Coronado by La Flor Dominicana

Last week, I ordered a sampler of the Coronado by La Flor Dominicana from Holt's Cigars. I was looking forward to lighting up one of these bad boys when I had some quality time to really appreciate the smoke that Cigar Aficionado named the #2 cigar of 2006. Well tonight's the night. It's a cold Friday night and I made myself a delicious cup of coffee and the crazy man Bear Grylls is on TV eating some gawdawful things.

Boy was I in for a disappointment.

Now don't get me wrong, this is not a bad cigar. It's just not what I consider a great cigar. The sun-grown Nicaraguan wrapper is beautiful and the blend of Dominican tobacco packs a punch, but I never tasted the full, rich flavors that I was expecting. I smoked the double-corona which measures a hearty 7 x 54. After smoking 2/3 of the cigars, I gave up. One more puff of the full-bodied cigar and I was going to hurl. If you like strong cigars, you can buy a box of 24 for $162.

Overall rating: 6.5 out of 10

La Flor Dominicana Ligero

This is a full-bodied Dominican cigar rolled in Ecuadorian tobacco. It's a strong cigar that you should definitely not smoke on an empty stomach. I smoked the #300 which measures 5.75 x 50. The construction of the cigar is good but the one I smoked burned a bit unevenly. The damn thing also kept on going out on me. That was a bit annoying. However, overall it wasn't a bad cigar with a good, rich flavor. A box of 24 cigars go for $114.

Rating: 7 out of 10