Cigar Review: Quesada España

Corona, 5.5" x 42 ring gauge / $7.25, Bonita Smoke Shop

A couple weeks ago Jackie from Bonita Smoke Shop (@BonitaSmokeShop) announced on Twitter that she had received a couple boxes of this cigar. I had heard some talk about it and decided to order a couple of each size to give them a try. From what I've found they are a bit difficult to find in the US because it was originally released into Spain only. It seems that the demand for this cigar in the US has them starting to ship them here but in limited quantities. The cigar comes in three sizes, a 4" x 50 short robusto, a 5" x 52 robusto, and the subject of this review a 5.5" x 42 corona. The cigar is comprised of Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers, a Dominican binder, all covered in a Ecuadorian Arapiraca wrapper. This cigar was the second one of this size I smoked, however I smoked one each of the other sizes as well before the review.

This cigar had a very nice golden honey brown wrapper with a good amount of oils to it. The veins that were there were very slight. In my opinion the bands looks just about perfect with the colors of the wrapper. Giving the cigar a squeeze I wasn't able to detect any soft spots and it was fairly firm to the touch. When I put my nose to the wrapper I was able to detect the aroma of leather with a slight barnyard coming from the foot. After clipping the cigar and taking a cold draw on it I got a sweet leather taste with a good draw.

Once I lit the cigar up I got a fairly strong red pepper spice on the retrohale and on the tongue. After taking a few more puffs on the cigar I was able to get some notes of leather and tobacco with a sweetness on the finish. The cigar was producing a large volume of smoke with each puff and the draw was pretty much perfect. Towards the end of the first third I started getting notes of cinnamon and nutmeg. The cigar was firmly in the medium bodied and strength range at this point. The burn was slightly uneven but it didn't require a touch up. The light grey ash held on for about a half of an inch before needing to be tapped off.

The second third saw the spice tone down a bit, but not go away completely. The flavors I noted during this third were of earth, wood, and cinnamon with a slightly sweet finish. The burn continued to be slightly uneven and the draw was pretty much perfect.

As I moved into the final third of the cigar the strength built up a bit and I would classify this cigar at the bottom end of full once it got here. The flavors were pretty consistent, in that they were leather, earth, cinnamon and a slightly creamy sweet finish. The burn evened itself out by this third.

Overall this was a very enjoyable cigar! I would recommend that if you like other Quesada cigars or Cuban cigars (as this is what this was designed to compete against) you should definitely give it a try if you can find it. I did like the corona size best as I felt it had the most full flavor. I would like to see the cigar easier to find in the US as the great flavors and reasonable price make it one I'd like to smoke more often.

Body: 7/10
Strength: 8/10
Complexity: 7/10

AFP Scale
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10