Vitola: Corona
Size: 5.5” x 42 ring gauge
MSRP $8.75
Purchased at Burns Tobacconist
Background
Nat Sherman was founded in 1930. The store bearing the name has become world famous and the brand of cigars that has grown far beyond that store’s walls is more recognized with each passing year. In 2013, the company paid homage to the year of their founding with the 1930 Collection of cigars, made by Quesada in the Dominican Republic. The blend features Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers, a Dominican binder, and a Dominican wrapper. The website has this to say about it:
This combination creates a distinctive line of cigars that offer an incomparable balance of strength, flavor and aroma. The Nat Sherman 1930 is a rich cigar, with deep and complex flavors, yet offers a brightness and overall balance that contributes to a memorable experience.
I had not noticed the cigar on its release last year and when I did see it, I honestly didn’t try it. The company just wasn’t high on my list of “must try” cigars. A couple months ago we had a tasting event with Mike and Ike from Nat Sherman; Mike remarked at one point that the 1930 Collection was one of their most full-bodied smokes (speaking to “mouth feel” not “strength” when we speak of body here) so I decided I must try it. I smoked one and liked it well enough that I decided to feature it in a review. So I bought this second sample for that purpose.
Prelight
The banding on the 1930 Collection is a throwback to art deco and the style of the late 1920s and early 1930s. I think of the movie Metropolis, the Chrysler Building and the cover to my older Ayn Rand novels. I like the look and think this band evokes it better than the old Art Deco cigar from the Nestor Miranda Collection did. The wrapper was medium brown, just a touch lighter than a milk chocolate shade, with a bit of lumpiness and mottling, but a pleasant oily feel under the fingertips. It smelled faintly of earth and wood, and also a bit of natural tobacco. The foot of the stogie had a slightly sweeter earthiness to it.
The cold draw was good and featured some bready flavors along with bit of woodiness and spice.
Flavor
The 1930 started off with a complex and aromatic mix of toast, herbal and earthy flavors, accented by a touch of cedar and black pepper. The retrohale had a stronger pepper component, along with more wood and some citrus notes. Body was at the upper end of medium; again with “body” here I’m speaking of mouth-feel of the smoke, which was fairly oily and thick. In terms of strength, I didn’t notice a great deal.
The draw really tightened up as I hit the second third and I noticed the beginnings of a tarry build-up, so I recut the foot slightly and everything seemed smooth sailing again. I got a tiny bit of Nicaraguan cocoa in the mix of toastiness and earthiness as the second third progressed.
In the last third, I picked up more citrus again and the continuation of earthiness along with a nice graham sweetness.
Construction
The draw on this Corona was a bit tight, but the burn line was even and the ash was solid.
Value
I found the price of the 1930 Collection to be in line with the experience it delivered, so definitely a good value.
Conclusions
The Nat Sherman 1930 Collection is a great example of what a great Dominican cigar blend can be. It was full-flavored and verging on full-bodied without being any more than medium in strength. It had a nice flavor profile and was quite complex, all delivered at a fair price. Truly a very fine cigar and one of several they have produced recently that have caused me to pay much closer attention to Nat Sherman for the future.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 1.5/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10
Wonderful review. I appreciate the value recommendation portion of your reviews.
Nice Review I haven’t had the 1930 yet but I’m on the look out for it… Do you tend to only review cigars you enjoy? Just wondering since you said so I decided I must try it. I smoked one and liked it well enough that I decided to feature it in a review
For the most part, the answer is “Yes.” If I like a cigar, I want to feature it in a review; if I don’t care for it, I don’t want to pay to smoke it again, whether it’s a review or not. On the other hand, sometimes I’m sent cigars by manufacturers for review. They get my honest opinion on them, whether good or bad. If they send me multiple samples and I don’t care for the first one, I might end up sending it to one of our other reviewers or put it off until I have nothing else on the calendar for review.
Bottom line: there are a lot of cigars out there and no one should smoke stuff they don’t enjoy. I’ll mainly tell you which ones I like and the other guys here will do the same…if we don’t like them, they probably won’t get mentioned at all.
Makes sense now. And I agree nobody should smoke what they don’t like, but that clears up the lack of 7’s on your review scale LOL
When you are given samples and smoke one, do you take notes for a review just in case you don’t like it and none of the other reviewers like it either.
I’ve never done so, no. Usually they send between 2 and 5 samples (depends on the company, depends on the blend). Because I’m impatient and always like to try new things, I will almost always break open the package and smoke one within a day or two of their arrival. This gives a good overall gauge of if I’ll like the blend, but it’s not really fair to do a real review when they are fresh off the truck. I usually let the remaining sticks sit for a week or two (or more) before smoking one for a review.
Also, I don’t always send on samples to other reviewers just because I don’t care for the blend. If I get 4 or 5 samples, many times I’ll save a couple out to send to Keith. That’s how we used to end up with “Dual Reviews” back in the Tiki Bar days. Now we each might publish a review of the same stick, but we try to leave some space in between publications dates…at least a couple weeks, preferably a month or more.
Good review, this stogie sounds pretty tasty! The only Nat Sherman stogie Ive had was last week, the Epoca and it was money !! Gonna seek these out for sure, thanks for the heads up, sounds like it would pair well with some Johnny Drum!!!
Thanks for the great review. Definitely sounds like one to try.
Nice review, look forward to these. Thanks for the clarification to CZERBE, was wondering the same thing myself.
How was the smoke production from this Corona?
Someone gifted me a couple this last weekend and looking forward to giving them a try soon.