Purchased: 5-pack Corona Viva (5 5/8 X 46)
Price: $32.95
Buy Again: Oh yeah!
Box Worthy: Duh!
Experience Rating: 97
I’ve smoked A LOT of Undercrown Maduro. I don’t know if I mentioned this is my diary, but it’s my desert island smoke. If I had to choose just one cigar to smoke if I were stranded on a desert island, I’d choose this one in a heartbeat, even over the Liga Privada No. 9. A very close second would be the Tatuaje 7th Habano, but the Undercrown Maduro edges it out every so slightly.
I’ve had all the other vitolas of the Undercrown maduro line. But the Corona Viva vitola is my favorite. I’ve been smoking the Toro Especial and Toro Grande vitolas over the past year only because I was able to get for a song. I hadn’t seen the Corona Viva on specials. But ever since I discovered CigarPlace.biz whose prices and shipping rival and often beat CigarPage.com, I will be getting boxes of these. A box of 25 is only $139 there, and with their coupons, I should be able to get them for even less!
But what is it about the Corona Viva that makes it so special to me? Simply this: With this ring gauge, the flavors are much more pronounced than its larger brethren. The dark San Andres wrapper has always held a special appeal to me, but this vitola brings out the deep, rich, creamy chocolate and coffee notes of the wrapper. I’m having a hard time writing this right now because I just want to stop and contemplate the bounty of goodness that I’m getting from the cigar.
Like all Undercrown Maduro, the cigar feels packed but isn’t dead weight. The wrapper is toothy with nodules and in sunlight, little pockets of oil glisten in the sun. I’ve always thought this must be one of the sexiest looking cigars on the market. I punch the cap. The draw is just a tad tight, so I open it up with a little poke of my PerfecDraw.
Light-up is a revelation of black pepper, cream, and cedar but not so strong as to be overpowering. As the cigar burns into the first third, the creamy texture intensifies and is accompanied by a subtle sweetness (I imagine from the CT Broadleaf binder), toast, caramel, coffee, and Swiss Miss hot cocoa.
As the cigar progresses into the second third, it transitions, adding oak, leather, and baking spices, with a long, almost vegetal, floral finish. The aroma off the foot has notes of vanilla and caramel and a campfire of cedarwood. There’s a slight nicotine hit. Strength is a solid medium+.
Into the second half, and this stick is a flavor bomb. It’s not transitioning as much but it’s throwing all the flavors at me at once. Red and white pepper have begun to surface on the finish, with red pepper at the tip of my tongue and lips and a white pepper burn on the roof of my mouth.
The burn line has been dead straight. I only had to make a single correction after a breeze picked up and caused it to slant a bit. But now it’s back on track as the breeze died down. Further owing to the fine construction, though I’ve been ashing every inch or so, it could easily go further. I’ve learned my lesson with ashes burning holes in my clothes.
And smoke production? Talk about being a smoke machine! It’s magnificent!
Though I have a current love affair with Curivari cigars, the Undercrown Maduro will be one I will always keep in my humidor.
Unco B's Stogie Diary 