Smoked: Caldwell Lost & Found La Whatever Fat Corona

Smoked at: West Chester, Ohio

Caldwell Lost & Found La Whatever fat corona is another Robert Caldwell-Matt Booth creation/blend. We are told it is a Dominican blend with Habano, Criollo and Corojo filler from several countries, a Sumatra binder and a Sun Grown wrapper. So I’m not really sure this fits the usual narrative behind the Lost & Found series. Typically, the tobacco is found and then the cigar is released with the ingredients undisclosed. Only Britain’s MI-6 is more secretive.

A friend who was born and raised in Venezuela and obviously speaks fluent Spanish thinks the name of this cigar is hysterical. La Flor Dominicana, La Gloria Cubana, La Aroma de Cuba, La Antiguedad…La Whatever. BTW: When I pronounce a cigar name or tobacco name in Spanish correctly, he thinks “perhaps there’s hope yet for these gringos.”

Caldwell calls the vitola a fat corona - in the spirit of Long Live The King Double Wide Short Churchill I suppose. It’s more like a lonsdale with a pituitary issue. I do like the look of the wrapper - light brown, toothy with numerous veins.

It ignites with precision - nice open cold draw, decent burn line, a bit light in smoke output, but it held a pretty firm grey ash. Good construction. Now the bad news.

The flavors are hay, vegetal, earth, leather and cayenne pepper - minimal, bitter and harsh. There’s no flavor balance, no complexity and a very sharp peppery retrohale. This cigar’s pepper flavor is more fitting for Caldwell’s idiom “My Style Is Jalapeno.”

I did smoke it to the nub hoping something would happen, transition, magically appear to impress me so I can’t give it an “un-smokable” grade of 1. But…I am underwhelmed . Meh! The name of the cigar sums it all up….La…whatever. The price point just adds to my disappointment.