Cigar Review: GTO Gold

Vitola: Churchill
7.25” x 47 ring gauge
Price ~$8
Purchased at Burns Tobacconist

Background

After starting my new job last month, I found myself with less time than previous to review cigars…definitely more time to smoke cigars, but I used to get finished with work for the day, go outside, and smoke something…often for review. Now, I go to work and smoke cigars. It’s not a complaint, mind you…it just makes it a little more difficult to adhere to the rules I’ve set up for reviewing (such as, only pairing review cigars with water, and always reviewing on a clean palate). My work schedule leaves me with 3 days on which reviews can fairly easily be done, but what if I don’t feel up to reviewing one of those days? Another alternative: Review Different!

I was thinking of calling these “Road Rage Reviews” but I’m not sure that moniker works. Here’s what I’m doing: it takes me about 45 minutes to get to work. On the way there I often smoke a cigar and drink coffee. So, I just needed to add one extra thing in: a way to record my thoughts while driving 65 miles per hour. Enter “Voice Memos” on my iPhone. I cut and light the cigar while in my driveway, then record my notes into the phone while I drive. If I get comfortable enough doing this, maybe I’ll get a phone mounting kit and videotape myself…that would truly be a “Road Rage Review” (TM). Without further ado (or adieu)…

You may have seen me reviewing GTO Cigars in the last couple years. Oscar Rodriguez has been fairly prolific at putting out new and different blends based on the tobacco his family raises in the Dominican Republic. The latest is the Gold. The filler is is listed as “proprietary Dominican tobacco,” the binder is a Dominican-grown Cuban seed, and the wrapper is a USA Connecticut Shade leaf. At the time I did this review, there was only the Churchill size available (a true 47 ring gauge Churchill at that!), but in the past week, Burns did receive Robusto and Corona vitolas as well. I smoked several of these before the review sample and I bought them all.

Prelight

The banding of the GTO Gold is pretty much the same as the other cigars in the GTO catalog: red and gold foil on the main band (which is shared with most of the other cigars offered), then a secondary band in white and gold showing the name of the blend (similar to Pain Killer, which was black and gold). It’s not a bad look but it is starting to get a little harder to differentiate among all the different GTO Cigars on an “glance” basis. I guess this helps to keep costs down, though, which is important for a smaller company.

The wrapper leaf itself was a beautiful golden shade, with some darker mottling and spots on it…not flawless, but not a bad looking wrapper. The aroma from it was a clean grassiness and earthiness; the foot had a touch more pungency along with some more grassy aromas. The prelight draw was excellent and had a nice sweet graham flavor.

Flavor

Lighting up the GTO Gold didn’t take much effort and it produced a car full of smoke very quickly. If you’re like me, you’ve read other reviews noting graham or honey flavors. I’ve gotten hints of those things, too, and if you smoke enough Dominican cigars, you’re sure to taste it eventually…or you can just light up the GTO Gold and taste it right now. Much of the flavors we get from cigars are based on “flavor memory” and this one hit me especially hard. Within moments of lighting up my first one (and every subsequent sample) I was thrown back to my childhood, eating Golden Grahams cereal for breakfast. I have never had a cigar taste this distinctly of graham cracker and honey. I also got touches of cedar, cinnamon, and pepper.

In the second third, I still got lots of graham cracker goodness and well-balance sweetness. The pepper spice held on as a background note that came through every now and then, livening up the blend. I sipped my coffee periodically as well, which went quite well with this blend…although I have to say, it doesn’t need coffee to be very enjoyable.

Through the end, the GTO Gold continued to display graham and honey predominantly. The pepper diminished but there were still occasional notes of cedar that came through.

Construction

I haven’t had any problems with any of the samples of the GTO Gold. Great draw, solid ash, even enough burn line.

Value

GTO is a small company with fairly short production, which makes it all the more surprising that the cost is as low as it is…very good value.

Conclusions

While the trend over the last 4 or 5 years is to push the “new wave Connecticut” trend, wrapping a Shade leaf over powerful fillers like Camacho, EPC, My Father, and other have done, Oscar Rodriguez of GTO has taken a different route: make a great-tasting mild Connecticut Shade cigar…which may actually be the more challenging route! The GTO Gold never really gets out of the mild-bodied range, but the flavor is outstanding and has kept me coming back for more. There’s nothing wrong with the medium-bodied Connys, but if you want to experience something truly mild and very flavorful, you should try this stick. It is one of my Top 5 Connecticut Shade cigars (what are the others? That’s for a different blog post). GTO Cigars are currently a “regional” release…Oscar lives in Birmingham, Alabama…and they are available at Burns Tobacconist in Chattanooga; it you’d like to get some, call 423-855-5200.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9.5/10