Vitola: Gran Toro- 6.25” x 54 ring gauge
- ~$12.50
- Purchased from Small Batch Cigar
Background
Once again it’s time to see if the other guys “got it right.” The basic idea here is that every year about 500 magazines, blogs, podcasts, and joe-schmoes announce their “Cigar of the Year.” Me and a couple friends are taking a few weeks to go through some of the better-known media outlets (and some lesser known ones!) and see if their pick is really all that good. As with anything based solely upon opinion, we might all be wrong.
Today we’re looking at the winner of COTY 2019 honors from Developing Palates’ Aaron Loomis (they have more than one writer, more than one winner): Balmoral’s Paso Doble. This time we were able to procure the actual size that was awarded COTY. Paso Doble is made by Litto Gomez’s LFD factory for Balmoral and it features Brazilian and Dominican fillers, an Ecuadorian Sumatra binder, and an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper. It comes in boxes of 10 sticks and if your local shop doesn’t carry it, you can get it on our sponsor, Small Batch Cigar.
Once again, I’ll be taking notes on what I think, as well as what my two smoking friends (who shall remain anonymous) think. I will use their quotes as much as possible. We are rating these on a 5-scale like so:
1 – How much money changed hands for this review?
2 – Yeah, no.
3 – To Each His Own
4 – I Can See It
5 – They Got It Right!
And hey, one more word…we got some “hate mail” comments on last week’s installment of this series. The major complaint was that we didn’t smoke the actual size that was rated as COTY by Cigar Aficionado. That is on the one hand a valid point, because as was pointed out the Churchill did not rate nearly as highly; on the other hand, it’s ludicrous because no blender is going to put out a size in a blend if it does work to represent the blend well. Also, while the comments and final rating were harsh, please understand that this is meant as entertainment and—where possible—comedy. Sometimes the humor doesn’t come through as well in the written word, but we were indeed having fun with it all. And we are going to try (when this whole COVID-19 thing is over) to finish off this series with a revisit of the Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua in the actual vitola that was rated COTY.
Notes
The band on these is cool, a mix of white and gold with blue and gold. Lots of gold foil and embossing and a very nice design for both regular and foot band…elaborate without going absolutely overboard. I got notes of barnyard and cedar…or was it “old barn wood?”…from the wrapper leaf. From the foot I got almonds and mineral notes, mixed with the rich earth and a touch of sweetness. The cold draw was nearly perfect and had a nice sweet grassiness and wood, with an aftertaste of chili pepper on my lips.
“Very Cubanesque…barnyard, hay, outdoor mustiness. Sourdough bread on the prelight.”
I tried one of these right after I received them and upon firing it up, I really didn’t care for it. It felt like the flavor came around after 15 minutes or so, but I distinctly remember not liking it right off the bat. This time, I liked it right away, picking up earth and and cedar and cinnamon on the palate, along with scorching red pepper on the nose.
“Definitely got cedar in the ‘room note’ after firing it up. When taking a puff, it’s almost like a rye sourdough flavor.”
“Black pepper was strong at the beginning and I got a bitter espresso on the retrohale. I may have gotten too much air. A half inch in, I got a cotton candy finish.”
The more I went along, the more of the copper note I got from the Sumatra binder.
“After half an inch or so the flavors ‘softened’ and muddled together a little. The scent from the smoke at the foot reminds me of a Room101 Chief Cool Arrow. The flavors coming through are completely different…light, clean, savory, salty.”
It could just be the power of suggestion, but I started to get smoked meat BBQ…a hickory-esque taste and aroma.
“Sour oak…a f-load better than last week’s cigar.”
“I got a whole new flavor, almost what the foot smelled like…a sour mustiness…but in a good way.”
“Looooong finish…what last week’s cigar lacked in finish, this more than makes up for. Just enough acidity to keep your mouth salivating and moist.”
“This is one of those cigars that if we smoked it again at a different humidity and temperature, we would probably get different flavors. It’s very balanced and complex.”
Finishing up the first third, I noticed that I hadn’t touched my lighter so far to straight the burn line or anything. Two of us noticed that it seemed to be a little sweeter if we smoked faster on the cigar.
“I massaged the cigar to get the airflow lighter…it turns very light and sweet, with the savory notes disappearing almost completely.”
Our third member got a totally different experience, having a fairly loose draw throughout. “It’s light and sweet and just doesn’t have a huge amount of flavor.”
“I think this is an amazing cigar…if I hadn’t ruined it by massaging the draw more open. But I can let it cool between puffs and get some of that original flavor again for a puff or two.”
“It’s like Lyle Lovett says, ‘She wasn’t good, but she had good intentions.’ It wants to do something great, but it just isn’t there. Mild, subtle, and understated…too understated. But it does make me pay attention and study it, for what it’s worth.”
“The more I think about it, the more I like that you can make it taste like two different cigars depending on how fast you smoke it…smoke in an hour and it gets sweet and mild…take two hours and it’s savory and salty and rich and complex.”
For what it’s worth, the guy who said most that it tasted like savory meat is a vegan…so take that with a grain of salt…
Conclusion
3 – To each his own, really…our experience was mixed on the Paso Doble. It came out great at times and kind of dull at others. One of us thought this was a masterpiece and he would immediately spring for a box of them, so he’s definitely in the “5” camp. I personally felt like it was a 3 because while it didn’t hit me as “amazing,” I did enjoy it most of the time. The last reviewer felt it was really disappointing.
Perhaps in a smaller ring gauge, it would have performed better for us.
