Smoked: Illusione hl Candela Lancero

Smoked at: West Chester, Ohio

Illuaione Candela hl Lancero is a 7 ½ x 40 with Nicaraguan filler and binder and covered in a smooth, tannish green Nicaraguan Candela Claro wrapper with a few long veins and visible seams. Even before ever smoking one, I was intrigued by the green cigars. Illusione Candela’s wrapper is sort of a dull lime green color. The band is as simple as it gets – small, narrow, name of cigar. That’s straightforward, unpretentious.

Charred (or maybe more singed) cedar, mossy earth, grass/hay, kitchen spice array including pepper, a hint of green tea and clove, and some creaminess in the sugar cookie/graham cracker arena. There is that candela mossy, earthy, hay and fresh cut grass taste that melds with the notes of wood. The baking kitchen spice notes are overtaken by pepper by the second third when it competes with the wood/earth/grass notes and ramps up along with the strength through the final third. This bad boy is stronger than other candelas I’ve smoked. I did have a bit of a parched throat by the finish.

The draw is a tad tight – a toothpick poke opened it up. The dark grey ash was flaky and fell off a couple of times. Smoke output was reasonably good. It did have the wavy burn line and combustion issues that often come with the territory smoking a Lancero. Three relights were required.

As long as we’re “going green,” I have to wonder if climate change will augment the color of tobacco and we’ll be smoking purple, orange and blue cigars when the Paris Accords expire. But, I digress. The Illusione Candela hits the palate hard for a candela, but there are enough interesting flavors beyond the typical candela dominance to make the Illusione hl Candela Lancero a reasonably good cigar – despite the aforementioned construction issues.