A Corona is a classical cigar vitola of roughly five and a half inches in length by forty-two to forty-four ring gauge. Among traditionalists, the Corona is considered the reference shape against which a blender’s intentions can be most honestly assessed: the relatively thin ring gauge produces a higher wrapper-to-filler ratio in each puff, which means the wrapper’s character shows more clearly than it does in a thick-ringed Robusto or Churchill.
For most of cigar history, the Corona was the industry default. The shift toward thicker rings (Robusto’s fifty, Toro’s fifty-two, Gordo’s sixty plus) is a relatively recent development, driven by changing consumer preferences and the lower cost-per-stick of larger sizes. Returning to a Corona after years of Robustos can be a quiet revelation; the smoke is cooler, the burn is faster, and the wrapper is more present.
Notable Coronas worth a try: the Cohiba Siglo II, the Hoyo de Monterrey Coronas, the Padrón 1964 Anniversary Corona, and the Tatuaje Reserva K222.
For more on how vitola changes a cigar’s character, see The Anatomy of a Cigar.