Alec Bradley Maxx Brazil Corona
The Alec Bradley Maxx Brazil is a cigar that is only available at Cigar.com or CigarsInternational.com and is the same blend as the original Maxx line. But, instead of the Nicaraguan maduro wrapper and a Costa Rican binder, it has a Brazilian Habano wrapper and a Brazilian Mata Fina binder. I have had my fair share of the “original” Maxx line, but when I saw the Brazil line, I had to try them. Once I did, they started to really grow on me more and more. I was smoking these fairly regularly and figured, why not do an in-depth review of my favorite size, the Corona.
Size: 5.5×42
Vitola: Corona
Wrapper: Brazilian Habano
Binder: Costa Rican
Filler:Â Colombian, Nicaraguan, Mexican, and Honduran
Cost: $6.25
Source: Purchased
First Looks: A mint green band with blue lettering thats just like the colors of the Brazil Country flag. This simplistic band is offset by the dark medium brown, veiny and bumpy Brazilian wrapper. There are no hard or soft spots the length of the cigar, but overall has a densely packed feel. There is a slight oily sheen to the wrapper, not to oily though. The foot has an aroma of cedar, wood and a slight hint of spice from the cedar.
Construction: I used a guillotine cut that revealed a thick draw with flavors of a slightly sweetened cedar or cinnamon note. I went old school and used a few matches to light the cigar, I was in no hurry to light it and didn’t want to scorch the wrapper by using a jet lighter on such a smallish ring gauged cigar. Lighting with matches is a nice way to toast the foot of a cigar, but I do recommend the longer matches or cedar spills. The draw stayed fairly thick. Most like to call it a “milkshake thick” type of draw. Any thicker and I wouldn’t have cared for it. The burn was fairly nice with a light wave in it, but nothing too bad that would call for a relight or touch-up. Each one of the ashes held for about 3/4″ until I rolled it off. The ashes were pretty tight, but did have a few small flakes here and there in it. Over-all a nicely constructed cigar. If the draw would have been looser, it would have had great construction.
 
Flavor: Started off with ample flavors of earth & some of the cedar I smelled from the foot showed through as well. A little ways into it, I got a flavor that reminded me of an Andes Candies; a mint and chocolate combonation. The chocolate was weaker than the mint flavor, two flavors weren’t very strong, but noticeable.
Around the halfway mark, I got a taste of a creamy caramel flavor that was very nice to taste. Its not a strong flavor, but did play a part in the flavors. Along with those notes, a bit of black pepper danced across my palate. At this point, I also noticed it had a very spicy and peppery room note that was pretty bold in nature.
After the halfway mark, it changed a bit. The flavor strength seemed to ramp up to a more stronger flavor of a cedar with an underlying muted cocoa flavor. About the end I got a bit of a zesty citrus flavor that was totally unexpected and odd to me; but not a bad flavor.
 
Final Thoughts: Over-all a healthy medium bodied cigar with a medium strength flavor profile that I really liked. Not too bold or overpowering as you would think with the word “Maxx” in the name. I did prefer the first half of it, but the second half wasn’t bad. I think the blast of cedar threw me for a loop. It was a fairly complex smoke that I enjoyed. I’d like to try this in a large ring gauge to see if the flavors are stronger and how (much) different they are there. Overall smoke time of a little over 45 minutes as I took my time with it.
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