De Olifant – Corona

Its all been De Olifant in the last couple of days, well in my head at least. Today i was given one of the coronas along with a Dominican Romeo y Julieta Maduro. Now i have been wanting to try some of the non Cuban, Cuban brands for a while. It had made its way to me from a regular customer and its dry enough to knock someone. So thats going to spend a few months in a humidor i think.

Rolled in : Holland
Wrapper : Sumatran
Binder : Java
Filler : Sumatran, Java, Cuban & Brazilian
Size: 4 1/2″ x 35

This cigar looks like many Dutch 1/2 coronas, a sandy Sumatran wrapper. The difference with the De Olifant is the feel, these cigars dont feel like old parchment. The aroma is as you would expect a typical Sumatran wrapped stogie. So with England’s scrape through to the last 16 in the World Cup, i lit up. Initially the cigar was very cedary, as it progressed a slight spice popped its head up. Such a shame this spice came through a little hot. A slightly bolder smoke compared to the Matelief, the added spice tops of the luxurious filler blend. As the first half progressed a herby, grassy flavour came through.

The second half was fantastic, the heat had gone. The cedar core had morphed into a dirty earthy flavour. While the smoke had become not only smooth and cool but very creamy. The spice had subdued a little, drowned out by the cream. As the 2nd half progressed the woody flavours had come back hand in hand with a little more spice. This array of flavours grew and grew, ending the cigar better than i had expected.

A fantastic smoke, so much flavour for a small Dutch smoke. The short 15-20 min smoking time makes this an ideal cigar after a meal outside. The flavours will please experienced smoker and novices a like. While the blend still burns a little hot compared to there hand rolled cousins. They are a much more flavoursome and better smokes when compared with there Dutch brothers.

Ratings

Construction .. 8/10
Burn .. 8/10
Flavour (1/2) .. 7/10
Flavour (2/2) .. 9/10

Overall .. 8/10