Initial Thoughts
I kept passing over the Joya de Nicaragua Antano Dark Corojo in my humidor for a few weeks because I wasn’t quite ready to review it. I knew absolutely nothing about it. I picked it up at a Drew Estate / Joya de Nicaragua event here in town probably two months ago. I was looking for a smaller quicker smoke because there was a chance of rain outside and I didn’t want to get caught in the middle of it smoking a nice big churchill.
I finally gave in after my buddy Frank suggested I smoke it and review for the site. (I’m easily influenced by peer pressure if you haven’t been able to tell) Since Frank knows about 100x more than I do about cigars I decided to trust his judgement and pull this stick out of the humidor and give it a try.
Like I said I don’t know much about the Joya de Nicaragua Antano Dark Corojo so I had to do some research online. This excerpt is from their website:
Antaño Dark Corojo is the embodiment of the Nicaraguan “power” cigar personified. The oily, seal brown capa serves as foreshadowing for the extra full-bodied flavors of its complex, pungent blending of mature, locally cultivated leaf.
With each draw, this puro builds in strength to leave even the most jaded smoker satisfied and spent. This is a cigar for the experienced connoisseur who not only appreciates, but craves unadulterated boldness in their cigars – novices need not light.
This puro looks like it’s going to be a bad mambajamba! I’m not sure if I agree with idea of saying ‘novices need not light’ because to me that would turn me off and not want to smoke it. Oh well what can you do, let get into this review (I know, it rhymed, thats what I was going for).
Looks
I’m starting to really like this two band system on cigars. The Joya de Nicaragua Antano Dark Corojo has a band at the foot of the cigar and one in the normal area up around the head of the cigar. Both bands and black in color with some nice gold trimming wrapped around it. The back of the band at the head has the Joya logo which I’ve always admired. It’s nothing too fancy, but gets the point across. The band at the foot of the cigar says ‘Doble Fuerte’ which stands for ‘double strong’. I think we might be route to smoking a very full bodied cigar!
The wrapper is a very dark wrapper. The oil just glistens off of it. The wrapper reminds me a lot of the Undercrown in color, however the texture is different. It’s not quite as velvety its a little more rough. The veins don’t pop out very much, but there is something rugged about this cigar. Maybe it’s a sign of how I’m going to feel after smoking it!
Function
This cigar has a triple cap that doesn’t look like it was placed properly. The seams appear to be coming loose a little. My suspicions were proved correct when I went to cut the cap off it came off before the rest of the head of the cigar. That seems to be the only flaw in the construction of the Joya de Nicaragua Antano Dark Corojo thus far.
I went ahead and rolled the cigar between my finger and thumb, I detected a somewhat spongy part of the cigar, but nothing that really worried me. The rest of the cigar seemed plenty firm and I don’t think I’ll have any issues with the burn.
The dry draw on this stick is perfect! It was so easy to pull air down the barrel. I was happy to find this out after finding that soft spot, I was afraid I might have a bad cigar on my hands.
Smoking
Well its official I’m completely out of my NUB matches. It’s a sad day, I tried lighting my new matches with the same NUB flint strip and for some reason they wouldn’t light. It’s like the flint strip knew they weren’t NUB matches and it didn’t want them to light. Just my own conspiracy theory so don’t read too much into it.
I continued my latest technique for lighting a cigar with matches. Once I got the match lit I held the tip of the flame to the foot of the Joya de Nicaragua Antano Dark Corojo and toasted it with one match. When that match went out, I lit another and began puffing away. It worked flawlessly, again! A perfect toasted foot and a nice even burn to start out with.
The smoke on this cigar is very thick and it’s actually a heavier blue smoke. The smoke just swirled around me and I was actually able to pick up some aromas. This stick burned even all the way down with a few minor hiccups. I was prepping dinner while I was trying to smoke that might have led to a couple of issues or having to relight. Because the burn was so even I never had to touch up or correct it, but I did have to relight it twice. No big deal it was my own fault for being in the kitchen too long.
Flavor
‘Doble Fuerte’ is an accurate description if I’ve ever heard one. The Joya de Nicaragua Antano Dark Corojo was a very full bodied cigar and packed an awfully big punch for being in such a small package.
Would I Buy It Again?
Well I would buy it for the first time, considering I was given this stick at an event. I think it’s a great smoke and you can pick them up at Famous Smoke for $7 per stick.
Is It an Every Day Smoke?
Not for me, I’m sure the more I smoke the more I’ll get used to these big bodied smokes. I don’t think I could take one of these down everyday though.
Would I Buy a Box?
I think it would be interesting to buy a box of these and age them for a bit. Currently they are on sale for $107 for a box of 20. I think it would be worth it to pick one up and see if they mellow out some with aging.
Conclusion
Truly a great little surprise. I wasn’t expecting much from the Joya de Nicaragua Antano Dark Corojo especially since I got it thrown in for free at an event. I figured it was probably just a filler cigar to give you a sample of something different. I was blown away by the punch that this thing packed. I’m interested in trying it in another vitola to see if the blend stays consistent.
