Initial Thoughts
Over and over, I’ve seen this line of Casa Magna cigars sitting in my local cigar shop. I’ve never actually pulled the trigger and bought one though. Last weekend, my buddy Brian gave me one to try on my bachelor trip. I decided to hold off on smoking it because I wanted to take it all in and give it a thorough review, and lets be honest. That wasn’t going to happen while on a bachelor trip. So I decided today was the day. I pulled it out of my humidor and it was a lot larger than I remember it being when he handed it to me. I went back and forth between this and a smaller stick, and I ultimately decided on this Casa Magna Colorado because the fiancé was at band practice so I had some extra time.
From all my digging around online I wasn’t able to find a Casa Magna website, but I was able to pick out some background information on this cigar. Apparently, this cigar is the brain child of Manuel Quesada and Nicaraguans prominent tobacco grower Nestor Plasencia. In fact the robusto vitola won the ’98 cigar of the year honors from Cigar Aficionado. After reading more about the cigar from CA’s blurb, it confirmed my suspicion that the Colorado part of this cigar’s name was used because of the color of the wrapper leaf. Colorado is a specific shade of wrapper leaf it typically has a reddish brown hue. That describes this cigar perfectly. Since we’re already talking about color lets hop up into the review and get it going!
Looks
As I mentioned above this Casa Magna Colorado has a beautiful reddish brown wrapper leaf on it. Not much information is given on the exact type of wrapper leaf used, but we do know this cigar is a Nicaraguan puro. Which means all the leaf was grown in Nicaragua. The specific vitola that I’m smoking is the Extraordinario, for those of you fluent in Spanglish, I would assume this translates to Extraordinary. Yeah, I actually had to use Google Translate for that.
This is a behemoth of a cigar, as I said above, I don’t remember it being that big when he handed it to me (in Frank’s voice, “That’s what she said”). Seriously though, 7″ x 58. Tapered at both ends, this is a legit figurado. I don’t know if I’m ready for this thing, but I’ve made my choice and I have to live with. The wrapper leaf on this stick is gorgeous, very few veins, and there is a gorgeous glow to it. It looks like a very well oiled leather baseball mitt. Slightly dark, yet shiny, it’s a shame this thing is about to go up in smoke!
Function
Well this Casa Magna Colorado has a pigtail cap. Now, I still haven’t perfected the removal of pig tail caps, because honestly I don’t smoke them that often. This time though I told myself I’m going to pull the pigtail and remove the cap how you’re supposed to. Well that failed miserably. I ended up just pulling off the pig tail and didn’t remove the cap whatsoever. So failed again. I had to run back inside and grab my cutter. I’m not sure why I didn’t bring it with me, I guess I had way too much confidence in myself to remove this cap on my own.
The foot on this cigar is very interesting as well, because it’s a figurado it’s also tapered at the foot, or maybe because it’s tapered at the foot it’s also a figurado? Who knows… Anyway, the foot is slightly closed there is just a small opening at the end. Not enough to really draw any air through so I wasn’t able to get a good pre light draw on this stick. Nothing to worry about, but I figured I might as well try. Alright I’m ready to kick the tires and light the fire on this thing. Who’s with me!
Smoking
So, one thing I’ve learned when smoking a cigar with a closed foot is, you’re gonna need a lot of lighter fluid… No, you don’t put it on the cigar directly, but you’re gonna have to hold the torch up for awhile to get it lit properly. That’s exactly what I had to do with this guy. I went at it trying to properly toast the foot on this Casa Magna Colorado. Turns out, not only do you need a good torch, but you also have to cut enough off of the head to be able to pull smoke through. After nearly passing out from sucking air through the cigar I decided I should prolly trim some more off the head. After I did that, easy breezy. This stick went to puffing.
To be honest, I was a little disappointed with the amount of smoke output during the first third of this cigar. I thought this is a big bold beautiful cigar it should be pouring out smoke like the Liga Privadas. It didn’t at first, it slowly started picking up throughout the cigar though. The first third of this stick was interesting it got off to a really wonky burn line. I know it had to do with my failure to light it properly, I’m sure I over-toasted one side when trying to light. So I gave it a quick correction, a couple blasts of jet fuel and it learned its lesson and got on the straight and narrow.
The second third this Casa Magna Colorado really hit it’s stride. It was producing a great amount of smoke and was burning perfectly. I was turning pages in my book and burning a cigar, what more could a guy ask for. About half way through this second third though I started getting some bitter flavors so I decided to resuscitate or purge the cigar. This get it burning clean the rest of the way. I’m guessing I had a lot of tarriness built up inside there. I mean it is a big ass cigar usually at this point I’m almost to the nub with most of the cigars I smoke.
On the home stretch this cigar continued to burn great, I had one issue of slight tunneling, but this was more my fault that the cigars. I was yapping with fiancé, she had just gotten home so I left the cigar unattended for a bit and it got out of line again so I had to zap it with the taser and I think it finally learned.
Flavor
I didn’t really know what to expect with this Casa Magna Colorado. I didn’t know a thing about it going in, which is great it lets me really focus on the cigar without any pre-conceived notions of the cigar. I feel like that allows me to really capture what I’m tasting in the cigar. On the pre game I nosed the cigar up and down and picked up on a lot of earthiness. The wrapper gave off a very musty / earthy smell. There were some notes of leather that continually popped out at me. I tried to smell the foot and was only able to pick up some faint hints of molasses. So I thought this cigar might have some sweetness to offer.
During the first third I really picked up on the earthiness with some woody notes behind it. There was a smokey flavor to it, not just a smoke flavor, but smokey as in wood barbecue. That led to some more savory bbq notes. However, on the retrohale I picked up on quite a bit of floral notes. When the retrohale cleared I was able to pick up some faint roasted nuts. At this point I began to think that I was just hungry, but I had a big dinner, so I shouldn’t be right?
The second third was more of the same, the spice intensified on the retrohale. It was very smooth though, nothing overpowering. I didn’t even tear up. During the second third I really began picking up on the coffee notes. Now, to me this is indicative of Nicaraguan tobacco. Come to find out this is a Nicaraguan puro, so I knew I was onto something. This Casa Magna Colorado is building at this point to be a very full bodied cigar. In fact I stood up to walk around and I got the wobbly legs. I did do a leg workout a couple hours before and I’m lucky I didn’t fall on my face when I tried to stand up.
Rounding third and heading for home this cigar didn’t fluctuate too much with the initial flavors it just built on them. Getting stronger and bolder throughout. This was a very fairly complex cigar that built into a nice full bodied smoke. I was able to pull out some cedar notes towards the end, to go along with the coffee notes. It made for a nice ending complexity to this stick.
Would I Buy It Again?
Absolutely, prolly in a different size though.
Is It an Every Day Smoke?
It very well could be, especially at the price point of the smaller vitolas.
Would I Buy a Box?
I think they’re box worthy for sure.
Conclusion
This Casa Magna Colorado was a fantastic cigar. Sometimes, you can’t be forced to buy something and it has to be gifted for you to try it. I know I have passed on these many times before. Now, I’m kind of sad that I passed on them for so long. There’s a reason it won best of show in ’98. It’s a great stick. Full bodied, full flavored, and a great price point. What more could you ask for?
