Vitola: Toro- 6” x 50 ring gauge
- $2.95
- Samples provided by United Cigar
Background
On April 1, United Cigar announced El Tallo, a “first-of-its-kind cigar that has been in the works for over 5 years that uses only stems as filler. Judging from the date and the knee-jerk reaction to stems in a cigar, this could have been seen as an April Fool’s prank, but lo-and-behold, I got a 5-pack of El Tallos in the mail just a few weeks later.
It wasn’t all that long ago that Steve Saka of Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust came to Burns for a seminar event and had people chew on stems because they are “where the flavor is.” On the surface, then, using stems to enhance the flavor and strength of a cigar sounds plausible, but using nothing but stems in the filler sounds strange. The “house organ” of United Cigar, The Cigar Authority, notes that this is a 5-tobacco-stem-blend surrounded by Sumatra binder and an Ecuadorian wrapper, made in the Dominican Republic by Jose Dominguez. The stems required a “long, five-stage fermentation process” and “years of trial and error.
Through all this, stems still tend to be more of a “by-product” than a part of that plant that is readily used, so the price was kept super-low…a whopping $3 apiece when purchased in 5-packs. I smoked several of these before I fully understood the blend (I actually smoked the first 3 blind…not knowing any information about the cigars, including price or the fact that they were stems); this review sample is my 5th time smoking the blend. You can get these through 2 Guys Cigars, the online arm of 2 Guys Smokeshop…which carries everything United Cigar, since they are owned by the same guy, Dave Garofalo…who also happens to own Cigar Authority…seriously, this is just becoming an ad for Garofalo World…I’m not plugging his new book, though. I have to draw the line somewhere.
Also, check out this song, written by Mr. Chris Stapleton…apparently about this cigar…or maybe not…
Prelight
A $3 cigar doesn’t have to do much in the packaging department to impress. The 5-pack wrapper has a nice label stuck on the front of it. It looks better than $3 per stick, but that’s about it. The cigars inside are unbanded, but enclosed in individual cellophane, which is a nice touch for such a cheap stick.
The wrapper leaf was a medium-brown color with a decent amount of oils. Superficially, the build quality appeared good with flat seams, a good single-cap, and a closed foot. The wrapper had aromas of cedar and hay, while I got a slightly sweeter note from the foot.
Once clipped, I got a look at the bunch. It definitely looked different from a “regular” cigar bunch, but not what I would expect a bunch of stems to look like. The cold draw was very good…almost too loose…although experience told me it would burn slow. I almost felt like I was having a “Minato Moment” when I got a very plain flavor of chocolate chip cookie dough on the cold draw. But I got it time after time on the cold draw…and it wasn’t the first El Tallo I got that flavor from.
Flavor
Happily, the chocolate chip cookie dough flavor did translate a bit to the burning cigar through notes of bread, semi-sweet chocolate and vanilla. I also picked up toasted wood and a citrus sourness on the palate. The retrohale had wood and a slight black pepper spiciness to it. El Tallo burned very slowly through the first third and produced a consistently thick and oily, full-bodied smoke.
As I got into the second third, there was still the cookie dough note, but cedar and citrus notes had taken a more prominent role.
The last third had more of the sour citrus notes, with sweeter cookie dough far in the background. There was a touch of harshness as the cigar came to an end.
Construction
I had a good draw, fairly straight burn line and ash that was only slightly flaky, which isn’t bad for a cigar that probably has the structural integrity of most bundle sticks.
Value
Good flavor profile…not award-winning, but interesting and pleasant…and a rock-bottom remainder price tag. Outstanding value if you like the flavor, but worth spending $3 on to find out if you do…split a 5-er with your friends!
Conclusions
El Tallo is not destined to be Cigar of the Year on any list I can think of. It isn’t subtle, refined, nuanced or all that complex. It is full-bodied, strong, and pretty good for the first two-thirds, though, which is more than you can usually ask from any cigar in this price range. It’s a cool experiment with an interesting flavor profile, although it does tend to peter out before the final third really gets going. Still, I have to highly recommend trying this one as a budget smoke…yard-gar, driving-home-stick, fishing cigar…whenever you want to smoke but don’t want to risk wasting something expensive, El Tallo might just fit the bill.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 3.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8.5/10
