Pre-light Experience

Aaron: The wrapper on the Aganorsa Leaf Arsenio Corona is light brown with some decently raised veins present. The seams are smooth and the caps well applied. The band on the cigar is blue and gold and denotes the company name and line and has a caricature of Arsenio Ramos. There is also a blue, two-tone sleeve that is just over three inches long that runs from the foot up and has the company name and some designs. The aroma from the wrapper is cedar, stone fruit sweetness and light earth. The foot brings cedar with mild spice and earth. The pre-light draw brings spray paint and cedar along with a mild spiciness on my lips.
Seth: The Aganorsa Leaf Arsenio Corona is a decent looking cigar hidden by packaging. It’s funny, years ago Arsenio and Aganorsa Leaf were two different lines. We are combining now. The cigar has a light Colorado coloring to the wrapper. You could call it dark Natural, and it has small veins throughout. It is leather-like in texture with aromas of sharp spices, rich earth, strong tobacco and wood. Dark wood coloring.
John: The Aganorsa Leaf Arsenio Corona came in cellophane and had a UPC sticker with the cigar information and an integrated tear space to remain intact when opened. There is a single band along with a branded paper sleeve that covers roughly two-thirds of the cigar. I weighed the cigar at 11.9 grams and measured the humidity to 62.7% with the HumidiMeter Pro. Off the wrapper, I could smell sweet tobacco with almost a rum sweetness. From the foot, I could pick out hay and tobacco.
Jiunn: The Aganorsa Leaf Arsenio Corona has a Colorado wrapper. The wrapper quality is ok, as there are traces of darker brown and the color variation seems a bit dull. Veins are well pressed, seams tight, bunch and roll even and the head is well wrapped and capped. Pre-light aromas consist of dehydrated vegetation, barnyard and old warehouse barns.

Aganorsa Leaf Arsenio Corona

First Third

Aaron: The cigar begins with toasted cedar, black pepper and mild earth. At a half inch in, the black pepper mellows a bit, and some light leather joins the profile. The retrohale is toasted cedar, earth and black pepper. At an inch and a half in, the black pepper is now very mild. As the third comes to a close, the toasted cedar is up front, with earth a bit behind, leather a bit further and then black pepper in the background. The strength was right at medium.
Seth: The first third begins with soft spices, leather and tobacco. There are some dry and mineral-like qualities with the earth notes present in the cigar. Finish of barnyard. Medium to medium-full in strength and body.
John: The first third gets going with nuts, sweet tobacco and a combination of light plus earth, spices and wood to finish. The spices move up to medium strength through the retrohale with a syrupy sweet tobacco and spice combination that lingers into the post draw. Most of the flavors remain stable in strength with the spices backing off to light or light plus by the halfway point.
Jiunn: The first third provides memorable Aganorsa Corojo ’99 flavors, but the real difference is the lack of smoothness. Rather, the profile is sharp and especially sits uncomfortably on the rear palate. Flavor wise, there’s sharpness in metallic minerals, spicy cedar, dirt earthiness and graham crackers. Retrohaling is rough, scorching my nostrils with abundant metallic and sharp minerals. The finish is long but (again) sharp. Strength is medium-full and body is medium.

Aganorsa Leaf Arsenio Corona

Second Third

Aaron: As the second third begins, the leather increases to become even with the earth. The retrohale is now toasted cedar, earth and leather. At an inch in, the earth moves up to become even with the toasted cedar up front. At an inch and a half in, the toast level picks up a bit. As the third comes to a close, the toasted cedar and earth are even up front, with the leather right behind and some light black pepper in the background. The strength remained at medium.
Seth: The second third is right in line with the first. Some more spice and mineral notes. Not warming up but becoming more mineral and spice forward with softer notes of leather, tobacco and barnyard. The cigar continues to smoke at that medium to medium-full level.
John: I’m greeted with creamy spices at medium strength, wood and spices returning on the post draw with some delayed dry wood. Bread develops under the spices as the second third settles in. As the cigar continues towards the halfway point, dry wood joins the center of the profile. Through the bottom half, creamy wood leads off with medium strength spices in the center and a spice and wood combination to finish.
Jiunn: The second third’s flavor profile smooths out. The flavors become much more dirt earth forward, while losing out on the metallic minerals and graham cracker notes. Strength and body remains medium-full and medium, respectively.

Aganorsa Leaf Arsenio Corona

Final Third

Aaron: As the final third begins, the black pepper has left the profile. At a quarter inch in, a light creaminess joins the profile. At a half inch in, the leather is now up front, even with the toasted cedar and earth. The retrohale is now a creamy mix of the toasted cedar, earth and leather. At an inch and a quarter, the toast level becomes pretty heavy. As the cigar wraps up, the heavily toasted cedar, earth and leather are even up front with some creaminess in the back half of the profile. The strength bumped up to slightly above medium.
Seth: The final third is right in line with the second. No improvement, but no downfall like I was expecting. Still a little too sharp and mineral forward for me, not crazy about the earth dominance, but showing some barnyard, leather and tobacco notes. Medium to medium-full in strength and body.
John: Creamy wood starts the last third with spices and earth at medium strength in the center and spices and wood on the finish. Some medium to medium-full pepper joins the post draw after a short delay. Some muted vegetal notes are present in the center of the retrohale as the last third continues. Moving towards the halfway point, mildly tannic and bitter wood joins the finish. The wood fades through the bottom half as spices define the post draw at medium strength.
Jiunn: Final third reverts to a profile similar to the first third, such that there’s sharpness, bitterness and an overall unpleasant experience. The highly metallic minerals return and this time there’s a bitterness that is heavy on the palate. Strength and body remain the same medium-full and medium, respectively.

Aganorsa Leaf Arsenio Corona

Burn

Aaron: The burn was a bit wavy at times and the cigar went out once at the end of the second third, requiring a re-light. The ash held on in inch and a quarter increments.
Seth: The burn was good from start to finish.
John: The burn was straight through the entire review process.
Jiunn: Aside from the cigar randomly going out within the second third, the burn performance was good.

Aganorsa Leaf Arsenio Corona

Draw

Aaron: The draw was fairly snug through the first two thirds and then opened up a bit in the final third. This probably caused the cigar to go out when it did and constricted the flavor profile a bit.
Seth: Draw was spot on for a vitola of this nature. Little bit of snugness.
John: The draw was at most one notch towards the resistant spectrum which puts it in the ideal range between open and resistant for an amazing draw score.
Jiunn: The ideal balance between air flow and resistance.

Overall

Aaron: The cigar began with toasted cedar, black pepper and mild earth. Some leather joined a bit later. The second third saw the earth and leather increase while the black pepper was very mild. The final third saw the pepper depart and some creaminess join in. The Aganorsa Leaf Arsenio Corona had an average flavor profile throughout,. The snug draw may have constricted the flavor profile from having it’s best showing, so I’m curious what the others experience. I’d be interested in seeing how a better drawing version would perform, or if one of the other vitolas smokes a bit better, but from this experience, it’s not a cigar I’d return to.
Seth: I loved TABSA and AGANORSA for many years, but even during those years I commented on their wrappers and construction overall. Burn and draw were never fantastic, wrappers were never wowing as well, but the blends were very good. They had great quality filter tobacco. The Aganorsa Leaf Arsenio Corona was not a bad cigar, and it was very good overall when looking at recent TABSA and AGANORSA releases, but it was still lacking complexity and transitioning. I don’t think the size helped the cigar, but they were never a small vitola brand. I would love to say that they are turning things around, but I don’t see that being the case. I would smoke this in a bigger vitola offering.
John: The Aganorsa Leaf Arsenio Corona had a dynamic and engaging first third. The second and last thirds had a lot of flavor components but I didn’t find them as coherent as the first third. The draw and the burn were both perfect. Overall, the cigar delivered an above average flavor profile with perfect construction. I would likely smoke another Arsenio again, and I would want to try it in either the Robusto or Toro formats to see how they stacked up. Total smoking time was 2 hours and 13 minutes.
Jiunn: I love the cigar size (one of my all time favorites) and the endearing tribute to Arsenio, but just about everything else about the Aganorsa Leaf Arsenio Corona misses the mark. It’s still the same harshness and sharpness of Aganorsa Corojo that I dislike. I’d like to sit on a few of these cigars for a year and see if it can smooth out. But as is, it’s definitely not worth a look.

Aaron Loomis

SCORE

5.25

Cost/Point

$2.86

Scoring System

Seth Geise

SCORE

5.25

Cost/Point

$2.86

Scoring System

John McTavish

SCORE

6.10

Cost/Point

$2.46

Scoring System

Jiunn Liu

SCORE

5.55

Cost/Point

$2.70

Scoring System

Team Cigar Review: Aganorsa Leaf Arsenio Corona