Review of Illusione Cigares PrivéBy: Dr. Mitch Fadem This cigar is an Illusione Cigares Privé Lancero special blend. Cigares Privé simply means Private Cigars. The Lancero size is ~7” with a ring gauge of 40. The cigar was made by Aganorsa Cigar Company for Illusione Cigars (Dion Giolito). The tobacco is all from Nicaragua using a Corojo 98 wrapper, Criollo 98 binder and mostly Corojo fillers. All the tobacco is grown at the Tabacos Valle de Jalapa S.A. (TABSA) in Estelí, Nicaragua. The cigar has a rustic look with some visible leaf veins, no soft spots and a Cubanesque triple cap. It appears to be a very well-constructed cigar. The pre-light aroma reminded me of a pile of freshly fallen Fall leaves from when I lived back in Ohio. As kids, we all played in large leaf piles collected in our yards and there was a special aroma associated with that. The pre-light draw was good for a Lancero and the flavor was like sweet tea. It lit easily and generated a nice amount of smoke. The aromas and flavors now were of fresh ground dark roast coffee and a very bitter dark chocolate, almost like cocoa powder. During the first 3rd, the cigar burned slightly uneven. By the middle 3rd,the unevenness got progressively worse and required a slight touch up. That caused the ash to fall off, but the cigar burned evenly the rest of the smoke. This is a very, very, very slow burning cigar. I checked a clock and it took 1 hour to get to the middle of this cigar. It was nice to see that the flavors and aromas remained consistent even going into the final 3rd. Another 30 minutes went by and it appeared as though the cigar was burning even slower. I ended up putting the cigar down with 2” left, but not because of any wrong, I just had something else to do. Value? This cigar cost me $10.00, and for the 90 minutes of good smoking, it is a good value for an above average priced cigar. I gave it only 4 stars because of the uneven burn. I would definitely buy another. |
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