Initial Thoughts
I picked up this Casa Miranda cigar on my last trip to my local B&M. It was alongside the Perdomo section so it caught my eye and I picked one up even though the sticker price was a little stiff for my liking ($11). I thought that overall the cigar looked great and was worthy of purchasing. I had no clue about this cigar or where it came from so I figured I’d just try something new. That’s the great thing about cigars is that there is always something new out there to try!
Looks
Overall the Casa Miranda looks like a great smoke. The wrapper is a medium brown very similar to a Colorado colored wrapper. No large veins running up and down the smoke. I was a little disappointed to see some excess wrapper hanging over the foot of the cigar. It felt like this particular stick might have been rushed through the plant.
The band on the cigar is absolutely beautiful. It’s a light yellow that is faded and looks very rustic. An old black and white house is the focal point on the band. I’m assuming this house or casa is owned by the Miranda family. I don’t have any facts to back that up, so it’s just a guess. But once it’s published on the internet it’s true, right?
Anyway, the band is very intricate. I tried to get a close up to reveal some detail, but there are some things that a camera on the iPhone just can’t show. The gold vines on the band are very complex and look to be multi layered which is very cool. The Casa Miranda overall is a great looking stick.
Function
Feeling up and down the barrel of this Casa Miranda I couldn’t detect and soft spots in the construction. In fact the cigar felt a little full of tobacco and to be honest it felt a little heavy. I don’t believe it was do to over humification on my part, but I am checking some of my other sticks in my humidor to see if they have any issues.
This cigar is 6″x52 and a Torpedo. I had to nip the pointed head off three times to get an adequate pre draw. Once I was able to pull in some air through the barrel I still felt like the cigar was a little stiff for my liking. I was hoping that once I lit it up the draw would be smoother.
Smoking
I of course lit up with wooden matches and right at the beginning this Casa Miranda started burning a little uneven. I didn’t want to touch it up because I just got it going and it was burning hot. I sat it down and let the cigar relax a little and it cooled off. After about 1/8 of an inch the burn had started to even out.
However about 3/4″ into the burn the wrapper started fish hooking around on me. It’s really hard to touch this up and get it burning straight again. So I just let it happen naturally and that part of the wrapper eventually fell off. I’m not too impressed at this point.
The draw finally open up mid way through the 1st third on this smoke. However it closed back down mid way through the 2nd third and became very difficult to keep lit. Apparently this cigar didn’t like to rest on my ashtray and wanted me to puff on it like it was a piece pipe, so I obliged. I powered through and made it to the last third and the Casa Miranda opened up like a flood gate. Blue smoke just started pouring off this thing. Not quite as much as the Undercrown, but more than this thing had put off all night.
I wasn’t very impressed with the consistency of this smoke. A Medium pull transitioning into a very difficult draw and then opening up like the mouth of a river to flood me with smoke. I’m a huge fan of consistency all the way through and this Casa Miranda just didn’t have that.
Flavor
On the pre draw I picked up some strong Oaky / Woody notes from the Casa Miranda. The backend reminded me of a nice oaky bourbon. Once it was lit the oak taste moved away and brought in some earthy and coffee flavors on the first third. In the 2nd third I wasn’t able to pick up anything different, but I started to notice more pepper on the backend of the smoke. When I first pulled in the smoke it was very smooth and creamy and finished with a little pepper as I pressed my tongue against the roof of my mouth to try and extract all the flavors.
These flavors stayed very consistent all the way through. The flavor didn’t wow me, but it was nice to see that it was fairly consistent all the way through, unlike the draw that I mentioned above. Overall, I do like the change of pace and having some oaky notes is always a nice flavor profile in my book, I just wished there was something in there to beef it up and make the oak more dominant.
Would I Buy It Again?
Probably not. For the price point ($11) I wasn’t impressed. If this were a $5 stick then yeah I might get a couple more.
Is It an Every Day Smoke?
For me, no it’s not.
Would I Buy a Box?
Not personally, a box of 20 is going to run roughly $200 and I’m just not willing to pay that for something I wasn’t overly impressed with.
Conclusion
The Casa Miranda is a great looking cigar. I just wish it performed as well as it looked. It’s like having a ’62 Shelby Cobra powered by a Ford pinto engine. Looks great, but underperforms. By all means go out and try this cigar, you may love it you may hate it. That’s what I did and I wasn’t a fan, but at least now I know I don’t like.
