Frank Llaneza 1961 Double Corona- (Prerelease)

Frank Llaneza is a legend in the cigar business and his last blend for Altadis was the Siglo line... Llaneza has been growing tobacco and making cigars for quite a while, but in 1961 he began making cigars in Tampa...

The Frank Llaneza 1961 will be made in limited numbers, and will cost from $ 7-9...the blend uses Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers with a Nicaraguan binder and a dark Ecuador Sumatra wrapper...it is a medium milk chocolate brown color, obviously well rolled, and the wrapper smells like Cinnamon and tobacco...It is fairly firm when squeezed (I would say perfect) and it has a great triple cap...

After punching it, my prelight draw tastes faintly of a sweet spice, and even without lighting it, I can tell that it is going to be a spicy stick...

As with most sticks these days, there is a Spice kick at the very beginning, which lasted about 10 puffs or so, then it leveled off fairly quickly...after that, the major flavors of the stick were toasted nuts, leather (especially at the end), a consistent spice, a small amount of earthy goodness, and a really great almost Cubanesque sweetness that banded everything together...It did burn a bit hot at the end, but nothing that I could not handle...

The Spice that made my mouth tingle was present the whole stick, just in varying degrees (more strong at the start and the middle of the stick)...this made for a great contrast with the sweetness that was also present, and I loved the way the cigar went back and forth with the two, each one dominating the other flavors (but not overpowering) at different points in the smoke...

Final Smoking time was 1 hour 40 minutes, and the burn and draw were great for the entire stick...

The Bottom Line: This was a pretty great smoke, with a great consistency and the contrast of the Spice and Sweetness for the whole cigar...Very complex, I never knew which way it was going to go next, and I like that it kept me guessing...Even with the spiciness, it is more of a medium cigar, but definitely one I am going to be picking up a few more of in the future...

Final Score: 90