Cigar Review: Casa Magna Colorado robusto

Cigar Name: Casa Magna Colorado
Wrapper: Nicaragua (Colorado)
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Nicaragua
Size: Robusto (5.5 x 52)
Strength: Full strength.
Body: Full bodied.
Price: $5.xx-$6.xx per cigar
Smoking time: 1 ½ - 2 hours

The Casa Magna was created by Manuel Quesada and Nestor Plascencia. It’s rolled in Esteli, Nicaragua and is a Nicaraguan puro. Tobacco used for the cigar is all Cuban-seed and grown in Estelí (produces stronger tobacco) and Jalapa.

I finally got around to the box of Casa Magnas I split with Adam, plus a few singles I bought before the boxes finally arrived. They’ve been sitting in my humidor for 6 months. The weather has been great for sitting on the patio and enjoying a cigar and a book. Over the last three weeks this is the only cigar that I have had. What a great three weeks. The Casa Magnas are all gone and here is the review:

APPEARANCE: One of the best looking cigars I’ve ever seen. The wrapper is reddish brown that shined with oil. There were small veins on all of the cigars (I like this), but nothing too big or to worry about. The cigar looked tough and striking. The Casa magna sports an elegant and masculine band that is thick and embossed. (This is the 2009 release, but I do remember the 2008 release having problems with the glue on the band not loosening up and it was a fight that ended in tearing the band every time to get the band off—I did not have that problem at all with the 2009 release.) 10/10

CONSTRUCTION: Beautifully triple capped. Seamless wrapper. When squeezed there was a slight give and the cigar felt very solid…and heavy too. I felt no soft spots on any of the cigars. You could tell that these cigars were made with care and quality control was working nicely. 10/10

BURN: I did not have to make a single touch up with a flame. Half of the cigars I smoked burned straight, perfect and even. The other half had a slight uneven burn—one or two of those burned almost uneven enough to warrant a flame touch up and I think this meddled with the taste a little bit. But I might be able to blame the uneven burns on my lighting skills or some of the windy days we’ve had this spring. The ash was solid on every cigar and really only needed to be ashed 3 or 4 times per cigar. The ash was ringed with alternating light and dark gray. The cigar that burned the most unevenly had a bit of a yellow tint to the ash. Either way, the burn was good. 8/10

AROMA: I’m not that good at picking up on aroma notes, but I enjoyed the smell of the smoke very much. It was thick, and strong, but not a cigar you would want to light up at a bar because of the strong aroma. The aroma was of tobacco, earth and I think maybe something sweet too. 10/10

DRAW: The draw was perfect on every single cigar. I used my double guillotine to snip off the head and each time the draw was the same. The draw was a bit snug, but not too snug, and sometimes required a second ‘toke’ to create that REALLY good draw. The snug draw was expected because of the weight and tightness of the cigar. I like a slight tug of a draw in a cigar. Another great result of the slightly snug draw and plethora of tobacco was the COOL draw that lasted to the nub and fingertips each time. 10/10

FLAVOR: Again, I’m not great at picking out flavors either, but the cigar was spicy to the lips and tongue pre-light and had an earthy smell. I used a triple torch flame to light the Casa Magna and the expected spice was up front and center. I was able to ’roll’ the smoke with much enjoyment and no discomfort even with the large amount of spice (a few strong cigars are too strong for me to ‘roll’ the smoke and fully enjoy the cigar). Coffee was in the background. During the second third the spice faded to the background and coffee, earth and the taste that I loved—the taste of chocolate that reminds me of my grandma’s homemade chocolate cake. These flavors balanced very well and made the cigar very complex. The last third the spice came back a little bit to the front and the chocolate, coffee and earth flavors jumped out here and there. This cigar had a lot of different flavors going on, but in a very good way. 10/10

AVAILABILITY: The 2008 release was like hunting for Sasquatch, but the 2009 release isn’t hard to find at all. Some online tobacconists are on backorder, but so far most retailers are keeping this cigar stocked and in several more vitolas than the 2008 release (which was only the robusto). The price is a HUGE bonus for this cigar as the robusto is only $5-$6. Not too many cigars of this quality are priced this low. So, availability may become scarce as the year goes on, but so far so good. 10/10

PERSONAL OVERALL EXPERIENCE: The strength of this cigar is labeled as full bodied…and it was just as expected. Now, it is not the strongest cigar that I’ve had, but it does not rate itself as a super strong cigar either. The Casa Magna is superbly made and beautiful to look at. I’ve been smoking cigars for almost a year and a half now, and after trying MANY cigars, this will be one of the first boxes I will buy to stock my humidor once room as been created. The price is very affordable and I really enjoy the flavors. I enjoyed every one of these cigars this wonderful spring. With the smoking time at over an hour and a half, they’ve thankfully helped me be outside and enjoy the weather. The Casa Magna Colorado robusto is a wonderful cigar. 27/30

Total Score: 95/100

Take care-
Joe

Jeffro's B-Day Bash: Fairmount Park May 15th

I realize that this is not an official OCCS event, however, it seems fitting to post the reminder here.

We have reservations in the Black Stallion Room for the "Stein Party". There is a buffet dinner before the races start, the doors open @ 6pm, and the races start at 7:30.

For more info on the place: http://www.fairmountpark.com/

Hope to see you there.

Adam

Old 10/10 Cigar Reviews

Here is the list of cigars we gave a 10/10 before the new cigar review rating system:

>A.F. Chateau Fuente Queen Bee Sun Grown
>Don Pepin Garcia M.F. Le Bijou 1922
>Illusione 888
>Rocky Patel 1961 Robusto
>Diesel Unholy Cocktail Torpedo
>HC Hababo Colorado
>Cain F
>Nica Libre
>Nub Maduro
>Don Peppin Garcia-My Father
>Casa Magna
>Arturo Fuente Opus X Fuente Fuente

Cigar review system changed on 04/16/2010.

-Joe

Review of the review

Okay, how did it look? I think the structure is good but I got to tell you guys, I felt kind of weird rating the Band. I would like to get rid of that and either replace it or put the points in something else.

What do you think of the weighting of the overall personal experience?

Matt

SPECIAL REVIEW: CAIN F NUB

Okay, here goes. This is the first attempt of a review with our new system. As this is a special occasion review, we can probably tweak it if we need do.

BRAND: CAIN (BY OLIVIA)
BLEND: F
SIZE: 4 X 54 (NUB)
ORIGIN: Filler, Binder and Wrapper all come from Nicaragua with most of the triple fermented ligero filler hailing from Condega, Jalapa adn Esteli valleys.
PURCHASED FROM: Tampa Humidor in Tampa FL. I got it for free as a sampler freebee when I bought the Cain F Torpedos
BODY: FULL
STRENGTH: FULL

OVERALL APEARANCE: Reddish hue with dark oily wrapper. Very good looking cigar. Band was a very simple red band with gold lettering CAIN F NUB. 9/10

CONSTRUCTION: No veins. No hard or soft spots throughout. Nice looking cap. 9/10

BURN: Like most of the cigars made by Olivia, this burned like a champion. Great solid ash (this close to being able to stand it upright on the ash). 10/10

AROMA: Very strong tobacco smell (duh) but it also had a hint of barnyard. That hit you in your face burn of amonia from the nicotine. 8/10

DRAW: Exceptional. No touch ups at all. Held the flame for a long time. 10/10

FLAVORS: Coffee, toffee and hay 8/10

AVAILABILITY/COST: Extrememly rare. You can only get these from the Cain events or from select merchants that will sell them as sampler packs when you buy a box. 3/10

OVERALL PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: While this was a very good cigar, I was not wowed by it. It did not seem as strong as the standard F's. It was however much mellower. Actually, much smoother in fact. While still full strength, I was more impressed by the full flavored aspect of this. Much different than standard F's. 27/30

OVERALL SCORE: 84/100

Matt

The OCCS Rating

The notes I took during our last meeting while discussing the official OCCS rating system have evidently been stolen by another cigar club. I know we all gave quite a bit of thought to this, and we take it seriously--so I am very sorry for dropping the ball on this.

The best way to avoid this from happening again, other than obviously having someone besides me in charge of taking & keep the notes, may be to post our thoughts/discussion here. Besides, such discussion is one of the reasons we set this blog up in the first place.

I know we formulated 10 different areas for rating our cigars, each having a possible 10 points (thus making the "perfect" cigar a 100). We also discussed the number of a particular cigar that must be smoked before a cigar can be considered for a 100 rating, and I thought there was talk of having a minimum number for even posting a review for a particular cigar. I believe we also discussed what information should be posted in the description area of the cigar (origin, price, where it was purchased, etc.).

Again, my apologies for allowing our sacred notes out of club hands, but lets take it from here.