With the arrival of Jerry’s Petit Corona getting closer and closer, he has been dealing with a landslide of work at his day-job. He asked me if I could step in for him while he gets his head above water and I saw it as the perfect opportunity to finally smoke that acclaimed Cigar of the Year that has been sitting in my humidor for months.
As you may have guessed it, that cigar is the Casa Magna Colorado and was ranked number one by Cigar Aficionado. After the rankings came out, the Casa Magna virtually flew off the shelves of cigar shops across the country and also earned itself the unofficial title of back ordered cigar of the year.
Because practically all of my purchases are made locally, I was only able to get my hands on a single stick when Kensington Tobacconist received their shipment. Before I could get back into the shop the following week to get a couple more, they were sold out and not expected in again for some time.
With a single stick in my humidor, I was holding off until I had an opening for a Short Ashes review that i could also tie in with some sort of First Impressions video (as I had not yet smoked the cigar). When Jerry asked me to cover and I got a request on Youtube to review the stick, I dug it out and set it aflame.
Check out Brian Hewitt’s original review
of the Casa Magna Colorado Belicoso
My Casa Magna Photostream on Flickr
Try the Casa Magna Pikito… I did a vertical tasting and found this cigar to be the sweet spot in the line.
How much?
I also enjoyed a Casa Magna torpedo, when I could keep it going. I bought a robusto hoping for a better burn but haven’t tried it yet. The cigar has good flavor, but the burn problem makes it too much trouble for the payoff.
I agree with OSV the pikito is the best in that line….definetly go out and get a 5er or three…..
SJ
Nice review! I had the bigger ring gauge in the Casa Magna and was NOT impressed. I think it is a decent smoke, but it was so 1 dimensional the whole way through, it left me wanting for more.
Also the bigger ring gauge seemed medium to me, maybe full at the last third, but not the whole way through.
Mike
I’ve only had one Casa Magna that a buddy sent me. I really liked it. I agree that the finish was very clean on the palate, which I love, but I think I got more flavor off mine than you did, Walt, probably because the burn on your’s sucked. I totally hate it when a cigar keeps going out like that, and unless the flavor is great I won’t put up with it. I think that issue isn’t normal for the CM, though.
The flavor was good on mine, and I even got hints of what reminded me of a Tatuaje Verocu (my favorite stick). The one I smoked was the Toro Grande or whatever they call it — big fatty. I bought a couple more when I saw them at Jungle Jim’s a few weeks ago.
“Cigar of the Year?” Well, It’s a great cigar and it’s very reasonably priced — and that’s the reason it got #1 as CA themselves said. In a way I like them weighing cheap cigars more heavily because I for one am not going to smoke many $30 + dollar sticks.
Maybe they should have 2 lists, a best cigars period list and a best cigars for the price (best value) list.
After smoking them all I was a bit disappointed that the Robusto was ciagr of the year. The Pikito however impressed me enough to buy a box of 55 of these little flavor bombs! The Pikito was released at a later date and was not available when CA did its ranking. They are also a decent value if you like tasty little cigars!
In 2008 Cigar Aficionado elects the Casa Magna as their cigar of the year. Also in 2008 we elect Barack Obama as our President……. I am equally perplexed with both decisions.
Your perplexity about the cigar award may be justified Matt, as only a minute percentage of cigar smokers makes that decision. Obama on the other hand was elected by 53% of the people – that’s a majority and how it’s done in America, or at least used to be. This is a cigar site, not some forum for your political views.
I was simply making a coincidental observation. This is a cigar site, and I love talking about cigars on here. But don’t tell me what I can and cannot talk about, I have too much strain from the government telling me what I can and cannot do…..I don’t need a fellow cigar smoker doing the same thing.
Amen Matt ! Mike H must be one of them liberal/socialist cigar smokers.
Hey Paul,
Is there anything between your ears other than your lips for holding onto cigars? What part of my comment didn’t you understand? If you have a comment about cigars we’re all interested – that’s why we’re here. No one cares that you are a righty. There’s plenty of other web sites you can go and spew your twisted views about “socialism”!
For my part this was a justifiable top pick in 2008. I liked this smoke enough to go out and buy more, which for me is the acid test of any smoke: will I pay my hard earned bucks to do it again. And in this case the answer is a definite “yes!”
Hey Mike, here it is 5 years later…how do you feel about your boy Obama now? I’ll bet if Mike and Matt had made a “pro” leftist post, you wouldn’t have said a word. Socialism has never worked and never will.