Quesada Casa Magna Colorado Robusto Cigar Review: 15 years on and still taking on the big hitters?

Back in 2008 Manuel Quesada first released his Casa Magna cigars and they took the cigar world by storm. A collaboration with Nestor Plasencia, this budget Nicaraguan puro took the top spot as Cigar Aficionado’s “Cigar of the Year”, much to the chagrin of more established and well known cigar brands. After all that initial hype, fifteen years later does this cigar from a company more renowned for their light Dominican cigars still hold it’s ground?

The first thing that I noticed about the Casa Magna Colorado Robusto is the ornate band. This brought to my mind the ornamentation that you might find in a stately home or museum. The black and gold were displaying the marque offset nicely with a narrow red “ribbon” sporting “Colorado”. Underneath the band, the chocolate wrapper had a sheen of light oil to it. The cigar felt well packed from head to foot, although I could see a strong vein from the binder pressing into the wrapper giving it a slightly box pressed look.

Even before I brought the foot of the cigar up to my nose, I could already smell aromas of bourbon biscuits. Cutting the head using my v-cut allowed caramel and warm, moist hay to join the mix with a little tickle of pepper being left at the back of my palate on the cold draw.

Once lit, the first draws intensified the cocoa notes and brought the spiciness a little more to the front. The smoke was rich in texture but slightly dry as well. It wasn’t long before the flavour opened out to reveal toasted brioche and ginger whilst the cocoa all but disappeared and the smoke became more oily. The retrohale had a gentle hint of menthol that gave the flavour of the cigar an added dimention and intensity. At this point the Casa Magna Colorado Robusto was definitely more of a medium+ cigar.

As I started to reach the transition between the first and middle third the flavour profile got a bit smoother and started to show more earthy notes. The first of these was one that was reminiscent of hummus, soon followed by creamy oak, peat, black cardamom and Brazil nuts. This was also the point at which the cocoa started to make a subtle return.

Up until about the middle of the cigar the burn had been a little uneven, however the nearly snow white ash had retained its shape and I was able to roll it off into my ashtray without so much as a fleck ending up out of place. In the final third the burn became almost pin straight as the flavour profile changed again.

This time it upped the richness as well as adding a touch of sweetness. The best way I could describe the taste like this was “parkin” – a ginger sponge cake with treacle, oats and other warming spices. As I smoked my way down to the nub, this kept alternating with a flavour that brought to mind a rich beef stew.

From start to finish this was an interesting and almost fun cigar to smoke. Burn issues aside, I can see why the Quesada Casa Magna Colorado Robusto was so praised upon its release back in 2008 and yes, it can hold its own when put up against cigars of a similar flavour profile from Padron, Oliva and Rocky Patel.

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Quesada Casa Magna Colorado Robusto Cigar Details