The Case for the Corona

The corona — five and a half inches, forty-two ring gauge — is the format every classical Cuban blend was originally designed around. Modern American taste has gravitated to the toro and gordo (six inches by fifty-two and up), but those formats hide the blender's work behind sheer volume of smoke.

A corona forces honesty. The wrapper-to-filler ratio is high; you taste the wrapper. The burn is hot enough to develop flavor without overwhelming. The smoke time is forty-five minutes — long enough to settle into, short enough to actually finish.

If you want to know what a blend is really doing, smoke it in a corona. The toro is for the lounge. The corona is for the tasting.

— Eric Schleien