Vitola: Robusto- 5” x 50 ring gauge
- MSRP $5.50
- Provided by General Cigar
Background
It was just two years ago that the General Cigar acquired all the Toraño Family Cigar brands. The immediate result was practically no change in the line-up of Toraño blends, even through the 2015 trade show, but it would be unlike General to not mandate some long-term changes to the brand and in 2016 they finally happened. The first, most noticeable change was the marketing and branding of the new blends…um, let’s just say they have a “Bold” new look to them…or we can just say that someone spent far too long staring at Camacho’s new branding before heading into the design studio. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Davidoff should be very flattered indeed by General.
Getting past the packaging, the blend philosophy extends practices of both Toraño and General from the past few years. From the Toraño side, they have released a line of 4 different “Vault” blends, a concept that goes back to 2011 when the company started releasing blends based on ideas that had been locked away in the family “vault.” From General comes the idea of releasing different sets of blends for brick & mortar stores versus online retailers; so the Vault Green and Purple blends will be in your local stores, while you will only find Teal and Orange on the web. Pricing is the same on all of the blends…and is very reasonable to boot.
Today I’m looking at the TM-027 (Purple) Vault blend, which “features a dark, Mexican San Andres wrapper, Nicaraguan binder, and a blend made with Broadleaf and Nicaraguan tobaccos. This combination of tobaccos creates a luxuriously smooth, medium-bodied smoke that produces an array of balanced flavors.” Soon I will be looking at the other B&M Vault blend and the new installment in the Exodus series. This is my first time smoking the TM-027 and the sample was provided by General Cigar.
Prelight
I’m going to put this up front…I almost feel embarrassed by the packaging because it’s such a blatant copy of the Camacho rebranding. The bottom line, though, is that the Camacho rebrand was very successful and even caused some copying of the style (though not quite as blatant) in some re-packaged CLE lines and the possibly forthcoming La Aurora Black Lion (I saw a news story on that line some time ago but it hasn’t re-surfaced since). Plainly this style of bright color-coded boxes and bands that are large and oriented sideways works to get people to notice the cigars in the store. Our General rep tells me that these Toraños Vault brands have been selling briskly. Even so, I’m dinging the “prelight” by half a point…not only are these designs highly derivative, the colors are garish and almost painful to look at.
Getting past the band and box, the wrapper leaf is actually quite nice to look at. It was a dark chocolate hue with a very oily feel under my fingertips and not much in the way of noticeably large veins. The aroma from it was darkly earthy with a touch of leather. The foot had aromas of ripe earth, cocoa powder, and coffee beans.
I gave the Vault TM-027 a straight cut…actually the last cut I would give with my most favored Xikar Xi before sending it off to the company to replace some worn out springs. It’s the “Tobacco Camo” pattern that they only made for a short time, so I’ve asked for them to repair, not replace, the cutter (unless they have a stock of the same pattern somewhere)…I’ll report on what happens. Anyway, the draw on the cigar was great and the cold flavors were of unsweetened cocoa powder and earth.
Flavor
After lighting up, the flavors of dry earth and unsweetened cocoa powder were most dominant on the palate, while some notes of cedar and pepper spice had a presence in the background. On the nose, the pepper was a little more intensified, but even moreso were the notes of wood and nuts. There was definitely a bit of that “Mexican” chalkiness and bitterness to the blend, but at least in the early going, it was well-balanced with other notes that didn’t allow he more bitter notes to dominate.
The second third of the Vault TM-027 saw an emerging sweetness that made me wonder exactly how much Broadleaf they put in the filler. It honestly started tasting more like they used that for the wrapper rather than the Mexican leaf. The bitter notes took on more of a strong coffee and earth character while the sweeter balancing notes were of dark chocolate and dried fruit. Pepper spice remained a very pleasing undercurrent.
The final third of the cigar had the same sweet and bitter interplay with an increasing amount of pepper to spice things up. The cigar finished very nicely overall and I smoked it down to the point where I could barely hold on to the nub.
Construction
I had to touch up the burn line a couple of times, but nothing out of the ordinary for a Maduro wrapper. The draw was just about perfect and the ash was as solid as I would expect.
Value
A surprisingly good cigar for a bargain price…very good value.
Conclusions
Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect from this new Toraño. The price is low enough to call “cheap” and the packaging is almost worthy of a lawsuit, so it is fair to say I was dubious going in. The Vault TM-027 proved to be much more than what I had hoped, though, thoroughly outperforming its price point and delivering an excellent smoking experience that rivals cigars that sell for closer to $10. I had pretty much given up on the brand years ago since the only thing from them I really enjoyed on a regular basis was the Exodus 1959 (Original), but this cigar compelled me to be more open-minded and give other sticks from the brand a fair chance.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 1.5/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10
