Blind Cigar Review: Miura | Toro

Vital Stats:

Vitola: Toro
Length: 6″
Ring Gauge: 50
Country of Origin: Nicaragua
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Connecticut
Binder: Sumatra
Filler: Nicaragua (Jalapa and Condega)
Factory: Tabacalera Reyes-Leon S.A.
Blender: Jorge Leon
Number of reviewers: 5 —– Ron (shuckins) Paul (pmr1010) Sandeep (Djangos) Emmett (rhetorik) Jiunn (jliu)
Price: $4.50
Age: 5 Months
Release Date: May 2008
Contributed by: Miura Cigars

Initial Impressions

Appearance: 93

“A very tasting looking cigar with a nice dark chocolate color wrapper that has a light sheen to it.” –Ron (shuckins)

Aroma: 93

“Nosing the wrapper gives primarily cedar and dark chocolate. Nosing the foot reveals a semi-peppery cedar and minor stone fruit notes. Cold draw mainly reveals gritty earth and spicy cedar.” –Jiunn (jliu)

First Third

Flavor: 90
Strength: Medium
Body/Complexity: Medium

“The first flavors I picked up were chocolate and baking spices. While not a huge surprise to taste chocolate, the baking spices did surprise me. A nice warm flavor that fit the bill well this morning, it tasted very good. Soon into this cigar I began to get very savory tastes as well as some good sour tastes. Sour tastes as in fermenting or bread baking.” –Paul (pmr1010)

“First third consistently gives flavors of gritty earth, dark chocolate, cedar and slight bread notes. About 1.5 inches in, I hear a noise every cigar lover cringes… CRACK. Yep, the dreadful wrapper crack. Hopefully this will not alter the smoking experience. For shame…” –Jiunn (jliu)

Second Third

Flavor: 93
Strength: Medium
Body/Complexity: Medium-Full

“Most of the wood tatse faded, taking some of the pepper with it about halfway through the cigar. This let more leather flavor move forward and it blended well with the coffee to produce a rich creamy taste to the cigar that lingered on my palate.” –Ron (shuckins)

“The smoke production on this cigar is crazy, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen so much smoke from a cigar while resting outside of a Liga Privada. The flavors are still very mild, and I’m just getting that leather and the tea flavor has transitioned into more earth. Towards the end of this third, the flavors and body have remained much the same.” –Emmett (rhetorik)

Final Third

Flavor: 90
Strength: Medium
Body/Complexity: Medium-Full

“The final third brought more of the strong nutmeg and cedar along with the almost smoky flavor that I got in the middle third. The pepper is slightly stronger at the start of the third and increases in intensity as the third progresses. It ramps up quite a bit in the last inch or so. The burn skewed a little because of the crack in the wrapper but did not require any touch ups. The draw was excellent. Luckily the crack did not worsen much more till the end. Overall, an excellent cigar with some minor issues.” –Sandeep (Djangos)

“So far, not much change. The flavors are much the same leather and earth from the previous thirds. Construction-wise this cigar has been great, but I’m looking for a little more in flavor and body. The draw has tightened up quite a bit and I had to poke it to restore. As I’m finishing up this third, the wrapper splits pretty bad. It ended with a bit more spice than it started with, but still not a whole lot of complexity in this one.” –Emmett (rhetorik)

Overall Impressions

Draw: 93

“The draw was definitely a little tight on this cigar. I cut a few times after the first to try to get just a tiny bit more and I ended up cracking the wrapper at one point. But I just couldn’t get the draw to open up.” –Paul (pmr1010)

Burn: 91

“The burn needed a few touch-ups and part of the inside filler stopped burning for a while.” –Emmett (rhetorik)

Construction: 91

“Very well constructed with a smooth surface. Feels firm to touch the entire length of the cigar. No major blemishes are discernible. No soft spots. Two well applied caps are present.” –Sandeep (Djangos)

Overall Strength: Medium
Overall Body/Complexity: Medium-Full
Overall Experience: 90

“I got a lot of pleasure from smoking this cigar. Very enjoyable flavors and a great performing cigar the entire time.” –Ron (shuckins)

“Overall, this was a very good cigar. The flavors intrigued me and kept me smoking. The build up of the flavors was nice, rather than some flavors coming and going, they all came and didn’t really fade.” –Paul (pmr1010)

“Overall, this was an excellent cigar from a flavor standpoint. The complexity was amazing with a lot of changes in between. There were some minor issues with the smoke production and the wrapper cracking, but overall I am definitely looking to find out what this one was.” –Sandeep (Djangos)

“There was nothing wrong or bad about this cigar, but it just didn’t do it for me. It was a little mild for my taste and didn’t have much complexity or transitions. It would, however, be good for a beginner as it was easy to pick up the flavors that were there and it was pretty mild. I just need a little more to buy some myself.” –Emmett (rhetorik)

“In terms of flavors, this is not in my wheel house. I dislike core flavors of gritty earth and cedar. The second third and partial last third increase in body was a nice surprise, but overall, these flavors leave my palate wrecked with grittiness and some tar. In terms of construction, it was just not good.” –Jiunn (jliu)

Smoking Time (in minutes): 76

Edit

Reviewer	Appearance	Aroma	1/3	2/3	3/3	Draw	Burn	Constr.	Overall
Ron	95	93	90	93	90	95	95	90	90
Paul	93	90	92	95	92	90	90	92	92
Sandeep	95	95	95	95	95	95	95	92	95
Emmett	90	95	88	88	88	90	85	88	88
Jiunn	88	85	85	85	83	75	75	75	80

To view the complete scores and notes, click here.
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Blind Cigar Review: Miura | Toro