Just like the Tudor Heritage Black Bay Black ref. 79220B is reminiscent of another era, the H. Upmann Petit Coronas is a cigar that will also transport you back in time. Well known among cigar connoisseurs, as president John F. Kennedy's favorite cigar brand, the H. Upmann Petit Coronas is a cigar that delivers way more than its size conveys. Similar in size to the 'Petit Upmann' —Kennedy's favorite H. Upmann cigar—, the Petit Coronas are as close as it gets to the now discontinued 'vitola' that JFK used to love. The H. Upmann brand gets its name from a German banker named Herman Upmann who decided to move to Cuba because of his love for Cuban cigars. In 1844, he set up a bank that closed in the early 1920s but his cigar making factory still remains as a fine example of a light to medium Habano like no other. H. Upmann Petit Coronas is definitely a cigar that goes well in any occasion and one that is a joy to smoke.

But before we go into the details about this fascinating cigar, we want to share with you an excerpt of what to us, is one of the best articles ever published on Cigar Aficionado. The article we are talking about, was written by Richard N. Goodwin —who served in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations—, the man who drafted the order for the Cuban embargo.

Here's an interesting excerpt from his article: "The Bay of Pigs had been bad enough, but even worse was that day in early 1961 when John Kennedy instructed me to draw up an executive order invoking the Trading with the Enemy Act against Castro's Cuba. It would mean an end to importation of Cuban products, including, calamitously, the cigars that had brought such pleasure to the numbing strains of Washington dinners. Before signing the order, Kennedy sent Pierre Salinger, and possibly others, to buy up a large proportion of the Cuban cigars still in Washington stores. Lacking the means for such a grand gesture, I had to be satisfied with a single box, which I rationed over a period of weeks. At first the order did not prevent individual travelers from bringing in cigars, but protests from cigar makers in Miami--one of the first displays of political muscle by the now omnipotent Cuban refugees--closed this loophole. Still, for several weeks Kennedy continued to serve Cuban cigars at small White House dinners, until the possibility that they had been purchased prior to the embargo lost its credibility. However, staff and guests were the only sufferers, since Kennedy himself had a continuing supply imported in the diplomatic bag of his friend, British Ambassador David Ormsby Gore. It didn't seem fair. But as JFK would teach the nation, "Life is unfair."

We typically don't add links to other publications, but in this case we must. You can read the rest of the article here.

Composed exclusively of filler and binder tobaccos grown in the Vuelta Abajo zone of Cuba, this cigar has won no less than fourteen gold medals at international exhibitions since the 19th century —including the World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893. As an homage to this achievement, the cigar boxes include illustrations of some of these medals alongside the H. Upmann logo. Characterized by its light to medium flavor, amongst the best known H. Upmann sizes are the Magnum 46 and the Magnum 50, which were introduced in 2008. Other important sizes include the Sir Winston, the Connoisseur No. 1 and in smaller vitolas the Corona Junior and the Half Corona, which was introduced in 2011. The H. Upmann Petit Coronas come in a 'Marevas' size measuring 5.12" in length with a 42 ring gauge and is fully hand made with the "tripa larga" long filler method.

Once you light up this cigar, the leathery and chocolate notes will fill your mouth. With a nice light colored ash and no burn outs, the second third of the cigar will greet you with coffee and vanilla notes, for sure, not the nice complexity and varied noted that you would expect from such a mild cigar that by the way, has a very nice slow burn and a perfect draw.

Enjoying the first half to the second third of the cigar will take you at least a good 35 minutes with a total burning time of around 50 minutes, quite long for such a small cigar. After smoking an H. Upmann is easy to understand why 'Jack' liked this brand so much. This fantastic cigar is excellent for novice smokers and is a cigar that will leave you definitely wanting a second one. When you need to go back down memory lane and reflect on your Cuban ancestry, this is a cigar that is a perfect match for the occasion, just like that vintage inspired Tudor Heritage Black Bay Black on the wrist.

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