Review: Coronado Lancero (Serious Cigars Exclusive)

The last of the Litto Gomez creations that will be reviewed as part of Lancero50, Coronado by La Flor. In 2006, Cigar Aficionado named the Double Corona rendition of Litto’s limited production line the second best cigar of the year. Four and a half years later? Things are quiet. Well, there’s also a mystery. Today is a review of a cigar that everyone has heard of, except they haven’t.

• Name: Coronado by La Flor Lancero (Serious Cigars Exclusive)
• Vitola: Lancero
• Size: 7 1/2 x 39
• Wrapper: Nicaraguan Sun Grown Jalapa
• Binder: Dominican Corojo
• Filler: Dominican Sumatra
• Country: Dominican Republic
• Factory: Tabacalera La Flor S.A.
• MSRP: $9.80 (Box of 20, $175.95)
• Source: Serious Cigars
• Time in Humidor: 4 Months
• Cut: Xikar MTX
• Light: Colibri Boss II
• Beverage: Coke
• Smoking Time: 1 Hour 45 Minutes

The Story
Litto Gomez launched Coronado back in the summer of 2006, when we still called the annual trade show, RTDA. (Or at least that’s what people did at the time.) Five fairly large sizes used a combination of Dominican tobaccos, as well as a sun grown Jalapa wrapper from Nestor Plasencia. The plan was to make the cigar, but in limited fashion. I don’t know exact numbers, but somewhere between 50,000 and 75,000 Coronados (total of all sizes, not just Lancero) are released annually. There have been a few even more limited flirtations with the Coronado blend, most noticeably a Maduro. A Maduro that I wouldn’t be shocked to see at the LFD booth in Las Vegas, but that’s besides the point. As for the Lancero? Well… it’s Lanceros. There are in fact two different Lanceros made in the Coronado line, one is 7 x 38 offered to all Coronado accounts; the other? According to Ron Lesseraux of Serious Cigars, it goes something like this:

We approached Litto many months ago to make a special cigar just for us. He agreed and asked us what we would like. I spoke up and said, “What about a Coronado Lancero?” Litto said, “I can do that.”

With that, the Coronado Lancero was born. As production began, we kept asking for a sample, just to check things out. We knew it would be good but wanted to tantalize our customers with a few sticks. Litto would not let any go until they were well aged and ready. About a month ago, La Flor had their sales meeting at the factory in the Dominican and the reps all smoked the cigar. Everyone was blown away. I heard back from my rep right away and the feedback was great. The other reps at the meeting were ready to sell this new size around the country but Litto let them know that it is an exclusive for Serious.

We took several customers to the Dominican a week after that sales meeting. Litto hosted us in his factory and on his farm for an entire day. We arrived at the factory first thing in the morning and crowded into his office for a discussion. Like a gracious host, he had several boxes of cigars for the guys to sample. Everyone picked up a cigar and fired it up, he looked at me and said, “Ron, this is for you.” It was the Coronado Lancero. The cigar looked perfect, banded and ready to smoke. I fired it up, and smoked it while we had a great discussion in his office. It is a great cigar, great body, great strength.

The Coronado Lancero is something special and I hope you enjoy them.

The difference? Serious Cigars has a Lancero in the classic Litto size of 7 1/2 x 39, the same as the Double Ligero and Litto Gomez Diez. I’ve contacted all of the Litto experts I know, including ones with business cards that say “LFD” and one that says “Jack Schwartz” — and still, no one seems to be aware of the slightly larger version that was released in 2008, for Houston’s Serious Cigars.

Plasencia’s wrapper features mild veins on a leather hue with good reds. The band, which is near impossible to photograph, is a great contrast to the cigar itself, but that’s just a side-note. Above average rolling from Tabacalera La Flor S.A. that produces a decent amount of resistance to the touch. Aroma from the bottom is full with a familiar brownie-like cocoa (close to AGANORSA cocoa), perfume and an underlying sweetness that’s separate from the chocolate note.

Lighting
Once the cap is gone, it’s a great mixture of cocoa and wine up front with cedar and pepper rounding out the full profile. Cold draw is a bit tight, but it delivers in flavor: pepper, cedar, red wine and earth; full and complex. Warming the foot produces a mixture of toasty and pepper notes, a forewarning. Smoke struggles to leave the Coronado Lancero, but, the first draw brings a bitter deep cedar with spices on the lips before a dominating pepper rounds out the full flavor. (Just to be clear, the cap was sort of falling off, no clue why, don’t remember this being a problem, and these are packed in cello.)

First Third
Shocking, it’s full. The Coronado Lancero brings the deep cedar for almost all of the first third. On one stick, the spice left my lips; the other two, it stuck around. I’m not sure whether or not I want to call this a definitive, but it obviously is a possibility. Whatever the case, perfume and some sweet caramel find its way in the mix, as well as a rather strong pepper (almost paprika) flavor. Finish of the La Flor creation is a spicy cedar that retains a bit of the bitterness, but it’s clear the pepper begins to overtake the above average length finish. Draw is slightly tight, but with above average smoke production. Outside it’s the same toasty pepper note that greeted me originally.

Second Third
Complexity shows itself off in the middle portion. Leathers begin to sour the cedar while the paprika becomes the apparent flavor with some rounded brown sugar underneath. It’s quite good, and quite unexpected. Finish is strikingly similar to the first third, a bit of a developing tobacco note, but other than that, not a whole lot of changes, perhaps some rearranging. Draw remains tight, not causing problems, but not getting any better. Smoke production is still decent, but nothing special. The Coronado’s ash holds on for an inch to an inch and a half, once again, no record setting here.

Final Third
Body increases mainly due to a bit of warming in the cigar. Flavors are rearranging, leather taking on a bit more prominence, with the cedar still as bitter ash the first draw. Finish of the Coronado Lancero sees more of the convoluted mixture that is leather, pepper and cedar. I’m a bit shocked the core remains as detailed as it does, but it is what it is. Draw continues to slowly tighten, but it seem as I get towards the end it won’t be a huge problem. Burn remains quite good, what I expect from La Flor. At about an hour and forty-five minutes, the Coronado is laid to rest and I reflect.

For the Novice
A lot of times cigars will be advertised as full and fall far short. I’m not really sure why, economics seem to point to the majority of cigars sold to be the towards the lighter side, but whatever the case. This is advertised as full, and it’s full in just about every aspect.

In the End
I’ve not smoked a 7 x 38 Coronado, so my thoughts are solely based off the Serious Cigars renditions I’ve had. The Coronado is a blend that I find to be very complete. There’s no loose ends, nothing that seems like it wasn’t fully figured out; everything is there. It’s not perfect by any means, but completeness cannot be extended to a lot of cigars. I’m not a big fan of most of the regular production Coronados, but this Lancero is quite good. While all my purchases with Serious Cigars have gone smoothly, I’d love to be able to pick these up locally, (un)fortunately I don’t live in Houston. To order the Coronado by La Flor Lancero (Serious Cigars Exclusive), click here.

91. There are a lot of good, reasonably priced, fuller Lanceros; Coronado sets itself apart from the rest, Serious has a winner.

Lancero50/41

Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.