess this holds up well. There are definitely a lot of cigars in the price range (NC, of course) that are better than it, but there’s also some a lot worse. I would say it’s a good golf/fishing cigar to hand out to friends, and at least you can say it’s a Cuban.

Overall – 80