Corona Cigar Company Dominican Selection (6x52)

So last weekend was my birthday, and my wife had asked me a week or two prior what I wanted to do for said birthday.  I knew exactly what I wanted to do, break bread with friend and then smoke cigars with friends.  As the day drew near, I told my wife I wanted to go to Old Chicago for deep dish Chicago style pizza and then plan on cake and other treats back at our house.

I invited a few of my friends, their wives and kids and the plan was set into play.  Saturday evening arrived and we met at the restaurant and enjoyed a good time of fun and food.  It meant a lot to me that everyone I had invited took time out of their lives to come celebrate with me, and I knew the fun was just beginning because as dinner finished up we headed back to our home for round two of the celebration.

As a present to myself, I purchased a cigar sampler from Corona Cigar Company that included 2 each of 8 different cigars.  Seeing as I recognized a few of the sticks in the sampler package as brands I have tried and enjoyed before, it seemed like a fair gamble for what amounted to a $3 per stick cost.

Unbeknownst to my wife, the day before I headed over to the Home Depot and bought retaining stones that I used to build a fire pit in our backyard.  Again, realize the plan for my birthday was something I had actually been working on for a while, and the fire pit was a pivotal piece of the puzzle.  Saturday morning I awoke and went on a 10 mile bike ride first thing in the morning the ended with me coming home soaking wet as it started to rain during the ride, a byproduct of the cold front that was suggesting temps in the mid-sixties for evening time - perfect weather for a fire in the new fire pit.

When we got home, I threw a match into the already stacked wood in the fire pit and immediately we had a hot blaze going.  I elected to smoke a Corona Cigar Company branded cigar, in this case a Dominican Selection (6x52) Connecticut wrapper cigar that was part of the previously mentioned sampler pack.

As I've written in the past, I'm not a huge fan of the Connecticut wrapper as it normally is not a terrible strong cigar, and in this case it held true as well.  The cigar lit easily and the immediate flavor was one of a smooth mellow creamy flavor.  The smoke had some subtle hints of butter with a slight nutmeg on the finish.

The cigar was good, but honestly given the big bold dinner I had just enjoyed, a stronger cigar would have been a better choice for the evening.  None the less, I had my family and friends around me enjoying our new fire pit while smoking a cigar and sipping on a glass of red wine.

All in all, it really was a good situation I had going.  The cigar smoked really well not requiring any touchups to the cherry, and the flavor while good remained consistent throughout the stick not offering up too much other flavor other than that previously mentioned here.

This (like all Connecticut wrapper) really would serve well as an early morning cigar enjoyed with a cup of coffee.  This is not a cigar I'd go to after enjoying a big dinner, be it pepperoni pizza or steak or just about anything else.  Perhaps the redeeming situation for this cigar was the birthday cake my wife had made that actually went quite well with the cigar.  The sweetness of the cake actually went quite nicely with the buttery creaminess of the smoke, and the nutmeg I noted earlier on the finish I do believe was further enhanced by the cake.

I enjoyed this cigar to about the base of the wrapper, and by that point it was showing signs of carbon buildup on the draw so I offered the cigar to the fire and let it drift into cigar memory.

As this cigar was finished, another one of my friends showed up carrying with him a couple CAO Gold cigars.  I'll post that review here as well, but I'll tease it by stating that it was not as good as previous CAO Gold cigars I've had in the past, but I'll deal with that in that review.

In the meantime, as I sat and smoked this cigar, I couldn't help but think to myself that this would be a good cigar to suggest to my sister to try.  She is a newer cigar smoker and as such isn't into the big bold cigars I tend to go for.  Of course it helps that she lives only a few minutes from the Corona Cigar Company Lounge and as such has access to their massive inventory to try.  I think this is a cigar worth trying, even if it doesn't end up being your favorite.

Until we smoke again...