- Joined
- Jan 25, 2015
- Messages
- 3,788
This is a beautiful cigar. Slightly box pressed, this particular cigar is the Toro and measures 6 X 52. It is a Nicaraguan puro with a beautiful sun grown wrapper. It does have some veins present but overall a beautiful stick. The band is one of the most beautiful you are likely to find on any cigar IMHO. The color is a medium reddish brown. The cigar seems to have a couple of soft spots but nothing major. The foot looks well packed. The sniff at the foot revealed some good tobacco scents and nothing else to me.
After a straight cut the pre-draw revealed very little more than a good solid tobacco flavor. At light I got a real blast of Pepin pepper. To me it was red pepper. I should have waited for a while to retro as it was damn near painful at the start. There was a bit of saltiness when I put my tongue on the filler and a bit of sweet slightly woody flavor. The pepper faded very quickly and the cigar settled into a smooth high volume smoke. A bit of sweetness came in during the first third and the slightly woody notes continued. Also the slight sweetness remained. The smoke was of medium body and strength. Though pleasant the smoke was one dimensional at this point with nothing really standing out. Some light floral notes were also present on the retro.
The burn on this cigar was terrible. I had to make almost constant corrections until the last third and it finally settled out. During the entire smoke the draw was excellent but the burn issues were very distracting. Additionally, the cigar just never developed any further in taste than it had revealed during the first third. The flavor was very pleasant and the aroma of the cigar was exquisite but the flavor just never matched the intensity of the aroma. At one point the wrapper cracked right along a wrapper vein. I was afraid given the burn issues that it was going to progress further and cause me to abandon it but it burned past that point without further development. The most enjoyable part of this cigar was the final third when the burn issues finally settled down at bit. If you look closely at the foot of the cigar you can see a hole about the size of a toothpick near the center of the cigar and another smaller cavity to the bottom of center. This may have contributed to my burn issues.
Overall this was sort of a downer of a smoke mainly because of the frustration of constantly correcting the burn. The smoke though not at all complex would be excellent in the morning. This was my third of these smokes that I have tried and all 3 have exhibited these burn issues. The other two were not as bad as this one. It's a shame because it seems to be a good medium blend with some good flavors and is gorgeous to look at and has an incredible aroma.
After a straight cut the pre-draw revealed very little more than a good solid tobacco flavor. At light I got a real blast of Pepin pepper. To me it was red pepper. I should have waited for a while to retro as it was damn near painful at the start. There was a bit of saltiness when I put my tongue on the filler and a bit of sweet slightly woody flavor. The pepper faded very quickly and the cigar settled into a smooth high volume smoke. A bit of sweetness came in during the first third and the slightly woody notes continued. Also the slight sweetness remained. The smoke was of medium body and strength. Though pleasant the smoke was one dimensional at this point with nothing really standing out. Some light floral notes were also present on the retro.
The burn on this cigar was terrible. I had to make almost constant corrections until the last third and it finally settled out. During the entire smoke the draw was excellent but the burn issues were very distracting. Additionally, the cigar just never developed any further in taste than it had revealed during the first third. The flavor was very pleasant and the aroma of the cigar was exquisite but the flavor just never matched the intensity of the aroma. At one point the wrapper cracked right along a wrapper vein. I was afraid given the burn issues that it was going to progress further and cause me to abandon it but it burned past that point without further development. The most enjoyable part of this cigar was the final third when the burn issues finally settled down at bit. If you look closely at the foot of the cigar you can see a hole about the size of a toothpick near the center of the cigar and another smaller cavity to the bottom of center. This may have contributed to my burn issues.
Overall this was sort of a downer of a smoke mainly because of the frustration of constantly correcting the burn. The smoke though not at all complex would be excellent in the morning. This was my third of these smokes that I have tried and all 3 have exhibited these burn issues. The other two were not as bad as this one. It's a shame because it seems to be a good medium blend with some good flavors and is gorgeous to look at and has an incredible aroma.
Maybe it's a humidity thing, but my other smokes are fine. What drives me crazy is that tunnel that forms in the cigar, make the burn crappy and the stick mushy. You have to pinch it to get good smoke volume. Weird that it is only happening with Pepin sticks. I believe they like a lower humidity level but that will have a detrimental effect on my other sticks.