Torano-Casa Torano Maduro

Posted By Elvis on December 3, 2007

I, like many newer generation cigar fans from this current boom, love Maduro cigars. I love the Maduros that kick up the strength like the Partagas Black and the Camacho Triple. I love the sweeter side of Maduro like the Gurkha Doble Maduro or the CAO Anniversaire Maduro. Now, I am also a fan of the vast Carlos Torano line, so naturally when I saw they recently took their house blend called the Casa Torano and wrapped it in a very black maduro wrapper, I was sold.

After a couple weeks of bidding, I finally was able to land a 5-pack of these newbies on cigarbid.com. Today they arrived at my work safe haven, away from the wife’s knowledge. I safely smuggled them home and even put the kids to bed early and eagerly lit this baby up.

I was able to get their generous Toro size…a 6.1×50 gauge. Wait..what the hell is going on with the Patriots tonight???
Oh sorry..I digress. I examined the jet blackness and I could see the nice sheen of oils coming off this Ecuadorian grown maduro wrapper and my juices were flowing. It smelled nice and sweet and was very aromatic pre-light. I gave it a good V-cut and lit it up with my torch.

Oh, how I hope Santa is nicer to me than Carlos Torano on this night. For very rarely am I this excited about a smoke and get smacked down almost instantly. Wow…immediately I got a nasty citrusy acid in the back of my throat. The smell of the smoke was very foul and thick…it smelled…well, smoky I guess. More like the way a room smells the day after smoking than during the experience. Perhaps I jumped on these new sticks too soon and should have let them age in the CI coffers a bit longer.
I had to go to their website and see what they had to say about this thing:

Casa Torano is a nice little story. What was once used as the family’s house blend, and a cigar only handed out at Torano rolling events, has now become one of Carlos Torano’s top-selling brands. So much so, it was only necessary to give it a maduro-wrapped counterpart. And so, Casa Torano Maduro was born, a mellow blend of Dominican and Nicaraguan long-fillers wrapped in a dark and toothy maduro leaf. Complex, yet balanced, this mild to medium-bodied mixture results in a creamy, spicy, earthy smoke with a rich, naturally sweet aftertaste. It’s mild enough to pair with your morning cup of coffee and flavorful enough to top off a hearty steak dinner.

Now I find those notes funny because anytime I’ve been to a cigar rolling event, the cigar has always tasted the way this one does…very bitter and not yet ready to smoke. But because you are at the event, you light it up anyway interested to know what a freshly rolled stogie tastes like, only to be taught a valuable lesson. I also don’t get why they call this a Honduran cigar when the wrapper is from Ecuador and the fillers are from the Dominican and Nicaragua. Huh??
Now I will say that about half way through, the cigar did warm up a bit and started to provide some coffee aftertaste and a little more pleasant spice in the throat, but you really shouldn’t have to smoke half of a cigar before you enjoy it.

In Torano’s defense, I do think they make outstanding cigars and Iron and I plan on offering nearly their full line in our shoppe, especially the spicy Virtuoso line. And I will say that last night I actually smoked the natural Casa Torano and thought it was a nice mild smoke. But, I think maybe this Maduro version was pumped out a little too soon to jump on the Maduro bandwagon.
If you do want to try these out anyway, CI sells them for around $110 a box…very reasonable and I think over time they will ditch some of their bitter opening. Or at least I hope so! They are much too pretty to be bad!

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