Sidetracked by a Por Larranaga Petit Corona

I had an assignment tonight, and that was to smoke a Cohiba Maduro Secretos from 2007.  But I opened up the humidor and saw instead a cigar that I had selected during a recent rampage through my ice chest.  A lovely Por Larranaga Petit Corona.  It was from the bygone days of nudity in the dark...cabinets of 50 lovely, oily, bandless beauties resting in rough familiarity with their siblings.  Moist and decadent.  Rich and chocolatey.  Calling to me.  So what the hell, I sparked it up.  This is as close as I am going to get to lovely nudity in the dark these days, anyway. 

I was never a fan of these.  Or rather, I only had one box I ever loved, and I loved every last one of those down to the nub.  A flat box of 25 1998 vintage, contraband from Canada.  Never had another good box of these.  This cabinet I am smoking the last of these days is from 2003.  They were all gorgeous, which made it all the harder to explain their plain, uninteresting flavors.  Make no mistake, they were good cigars, but not great.  They have all been oily, perfectly constructed, not a bad draw in the bunch.  But this cigar has a reputation for exotic and delightful flavors among aficionados, and to hear them describe it makes your mouth water.  Toffee, cream, nutmeg, coffee, butterscotch.  Sounds like a perfect start to a Christmas morning.  Perhaps I just have no palate. Heck, I KNOW I have no palate.  I have been handed the best of the best in my time and only thought, ehh, that's OK...smooth.

So tonight I was looking for redemption.  And I got it to some degree.  These smokes have mellowed some over the years, but still offer a fine, razor sharp burn, a great draw and loads of delicious smoke.  Smoke that for once in many months offers up lots of  delicious tea and cream flavor.  Now we are talking.  I drew a steaming hot bath, wadded up a washcloth behind my head, closed my eyes and smoked.  What a great cigar.  A ton of good creamy flavors with hints of vanilla and spices, kind of wrapped around a base of shortbread cookies.  What is tuly astounding about the smoke is the AROMA.  Just delightful in it's sweet, bakery deliciousness. 

This is one of those smokes that has people craning their necks to get a look at the source of the smoke, remarking to their loved ones that they HATE cigar smoke, but someone somewhere is smoking one that smells GREAT.  Aside from the tea flavors though, for the bulk of the first inch it was muted somewhat.  Once it got warmed up, it began to exude oils and flavors started to come in bunches.  All mild, but all new and exotic.  Cinnamon here, toast there, tea and honey, coffee and cream.

And the smoke is of course, the perfect size.  A petit corona allows you to sample excellent flavors without becoming bored.  Just when it is starting to get a little tired, the cigar is ready to put down.  No Churchill stretch, playing out the string on a cigar that used to be great, but now is just something to hold and puff while the sun goes down or you have a conversation with a friend.  The cigar gave me lots of sweet flavors, a medium body and a perfect burn start to finish.  Near the end it got to be really medium bodied and toasty, not much flavor but a richly refined palette of interesting puffs.  None the same as before, but nothing that I had to think and concentrate on.  Entertaining to the last.

And now with only 8 to go, I am thinking "Now who can I reward with a few of these?"  It's good to have friends.

A superb performance.....91 points