Had an opportunity to smoke on of these on vacation last week and took some notes for a mini review. Instead of starting a new thread, though, I found this one. And honestly, I have nothing significantly different to add to yours, Dan--it was spot on to my experiences with this stick, from the pre-light aroma to construction to flavor transitions.
I'm a big illusione fan, although the 88 is probably my least favorite vitola. I much prefer the smaller RG of the mk, 68, hl, and even cg:4. I have not smoked the candela hl, but expect that the flavor profile of the wrapper would be even more impactful in that size. In the 88, the typical illusione characteristics were present, offset just a little bit by the candela wrapper as you point out. I smoked this mid-afternoon and probably should have had something more than a sandwich & beer in my belly--the body was in the mild/medium range but the strength picked up to high side of medium.
I noticed that the green color doesn't come through very well on the iphone, but I did snap a couple photos as I smoked:
All in all, I concur with your great review, Dan.
