by Yannis Valavanis

Lately, while I’ve been searching in various cigar stores, online and offline, I noticed the lack of some cigars that are called “difficult” in our dialect. To explain it better, a cigar belongs to this category when it needs a lot of smoking experience on the part of the smoker but at the same time it is usually large in size. Hence the category of “aficionado” smokers, or simply the expert, the connoisseur. Large cigars have to do with length as well as thickness, what we call the “ring”.

Now you may be wondering what all this introduction is for. A cigar with a long length is much more difficult to smoke when the ring is small in diameter and easier when the ring is larger – the larger the easier it is to pull – but the smaller it is, the easier it also gets. Thick and short cigars are lighter, due to easier air flow, and easier to smoke. I am writing all this to conclude that, therefore, Doble Coronas have disappeared from the market, not only the Greek one, but also as a whole production.

The cigars in question have a length of 194mm and a ring of 49 (19.45mm) and there were several factories making them in Havana’s cigar market before the revolution. In the recent years, Partagas continues with Lusitanias, Punch and Vegas Robaina with Don Alejandro, which I have seen for quite some time, Hoyo de Monterrey in some special editions, Ramon Allones with Gigantes, which has been discontinued relatively recently, and Saint Luis Rey which in my relatively recent exposure to the cigar industry I have not seen in Cuba either, and I don’t know if it is still being produced. Fortunately the much loved Lusitanias are still in production and the situation is saved. A cigar with intense aromas and a great aftertaste that is exclusively addressed to “aficionados”. It can be aged for a long time and for me it belongs in the top ten of cigars.

I had also tried some equally remarkable Doble Coronas, by La Aurora and Davidoff, both from the Dominican Republic, which I consider remarkable, but from what I can see, they, like their original ancestors, both are in a “discontinued” state. The word ancestors I used above has to do with the fact that the word Doble Corona specifies certain size specifications, Cuba as usual, and the other factories use the terminology to describe cigars of similar large sizes. The result is that the preparation of the word has now been paraphrased in order to serve the interests of each company. At least if the terminology is used, let it refer to accurate data and correct specifications.