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Cigar Review: Carlos Toraño Signature Collection Toro

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Summary:

A rich-flavored, medium-bodied, maduro cigar, with an excellent aroma. A smooth, refined and sophisticated smoke that is extremely consistent.

CE Cigar Rating: 94

Background Information:

The CT Signature Toro is 6 inches long with a 50 ring gauge. The cigar has a sun-grown Brazillian Arapiraca maduro wrapper over a Connecticut Broadleaf binder. The filler is a mix of Dominican Cubana ligero and Nicaraguan Habano ligero tobacco. Each cigar is individually wrapped in a cedar sleeve. Manufactuered at the Cuevas y Hermanos factory in the Dominican Republic for Toraño y Cia.

From the Manufactuer:

Toraño Logo “A medium to full-bodied smoke with rich flavors of roasted coffee and cocoa. An earthy core with hints of leather and sweet spice. Also an earthy herbal aroma rounded off with sweet wood on the finish.”

Carlos Toraño Signature Toro

Cigar Envy Cigar Review:

Appearance: 10 of 10 points

A truly beautiful and extremely well-constructed cigar. The wrapper is dark, oily and rather veiny — however the veins are small, do not detract from the appearance, and do not affect the burn either.

Also, the contrast of the cedar sleeve against the dark maduro cigar is a very attractive presentation.

Aroma: 15 of 15 points

First, the unlit cigar smells strongly of cedar. Not terribly surprising considering that each cigar comes wrapped in an individual cedar sleeve. The way that the wrapper is permeated by a cedar aroma, however, indicates that the sleeve is not just window dressing for the presentation of the cigar. These sticks have been in close contact with cedar for a considerable time during aging. A hint of cedar comes through in the flavor (see below).

The smoke aroma is also very good. My wife and daughter both commented on how good it smelled — and my daughter isn’t a big cigar fan. This is a cigar that can be enjoyed not only by you but by those around you.

Burn: 10 of 10 points

Very even burn–in fact, one of the most even burns of any stick I’ve smoked. Excellent. This is a cool and smooth smoke, and the cigar lasted longer than most this size. The ash is light grey and firm.

Consistency: 15 of 15 points

The cigar is not only consistent from lighting to the end of the smoke, it is also consistent from stick to stick and from box to box. This is a top quality cigar. One of the most consistent I have smoked.

Construction: 9 of 10 points

It isn’t a surprise to say that a Carlos Toraño cigar is well constructed. The construction of the whole cigar is quite good, but the cap is excellent — better than on most comparably-priced cigars.

One note of caution under construction: be very careful when removing the cedar sleeve from the cigar so that you do not damage the wrapper (as I did on the second stick I sampled). The Arapiraca wrappers appear to be a little more fragile than you might expect, although I think the flavor is worth the extra care required. Even with slight damage, however, the cigar with the slight tear was better than most other brands I have smoked.

Draw: 9 of 10 points

The draw overall is a little tight — not anything that is a problem usually, but an occasional stick is slightly tighter. Still, this isn’t enough of a negative to spoil the overall superb quality of this cigar in my opinion.

Flavor: 27 of 30 points

Cedar notes, and peppery to begin. The Brazilian wrapper has a natural smoothness and sweetness not found in the more common maduro wrappers. As the cigar starts to warm, there are spicy tones mingled with a creaminess and overtones of a nutty flavor mingled with a prominent mocha aroma. The flavor is very good and consistent from shortly after lighting up all the way through to the end of the cigar as I’ve already mentioned.

This cigar reaches full flavor in a fairly short time with dominent coffee and dark chocolate notes and a hint of leather. It holds this flavor tone basically unchanged longer than any other cigar I’ve smoked. The cedar aging blends things beautifully and the cedary notes come through to the very end. This is one that you’ll be able to smoke until you cannot hold it any more without bitterness or harshness.

Despite the double ligero filler blend, this is rated a medium to medium-full bodied cigar. I would probably place it more to the medium side myself. It is extremely mild for a maduro, yet has the maduro flavor depth at the same time. In fact, it is an excellent introduction to maduros for someone who hasn’t smoked them before. Don’t misunderstand that to mean that this is just a “beginner” cigar, because it isn’t. It is an extremely sophisticated smoke.

Number Sampled For Review: Five.

Other Reviewers:

Cigar Aficianado gave it an 89, calling it “earthy, with notes of cedar, coffee and cocoa” and also mentioning the slightly tight draw. Smoke Magazine gave it a 4.7 on their old 5 point scale — an unprecedented and unique rating, the highest given by the magazine for a non-Cuban cigar. One of their review panelists called it a “maduro that even a non-maduro lover would like.”

Price:

The manufacturer’s suggested retail price is US $125.00 per box of 25 ($5.00 each).

TNT Cigars has the current online low price per box at US $79.00 (which is a savings of about 37% off the retail price and works out to only $3.16 a stick). Famous Smoke Shop comes in with the virutally identical price of $79.95 a box, and the next best price is at Best Cigar Prices at $81.75 a box. Current listed prices at other online retailers who have it are usually in the upper-80’s to upper-90s.

You can also find it by the five pack at Famous Smoke Shop for $22.95 ($4.59 each). You might also want to check CigarBid, Cigar Auctioneer, or the JR Cigars Auction and see if you can snap up a sampler at a bargain.

Prices do not include shipping and are current at the time of this review.

Posted on Saturday, August 26th, 2006 at 4:23 pm.