Cigar Review: KILO by United Cigars

• Vitola: Toro
• 6” x 52 ring gauge
• MSRP $9.50
• Samples provided by United Cigar Group

Background

When the first good reviews of KILO started coming out, I promised Barry Stein I would give him a scathing review…just to keep him grounded. As it turns out, I’m not sure I can make good on that promise…

I first heard of KILO about 2 years ago when Barry was working for Miami Cigar & Company. He talked about the blend on social media and contacted me privately with a promise to bring it to the annual Chattanooga Tweet-Up at Burns. That ended up being it’s more-or-less public debut…although he ended up only bringing a few bundles to hand out and we never got any for sale. The word I got on that was that the blend wasn’t quite ready to produce in mass quantities yet. Then he parted ways with Miami Cigar…and the dream seemed to have died with the job.

But when Dave Garofalo hired him at Two Guys Smoke Shop in New Hampshire, he vowed to work with Barry to finalize the blend and the branding…and a year or so later, that has come to fruition. The change in backing allowed Barry to switch to Noel Rojas’ Aroma de Jalapa factory (where Guayacan Cigars are made) and he decided to push for a very full-bodied blend, as well.

In the end, KILO uses an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, a Nicaraguan Corojo 2006 binder, and 3 different Nicaraguan Ligero fillers, originating from both Rojas’ farms and Casa Fernandez’s Aganorsa Leaf. It’s available in 2 sizes. I was fortunate enough to be walking through the trade show while they were setting up (against the rules, as it turns out…but the guard let us in!) and met Dave Garofalo for the first time just minutes after he had first taken possession of the final shipping KILO product…so I was also the first one to weasel some KILO. Those were Robusto, and I ended up smoking 1 or 2 (can’t remember). A few weeks after the show, Barry got some actual review samples sent my way…3 copies of the Toro. I’ve smoked 1 before the review samples I’m lighting up today.

Prelight

The little chemistry diagrams on the band make one think immediately of Breaking Bad, with it’s chemistry connections (and the original KILO debuted at a shop in New Mexico…coincidence? I think not!!!). I’m not ready to say that I actually liked the original KILO band better, but there was something about it that was very attractive, with it’s gold on gold look. This is a fine look, though, and does the job of standing out on the shelf.

The wrapper leaf was a milk chocolate brown color with a noticeable oiliness under my fingers and an aroma of wood and leather. The foot of the cigar had more earthiness, with a touch of cedar. The cold draw was very good and had notes of cedar, sweet citrus and hay.

Flavor

I got KILO burning without too much fuss and it started off with loads of cedar and pepper spice on the palate, with a backing of earth and a citrusy zing. I got more pepper notes on the retrohale, which also featured some wood notes. The cigar started off fairly full in body, although not as much as I recalled from that first Robusto I had. It could be that an extra month or two has helped them mellow out…or it could just be a function of the different vitola. By the time I had completed most of the first third, the citrus notes started turning a little sweeter and the cedar flavor receded a bit.

Puffing through the second third, KILO gave me floral and citrus flavors, with remnants of cedar and earth. The pepper was a low burn on the palate and nose.

In the final third, KILO trended more toward cedar flavor again, although it never came on as strongly as it did at the beginning. The floral and citrus notes were subdued and red pepper and natural tobacco notes came up in the background. At the end the cigar was quite full-bodied.

Construction

I got a nearly perfect burn line that just need an occasional touch-up, a great draw, and a solid ash that went for up to an inch at a time.

Value

Pricing these below $10 a stick makes for very good value.

Conclusions

It sucked!!!…is what I wanted to be able to say…after all, I wanted to give Barry a negative review to keep him from getting too big a head. But I have to say that working with Noel Rojas was a great plan…the man definitely has “the touch.” KILO is a strong, full-bodied smoke that delivers full flavor from beginning to end and leaves you jonesing for more (couldn’t resist).

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10