Aruhiba Natural Corona

Today I will add to my cherished body of work dealing with offbeat and borderline WTF useless reviews. While vacationing aboard the cruise ship Pacific Princess, toward the end of a Panama Canal cruise, we made a stop in Aruba. Just inside the cruise ship terminal building in Oranjestad was a booth selling Aruhiba cigars, and some possible Cohibas as well. The Cohibas, while priced like the genuine article, may or may not have been real. I absolutely do not have the skills to make any such determination, so I left them alone. I had no fear that anyone might be knocking off Aruhibas, however. In the interest of experiencing something of a curiosity, I bought a few, and smoked one the evening we left Aruba.

Before getting to the review proper, I would like to present the view from our ship as we passed nowhere particularly near Cuba on our way to Port Everglades. You may be able to just make out a bump or two on the horizon, which must be the western coast of that forbidden island ...

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-o...527_131214.jpg

Aruhiba cigars are the brain child of Benjamin Petrocchi, who raises and cures the tobacco on Aruba, and then rolls the cigars. Or perhaps he has help; their web site is somewhat unclear on this point. Petrocchi is deliberately unclear about whether his seeds are of Cuban origin, or sourced elsewhere.

Now, for the cigar. I call this a conservative corona at 5 X 42. It smells promising, of barnyard and sweet earth.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-e...602_161945.jpg

There is not a lot to report, really. It drew fine and burned well. It was moderately flavorful, with pretty mundane earth and cedar notes, lacking complexity. Truth told, it tasted a bit green and harsh, possibly on the verge of a round of "sickness." Good thing I bought several, so I can let them rest and see if they develop any interesting characteristics over time.

Since there is not much to write about on the cigar itself, I will throw in a few general impressions of Aruba, and Oranjestad in particular. I was really looking forward to visiting the land that gave birth to so many of my favorite childhood stories. As a youth, I so much enjoyed reading the tales of adventure and intrigue in "The Arubian Nights." And here I was at last, on the shores of that marvelous land! Was I landing at the port where Sinbad took to the sea? Might someone guide me to Ali Baba's cave? Would I find authentic reproductions of Aladdin's lamp, or even antiques similar in form?

Apparently no one there knows their own history or mythology. Not a single person understood what I was talking about. Or if they did, they didn't let on ...

So, that ends my travelogue of Aruba and (until they have matured a little bit in the coolidor) my experience of her homegrown cigars. I hope you have enjoyed this little journey in words.