8:??pm
After a steady diet of cheap stogies and the philosophical remembrances they bring to visit, I decided to simply rest my widdle mind and luxuriate. I remember the days when I could afford this dalliance into fancy much more often. Since they limited the amount of times you can sell blood -- well, it's been rough all over.
An 88 cent can of sardines and two egg supper helped me grab hold a...
The Cigar:
Carlos Torano Exodus Gold 1959
Habana 2000 wrapper
Costa Rican, Mexican, Nicaraguan filler
Honduran binder
Pre-light:
This Carlos Torano is a pressed cigar, but not as rigidly so as say a My Father La Antiqued. The pressing seems more intended to gently hug, than to force into uniformed drudgery stuffiness. There is plenty to hug in this stogie, as it serves as a virtual and lit tour of several famed tobacco growing regions.
The veins are duly noticeable but in keeping with this cigars aversion to uniformity. It has an eye-catching and inviting oily sheen and is packed, too, invitingly. Not too tight, not too loose. As I'm prodding it, I note its toothy texture.
Like a gent, I remove the band post haste and see an at once detailed yet somewhat minimalist design. It's filigree seems threatened to be swallowed up by the great black beyond background.
Its nose is predominately dark chocolate at first. At second there is a creamy complexity with a lingering cedar back note.
A cold pull highlights a creamy yet dark chocolate with a slight hint of roasted chestnut with an oily texture.
Light:
First pull is a heated version of the cold pull. Second is retro-haled and indicates black pepper and deep earthiness. The palate is interestingly far sweeter than the nose. They are expertly balanced, however and meet up well to finish long and oily and consisting of chocolate, pepper, cedar in order of length of finish from shortest to longest.
1/3:
The burn is a bit erratic and the ash betrays it oily tendencies and flakes of quite easily. I'm normally not a fan of pepper notes, but these are very nice and allow deeper complexities to come easily through to detection. The cedar deepens and becomes headier with each pull, the chocolate lives on the back end of that cedar sweetness and lays nice in the finish. The nuttiness seems to roast further as the stick warms, natch. It dances back there somewhere.
This Carlos Torano is an ensemble cast of flavors and black pepper is playing Dorothy on late night Golden Girls re-runs. I don't like her, but I do -- because I like the darned show so well.
The stick gives of a lot of smoke and it smells of cedar and possibly cumin. It smells warm, like by a fireplace in a leather chair with a fluffy pelt rug underfoot.
The ash clumps off expectedly at 3/4" and I dare yours to last much longer than that. The slow burn is aided by this and evens. Then unevens and I tend.
I find myself drawn to the pepper and retro-haling often to capitalize. It is flirting with controlled danger, as I know it is made far too superior to bite. This is not to say it is a toothless lion -- this is to say that it is the lion with nothing to prove and the lionesses all form pretty lines to visit him.
2/3:
This Torano is a primer of each of its origin countries tobacco. In short, it puts the tour in tour de force. Every forecast-able note of every country is present and is presented very, very well. There are no surprises, sans the beauty of craftsmanship insofar as balance. I am reminded of the Fibonacci sequence -- and the body here is full enough (high-end medium and deeply rich) to believe I saw Mona Lisa wink at me through her mathematically calculated loveliness.
The box press, while not exaggerated, too does not yield its form. The chocolate sweetness of Nicaragua deepens yet the cedar remains not light -- but not cumbersome. The black pepper takes a backseat but cuddles up there with a dark tobacco. There is a rich cream texture/taste a frothed milk that holds all together in the same way the Habana wrapper does -- loosely but with strong arms.
This offering is all about robust restraint.
Hold a pull long enough in your smoke-hole and the reward is a rich nuttiness. Dean Martin -- not Jerry Lewis. The burn is hot and slow like like a Latino lover with a belly full of very good tequila.
This stick just feels like a beaut. In the hand and on the lips. At the halfway point, I ... I ... I'll get back to ya in the --
3/3:
I should say that I smoked through a crack in the very final part of the second third which seemed to diminish the overall experience not one iota.
The billows of already voluminous smoke have grown even fuller and the stick's notes have not mottled, but have become less delineated. The stick is very warm and calm.
The black pepper has left and cumin remains in slight traces. The cedar has taken on a harder wood accompaniment and the chocolate is deeply inherent in the darkly nutty, naturally sweet tobacco. I imagine what I'm experiencing is the Nicaraguan filler taking the stage from the Mexican pepper bite. Cream remains in an at once intense and back-lit manner in keeping with the rich depths.
This Exodus 1959 only fails to knock yer socks off if you were barefooted in the first place. The complex ensemble is erudite beyond dress codes, any ol' ways. I am reminded of a more perfected RyJ -- and that is no knock on RyJ. A genius blended this. A magician. A soothsayer who saw and then surpassed my needs.
Technically speaking, that is*.
Notes:
(During which I turn the tables on ya.)
The draw was a tad stiff through the 1/3, nothing to suck yer fillings out over. Once warmed and opened, the pull was middle of the road and nice enough.
*I could imagine a better smoke (keep reading for final grade) but not by a whole heck of a lot. One item of note is that the early mid 3/3 (once the notes other than Nicaragua, left) became almost almost boring and almost to border on laborious. The cigar demanded much attention in the form of often puffs and seemed to want to go out, anyway.
There was a certain something lacking in the "other" category of this offering. It seemed overly introverted and lacked the innate hospitality of an introvert. Par excellence insofar as assemblage, a certain 'Jean Nate' fell somewhat shy of being delivered. At least delivered enough to bring balance to science and art.
Perhaps it wasn't a magician who crafted this stick, but a scientist. That character profile would fit well here.
Pairings: A Rich coffee, sweetened and adorned with frothed milk. I'd be tempted to oppose the stick's notes with a very dry Sherry, but I like to party.
Final Grade: A- [An uneven burn and slight leak prevented the A I wanted to give. A soul to match its science would have garnered an A+]
Epilogue:
10pm-ish?
Hasn't this post been long enough? I mean, really.
I should note that I stand by my RyJ, but more perfected opinion. That said, RyJ offerings have, generally, immensely more character. Here's what I thought of the Medallas de oro 1875 Reserve, for instance.
Now get to steppin', kiddo.
Churchill pressed
#5 Cigar of 2006, according to Cigar Aficionado
Rated a 92 by CA Several other 90+ ratings
This Carlos Torano is a pressed cigar, but not as rigidly so as say a My Father La Antiqued. The pressing seems more intended to gently hug, than to force into uniformed drudgery stuffiness. There is plenty to hug in this stogie, as it serves as a virtual and lit tour of several famed tobacco growing regions.
The veins are duly noticeable but in keeping with this cigars aversion to uniformity. It has an eye-catching and inviting oily sheen and is packed, too, invitingly. Not too tight, not too loose. As I'm prodding it, I note its toothy texture.
Like a gent, I remove the band post haste and see an at once detailed yet somewhat minimalist design. It's filigree seems threatened to be swallowed up by the great black beyond background.
Its nose is predominately dark chocolate at first. At second there is a creamy complexity with a lingering cedar back note.
A cold pull highlights a creamy yet dark chocolate with a slight hint of roasted chestnut with an oily texture.
Light:
First pull is a heated version of the cold pull. Second is retro-haled and indicates black pepper and deep earthiness. The palate is interestingly far sweeter than the nose. They are expertly balanced, however and meet up well to finish long and oily and consisting of chocolate, pepper, cedar in order of length of finish from shortest to longest.
The burn is a bit erratic and the ash betrays it oily tendencies and flakes of quite easily. I'm normally not a fan of pepper notes, but these are very nice and allow deeper complexities to come easily through to detection. The cedar deepens and becomes headier with each pull, the chocolate lives on the back end of that cedar sweetness and lays nice in the finish. The nuttiness seems to roast further as the stick warms, natch. It dances back there somewhere.
This Carlos Torano is an ensemble cast of flavors and black pepper is playing Dorothy on late night Golden Girls re-runs. I don't like her, but I do -- because I like the darned show so well.
The stick gives of a lot of smoke and it smells of cedar and possibly cumin. It smells warm, like by a fireplace in a leather chair with a fluffy pelt rug underfoot.
The ash clumps off expectedly at 3/4" and I dare yours to last much longer than that. The slow burn is aided by this and evens. Then unevens and I tend.
I find myself drawn to the pepper and retro-haling often to capitalize. It is flirting with controlled danger, as I know it is made far too superior to bite. This is not to say it is a toothless lion -- this is to say that it is the lion with nothing to prove and the lionesses all form pretty lines to visit him.
2/3:
This Torano is a primer of each of its origin countries tobacco. In short, it puts the tour in tour de force. Every forecast-able note of every country is present and is presented very, very well. There are no surprises, sans the beauty of craftsmanship insofar as balance. I am reminded of the Fibonacci sequence -- and the body here is full enough (high-end medium and deeply rich) to believe I saw Mona Lisa wink at me through her mathematically calculated loveliness.
The box press, while not exaggerated, too does not yield its form. The chocolate sweetness of Nicaragua deepens yet the cedar remains not light -- but not cumbersome. The black pepper takes a backseat but cuddles up there with a dark tobacco. There is a rich cream texture/taste a frothed milk that holds all together in the same way the Habana wrapper does -- loosely but with strong arms.
This offering is all about robust restraint.
This stick just feels like a beaut. In the hand and on the lips. At the halfway point, I ... I ... I'll get back to ya in the --
3/3:
I should say that I smoked through a crack in the very final part of the second third which seemed to diminish the overall experience not one iota.
The billows of already voluminous smoke have grown even fuller and the stick's notes have not mottled, but have become less delineated. The stick is very warm and calm.
The black pepper has left and cumin remains in slight traces. The cedar has taken on a harder wood accompaniment and the chocolate is deeply inherent in the darkly nutty, naturally sweet tobacco. I imagine what I'm experiencing is the Nicaraguan filler taking the stage from the Mexican pepper bite. Cream remains in an at once intense and back-lit manner in keeping with the rich depths.
This Exodus 1959 only fails to knock yer socks off if you were barefooted in the first place. The complex ensemble is erudite beyond dress codes, any ol' ways. I am reminded of a more perfected RyJ -- and that is no knock on RyJ. A genius blended this. A magician. A soothsayer who saw and then surpassed my needs.
Technically speaking, that is*.
(During which I turn the tables on ya.)
The draw was a tad stiff through the 1/3, nothing to suck yer fillings out over. Once warmed and opened, the pull was middle of the road and nice enough.
*I could imagine a better smoke (keep reading for final grade) but not by a whole heck of a lot. One item of note is that the early mid 3/3 (once the notes other than Nicaragua, left) became almost almost boring and almost to border on laborious. The cigar demanded much attention in the form of often puffs and seemed to want to go out, anyway.
There was a certain something lacking in the "other" category of this offering. It seemed overly introverted and lacked the innate hospitality of an introvert. Par excellence insofar as assemblage, a certain 'Jean Nate' fell somewhat shy of being delivered. At least delivered enough to bring balance to science and art.
Perhaps it wasn't a magician who crafted this stick, but a scientist. That character profile would fit well here.
Pairings: A Rich coffee, sweetened and adorned with frothed milk. I'd be tempted to oppose the stick's notes with a very dry Sherry, but I like to party.
Final Grade: A- [An uneven burn and slight leak prevented the A I wanted to give. A soul to match its science would have garnered an A+]
Epilogue:
10pm-ish?
Hasn't this post been long enough? I mean, really.
I should note that I stand by my RyJ, but more perfected opinion. That said, RyJ offerings have, generally, immensely more character. Here's what I thought of the Medallas de oro 1875 Reserve, for instance.
Now get to steppin', kiddo.