Casa Magna Colorado Robusto Review
Filed under: Burn Issues · Cigar Bands · Tight Draw · Fixing a Wavy Burn · Gauging Strength · Ligero / Seco / Viso · Natural / Claro / Colorado · Nicaragua · The Ash · Retrohale · Strength vs Body · The Draw · Puro · Bitter Cigar?
Verdict: The Casa Magna Colorado Robusto is a Five-Pack (3/4) at about $9 to $10 street... the flavor start to finish is a box buy for me, cinnamon, leather and a sweet cream that kept getting better, but a snug draw and a burn that needed five touch-ups knock it down to a five-pack until I know this stick was a one-off. This one was the roughest one for me to review.
- Brand
- Casa Magna
- Line
- Colorado
- Vitola
- Robusto
- Size
- 5 1/2 x 52
- Wrapper
- Nicaraguan Colorado
- Binder
- Nicaraguan
- Filler
- Nicaraguan
- Made in
- Nicaragua
- Factory
- Plasencia's Segovia factory (Estelí)
- Strength
- Very mild building to medium-full, leaning full
- Street price
- $9 to $10
I didn't know anything about this cigar going in. I bought it off a recommendation, and that was it. Casa Magna is the line Manuel Quesada created with Nestor Plasencia, rolled at Plasencia's Segovia factory in Estelí, and the Colorado Robusto was Cigar Aficionado's number one cigar of 2008. It's a Nicaraguan puro, and one retailer listing calls it full strength. At the light, I was not feeling that at all.
The Setup
- Cigar: Casa Magna Colorado, Robusto, 5 1/2 x 52. Nicaraguan Colorado wrapper, Nicaraguan binder, Nicaraguan filler. Rolled at Plasencia's Segovia factory in Estelí, Nicaragua.
- Street price: about $9 to $10 for a single online. Boxes of 27 run about $196 to $267 online, roughly $7.25 to $9.90 a stick.
- What I paid: $8.95 for a single, $7.43 after a 17% coupon, ordered online in September. My own money.
- Storage: my main Herf-a-Dor at 69% RH, where it's been since it arrived about three and a half weeks ago.
- When/where: lit at 7:54 on a Monday night on my back deck, with a fire going in the fireplace. 54°, feels like 50 because the app says it's windy, though it didn't feel windy where I was sitting, and 62% humidity. With the fire going, it was warmer where I was.
- Smoke time: about an hour and a half before I set it down.
- Food beforehand: a chicken potato casserole with a San Pellegrino about two hours before, then three water crackers about 15 minutes before I lit it, to clean up my palate.
- First cigar of the day, paired with water. Cut with the Xikar XO.
Light Up and First Third
It's a nice medium-darkish brown, and it looked a little longer than a robusto. At 5 1/2 x 52 it sits midway between a true robusto and a toro. Prominent veins, not toothy at all, a well-packed foot, and at least a double cap. Perfect cut with the Xikar XO, no issues.
The cold draw gave a really nice sweet tobacco, almost a plum note on the retrohale, and a good amount of spice on my lips from the wrapper.
On the light, the prominent notes were a chili pepper flavor and leather. That's the flavor of chili pepper, not the heat. It's not spicy, at least not on the palate. Under it, a little nuttiness and a little cream. On a double draw, heavy leather, some spice that hits your palate, and a milkiness. The retrohale was a mild white pepper, a little leather, and that same milkiness.
I want to describe that milky note right, because it shows up a lot in this cigar. It coats your palate like cream, but it's thinner, and it's not really sweet at all. When I think of cream, I think of a thicker, sweet cream. This is more like milk. It's not bad. It's good. It's just different.
A quarter inch in, I realized I'd forgotten my photo and grabbed one. The burn line was already a little crooked, so I started rotating it to see if that would fix it.
A little later, I was enjoying this one. A single draw had a cinnamon type note that's really nice, some leather, a touch of woodiness, and that milky finish, very lightly sweet but thin. There's no long finish. After a little bit, nothing lingers on your palate. A double draw dropped the cinnamon and gave leather, woodiness, a touch of coffee, and the milky finish, and again it just disappears. The retrohale had a moderate white pepper, a little of that cinnamon, something like a peanut shell, leather, and that slightly sweet milky finish. There was a little breadiness on the double draws too. Not bitter at all.
The ash at that point was a quarter inch plus and pretty nice: tight, no flyers. Not stacking, just tight. The draw was a bit tight.
Partway through the first third, I walked away for a few minutes and came back to it still burning. No relight needed.
Strength through this whole stretch was very mild. No bitterness, nothing biting my tongue. The draw was snug. Not plugged or anything like that, just snug. I had the draw tool sitting right there, but I wanted to see how it rode and whether it would open up or stay where it was. On a single draw the smoke was noticeably thin. On a double draw it was about average.
By the end of the first third, the burn was definitely wavy. I knocked the ash off, and it stayed together 100%. It actually bounced and rolled over in the ashtray and stayed together. I touched it up to get it even again and kept going.
Second Third
Right after the ash came off, the smoke was a bit thin, even on a double draw, and there was a touch of bitterness on a single draw, along with a little leather and a little milkiness. That bitterness came and went really fast, and then it just finished, with no real long finish at all. A double draw had a touch more bitterness, but again it faded really fast and never bit. Then a bit of leather and a little woodiness, and the woodiness built at the end to become the main note on the finish. The retrohale was mild white pepper, then a sweet cream, the real kind this time, a touch of leather, more woodiness, and a light sweet cream and woodiness on the finish. The draw was still snug. Strength was mild plus. It had built a little, but not much.
Coming out of that ash, it was burning very crooked. I gave it a minute or two to see if it would catch up, then touched it up again. It had been a little crooked when I did the first touch-up, but nowhere near this crooked. At that point I gave it the benefit of the doubt and figured maybe I'd done a bad touch-up job. The smoke, which had been thin at the start, wasn't thin at all anymore.
A quarter inch into the second third, the bitterness was gone on a single draw. I got a nuttiness, a very mild leather, and just a tinge of coffee. The woodiness and the milkiness were both gone. A double draw had a little nuttiness, then a bitterness I felt on the sides of my tongue that came and went pretty quickly, then a more prominent leather that faded into a long finish. The retrohale was a very mild white pepper, then cream, and that cream held on for a long time, with some woodiness on the finish. It skipped the leather and coffee completely.
Then a single draw gave me a mouthful of cream, which was really nice. Just a touch of leather and woodiness on the finish, but heavy cream. Pretty pleasant. By the middle of the second third, the bitterness seemed completely gone. The burn, however, was definitely still wavy.
Late in the second third, I called it officially: it was not my touch-up. The burn was just about touching the band on one side, and on the other side it was well over half an inch longer. The same spot that was burning faster before kept burning faster, even after I'd touched it up. I took the band off, and it came off completely clean, no issues at all there. Then I burned off some tobacco to get it relatively even.
It's kind of amazing to me that the flavor stayed as good as it did with the burn that far off.
The ash had looked really good up to that point. Where I had to burn off the extra tobacco, it got cracky. There was definitely a point in the center from the ligero, but it was scraggly from such an uneven burn. That was basically the end of the second third.
Final Third
Starting the final third, a single draw was cream, leather, and woodiness. On a double draw the woodiness came forward, then leather, with just a touch of cream in the background. The retrohale was a mild white pepper, a lot of cream, and just a touch of leather and woodiness on the finish. No bitterness.
Then I had to touch it up again, because a couple of spots just weren't burning. Which stinks, because this cigar has a really good flavor profile.
The final third was basically the same as the second third. The smoke stayed pretty thin on a single draw and about average on a double draw. The flavor stayed good. The cinnamon came and went, along with cream, leather, and woodiness. The draw never got looser and never got tighter. It was definitely tighter than I wanted it to be, but not to the point where I grabbed the draw tool and opened it up. I had to touch it up two times in the final third. After the last touch-up, I tried several times to knock the ash off, and it hung on. Even though it didn't look great, it wanted to stay on.
The strength built pretty consistently the whole way. It started off really mild, and by the end of the final third it was medium-full, leaning toward full. It builds slowly on you.
Construction
- Wrapper: medium-darkish brown, prominent veins, not toothy at all, well-packed foot, at least a double cap. Perfect cut with the Xikar XO.
- Draw: snug from start to finish. Never plugged, never looser, never tighter, but tighter than I wanted. Not bad enough that I used the draw tool sitting beside me.
- Burn: a little crooked a quarter inch in, wavy by the end of the first third, and the same side kept racing ahead no matter what I did. Five touch-ups, no relights: one at the end of the first third, one at the start of the second, burning off the long side when it reached the band, and two in the final third. Partway through the first third I walked away for a few minutes and came back to it still burning.
- Ash: tight with no flyers early. The first ash bounced and rolled in the ashtray and stayed together. It got cracky where I burned off the long side, and the ligero point in the center went scraggly from the uneven burn. In the final third the ash hung on through several tries to knock it off.
- Smoke output: thin on a single draw and about average on a double draw for most of the cigar.
- Band: came off completely clean.
Bottom Line
Flavor-wise, this thing was great, and I really enjoyed it. It opens with a chili pepper flavor and leather, picks up a cinnamon note on single draws, and carries a thin, milky finish through the first third that's lightly sweet and never lingers. Once the first ash comes off, there's a touch of bitterness that comes and goes fast and is gone by the middle of the second third. From there it turns into the cigar I'd want to keep: leather, a little nuttiness, woodiness, and a real sweet cream that gave me a mouthful at one point and held on the retrohale for a long time. The strength builds slowly, from very mild at the light to medium-full leaning full at the end.
The construction is what holds it back. The draw was snug the entire time and the smoke ran thin on single draws. The burn went its own way from early on, and the same side kept running ahead after every touch-up, all the way to burning off the long side once it reached the band. The flavor held up through all of it, which says a lot about the blend, but five touch-ups is a lot of work for one cigar.
Would I smoke it again? Five-Pack (3/4). Start to finish, the flavor profile combined with the price of a box is a box buy for me. But it took several touch-ups, the draw was tighter than I wanted, and the burn was funky. The verdict gets judged on the cigar I smoked, and that knocks it down to a five-pack, and close to a Hand-Me-One because of how many touch-ups it needed. I enjoyed it, though, and it was good. The next time I buy cigars, I'll be getting a five-pack of these. If the draw and burn aren't the same on those five and this was a one-off, I'd grab a box in a heartbeat.
Best for: someone who likes a cigar that starts mild and builds slowly to near full, with leather, cinnamon, woodiness and cream, and doesn't mind keeping a lighter handy. A good one for a long sit by the fire, where you won't mind a touch-up or two.
My scale, one question only... would I spend my own money on this again? 4 Box Buy (box on hand, always) / 3 Five-Pack (yes, a few live in the humidor) / 2 Hand-Me-One (wouldn't buy it, wouldn't turn one down) / 1 Not Even Free (I'd rather smoke nothing).
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