Coronado Maduro Corona Especial

I recently found out that La Flor Dominicana had released a very limited number of the Coronado by La Flor with a Maduro wrapper as an experiment of sorts, and by very limited, I mean 83 boxes.

I am a huge fan of the original Coronado, and it is one of my go to cigars. It has everything going for it: spicy, but not overwhelming; sweet, but not overpowering. So I was very interested to see what a Maduro wrapper would do to the taste of the cigar, since the blend remained the same, only the wrapper changed.

• Cigar Reviewed: Coronado by La Flor Maduro Corona Especial
• Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
• Factory: Tabacalera La Flor S.A.
• Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano
• Binder: Dominican Corojo
• Filler: Dominican
• Size: 5 7/8 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 47
• Vitola: Corona
• Est. Price: $10.00
• Date Released: April 2009
• Number of Cigars Released: 83 Boxes of 25 Cigars (2,075 Total Cigars)
• Number of Cigars Smoked for Review: 2

The first thing I noticed when I opened my box of these was the absolutely gorgeous wrapper. Seriously, it is one of the darkest I have ever seen on a Maduro, and that is saying something: nice and oily. It looked great, nothing like the original wrapper. I took a photo of the two side by side as a comparison:

After lighting the stick, the first puff brought out some strong spice, and a fairly strong caramel, a very interesting combination. It did not stick around long, but I liked it. It is a very RICH cigar, one that you know you are smoking a quality stick. The draw was perfect, not too loose, but tight enough to actually feel like you are smoking something more than a cigarette.

The spice pretty much overpowered all other tastes after the firsts couple of puffs. It was FULL of spice, and in the second half, underneath was some cedar, and a little bit of chocolate, but not enough to really enjoy. The burn was great for the first third, then I had to touch it up three times in the middle of the stick, but after that, the last third was perfect, razor sharp.

The last third was all about the power. I had felt the effects of this cigar since I had started smoking it, but at the end, it was like it went into overdrive at the end, I literally had to sit and not stand up, I was getting so dizzy. The cigar did not get harsh or hot at the end, but the strength was overwhelming. Having said that, I smoked it to the nub.

Final Notes:

• This is one of the slowest smoking sticks I have smoked. It is not a huge cigar by any means, but it took almost two hours to finish.
• The band on the Maduro is the same as the band on the regular production Coronado.
• I don’t mind strong cigars, in fact, I enjoy most of them, but this blend to me seems very young, and needs to rest for a while to get everything in harmony…there is not doubt in my mind that it will be an amazing smoke with some rest…
• It is absolutely amazing to me the difference a wrapper makes…the blend on this cigar is exactly the same as the blend in the original production, but the difference is like night and day. Unlike the Tatuaje SW Maduro, (which I think is a far better smoke), this Maduro wrapper changed the cigar so much that I would have never been able to tell they were almost the same smoke.
• If you want to try them, I would buy them TODAY, as they will not last long…I got my at Jack Schwartz, but you can also find them at Arnold’s Tobacco…

Brooks Whittington

I have worn many hats in my life up to this point: I started out as a photojournalist for the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, then transitioned to photographing weddings—both internationally and in the U.S.—for more than a decade. After realizing that there was a need for a cigar website containing better photographs and more in-depth information about each release, I founded my first cigar blog, SmokingStogie, in 2008. SmokingStogie quickly became one of the more influential cigar blogs on the internet, known for reviewing preproduction, prerelease, rare, extremely hard-to-find and expensive cigars, and it was one of the predecessors to halfwheel, which I co-founded.