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Unlit Impressions

Alliance may call it a "Colorado Maduro" on its product page, but this stick looks straight up "Habano Rosado" colored in the sunlight. Medium in oil content, but crackingly good when it comes to construction and capping, this Nicaraguan corojo shines in all the right forms. 

Sadly, the double banding on the cigar not only looks cheaply put together, but neither strip of heavily glossed paper is properly fitted, and the glue point on each sits too low. The result is an unattractive peeling set of cigar bands that poke the lip and threaten the hand with the risk of a paper cut. It is extremely rare for me to remove a cigar band prior to lighting, but in this case, it was deemed necessary.

Now, back to that red wrapper, which has been teasing me with whiffs of sour cherry, sweet cedar, and a mellow floral pop that eludes my attempts at determining the base flower beneath it all. These scents swerve sideways to leave space for the sweet roundness found within the open end to form its footing. Cigar-oriented dad joke, anyone? It's been a while.

Back on that foot action, my nose hairs welcome the warm embrace of pop tarts, light dried fruits, pralines with cream, and the nostalgic scent of palm trees in the breeze. Panama is calling...

Unlit tastes are spicy and tangy. We're talking drunken tonsil hockey at the bar after ordering jalapeno tequila shots with lime. Chuck some dried clay at me, a hazelnut or two, a dry-and-sweet finish, and call me completely smitten, because this is one delish little corojo.

Initial Smoke

A perfect pull from the guillotine cut cap creates a medium-bodied blow of smoke to sweep across the olfactory senses. Generic nuts, dried grass, a faint sun-grown tobacco spiciness, and some mixed green and black tea take the dry retrohale and give it a subtly outlined finish that teeters on being sublime.

1st Half

A standout mixture of Indian-spiced curry and Chex Mix makes the first third a fiery, savory, and cereal-grain gem of a smoking section. Roasted mixed peppers of the sweet and spicy variety and a fermented funkiness set the secondary note bar on high ground. A bit of throat burn does distract the senses a bit, and the development of a soft spot in the center of the cigar shows that not all is well beneath the surface, even if things are going quite well everywhere else.

Floral notes flirt with forming a musky perfume as the first third burns into the second, blown outwards by a smooth retrohale that only gets better with every other puff. Then, as that kickass corojo concoction of pithy citrus rind becomes a bitter and sour counterstrike, the skinny 50-gauge robusto truly comes alive. Medium-bodied, small circumference, spicy smoking sensationalism hits a new level when you do it in the garden, ya'll.

2nd Half

Milking that mixed tea and citrus-soaked teat for all that it's worth, the second half sticks with what worked well in the first half and gradually gives the tongue increasingly intense tastes of sweet cedar and toasted tannins. This eventually turns into a tropical flavor that brings me back to the beach, where the scents of citrus, sand, salt, sun, spice, and floral suntan lotion form a sense of nostalgia.

Island flavors formed by that Panamanian tobacco leaf in the long-filler send the cigar profile straight into the sunshine-soaked beaches and forests of South America. Quite spicy, the final third of this cigar is a cheekier copycat version of the second third in many regards, but with a few notable differences. It tastes and feels lighter upon the tongue and nose, so body and strength brighten up a bit, and the peppery intensity of the blend backs down a bit to favor a more medium flavor.

Parting Puffs

Even more impressive is the last few moments of the Meritage, which becomes even more playful and floral. A sweet and dark turbinado taste, touches of medium-strength peppercorn spice, and the last bits of raw hazelnut hit the tongue just right and make me want to keep on going even though my fingers are on fire.

Ash / Burn / Smoke / Draw

So, about that soft spot right in the center of the cigar. Even though I was at fault for the cigar going out on me the first time around, the need for touch-ups turned the second half into a bit of a struggle at times. Ash issues also seemed to come and go along the way as well, potentially due to the slenderness of the barrel. 

The draw was great on this skinny stick, though, and the smoke did not heat up too much even with the occasional touch of the flame. Medium-bodied, with plenty of character to keep me intrigued, I found each exhale to be pretty damn sound, if but a bit spicy and/or harsh at times in the first half.

Final Thoughts 

Another banger of a blend from the vaults over at Alliance Cigar has arrived, friends. Sure, it is a bit spicy even by my corojo-loving standards, and did have some burn issues hither and yon, but my goodness was it refreshingly different than any number of other red leaf smokes on the shelf, including those from Rocky Patel himself.

Now, as for availability, it seems that a limited run of just 100 boxes per vitola was ever produced. So, we will likely need to snag some other sizes if this review takes off like the last two exclusive smokes from Alliance Cigar that we reviewed: The impressive criollo that is the Foyle Meteor Hammer and its blocky broadleaf brethren, the Foyle L'Anniversarie Maduro.

Personally, I think that if Alliance can keep getting its mitts on exclusive smokes such as these, and each blend provides smoking sessions of this caliber, then we will keep stocking them. At least until they run out forever and we have to find something new to sample. 

Stogie Specs