There's two primary themes you need to recognize with Illusione owner Dion Giolito: conspiracies and Italian heritage (not that one describes the other). With the Illusione Allegria cigar, we're no doubt looking at the latter.

Not only is Giolito's own heritage from the region, but the Allegria cigar was originally the creation of Andrea Molinari, an Italian airline CEO who created his own cigar brand in the early 2000s. Molinari first debuted the OneOff cigar, following the line in 2004 with Allegria—which translates to mean Cheerfulness.

What does the Illusione Allegria cigar taste like?

As the sequel to the Illusione OneOff, the Allegria cigar is similar in recipe, notably making use of higher tobacco primings in order to bring more intensity and snap to the experience. The cigar offers Criollo '98 and Corojo '99 leaves throughout, being topped with an oily Nicaraguan Corojo '99 wrapper. This all amounts to a medium-full intensity, hitting the palate with fresh-cracked black pepper and continuing to dazzle with notes of earth, chicory coffee, star anise, and classic leather.