Blind Cigar Review: Dapper | El Borracho Toro

Cigar Info

Dapper cigars got its start back in 2013, but hasn’t been well known in the cigar industry until the last year. The company is based out of Fresno California and owned by Ian Reith. He started with cigars as a consumer and wanted to make his own line. His career started out in the tech world where he worked as a network communications engineer and started small software company that writes software for the education sector. Ian created thie cigar company with the idea of avoiding the gimmicks and tried to make his cigars nostalgic and fresh. Also helping with the brand is Dan Gretta on aesthetics. His neighbor Chris Alvarez, created the company’s name, who is a barber, he looked at one of Reis’ first cigars and commented, “now that’s a dapper cigar.”

For the El Borracho, Ian wanted to put his spin on the San Andres/Nicaraguan combination Pardon makes famous. El Borracho translates to “The Drunk.” This name comes from a card in the game La Loteria.

Vital Stats:

Vitola: Toro
Length: 6″
Ring Gauge: 54
Country of Origin: Nicaragua
Wrapper: Mexican San Andres
Binder: Jalapa Habano Rosado
Filler: Nicaraguan
Factory: Nicaraguan American Cigar S.A. (NACSA)
Blender: Ian Reith 
Number of reviewers: 5 – David F. (dfafjf) John A. (John A.) Mickey T. (irratebass) Ryan H. (Ryan H.) Jason H. (Jokey Smurf)
Price: $13.60
Age: 7 Months
Release Date: July 2017
Contributed by: Dapper Cigars

Initial Impressions

Appearance: 94

“Box press in what looks like a Toro size. The wrapper is the color of a milk chocolate bar, or more like bark from a tree. ” –Mickey T. (irratebass)

Aroma: 93

“On the cold draw a nice hint of orange citrus and tobacco please the palette. A nutty and creamy sweetness fills the nose from the foot. ” –John A. (John A.)

First Third

Flavor: 92
Strength: Medium
Body/Complexity: Light-Medium

“Oddly enough the cigar starts out tasting exsactly how it smells. This is a rarity. Its medium in strength especially on the tail end. It has the hay and honey but a darker sweetness on the back end of mollasses or carmel. Definatly a nice leather developing as well.” –Ryan H. (Ryan H.)

“The first puffs are surprisingly mellow and smooth with just a hint of pepper through the sinus. As the smoke warms the pepper increases through the nose but not on the palate. The main flavors in detecting are a bit of sweet cashew… Lending to the cashew flavor is a pronounced oiliness to the smoke. The flavors aren’t strong but they are long lasting.” –Jason H. (Jokey Smurf)

Second Third

Flavor: 91
Strength: Medium
Body/Complexity: Medium

“Second 1/3 spice continues to mellow but still present in retrohale. A bit of creaminess enters, no more chocolate notes, full on hay, ceder, leather, peanut. Smoking great.” –David F. (dfafjf)

“Profile transitions to leather and dried fruit. Draw is effortless. Burn is performing well. Damn good cigar, some cream as well but its being over powered by the rest of the profile. Very rich enjoyable cigar.” –Ryan H. (Ryan H.)

Final Third

Flavor: 91
Strength: Medium
Body/Complexity: Medium

“The final portion of this cigar has retained a fair portion of the pepper and lost all of the sweetness and cashew notes. The predominant flavor at this point is wood with just the slightest hint of char… Like chewing on a match stick… You can smell the char more than taste it. Its really interesting and not something I’ve really tasted before in a cigar.” –Jason H. (Jokey Smurf)

“Strength drops to light medium and opens up quite a bit. Making the cigar all the more enjoyable. Cigar comes to and end with woody and molasses notes” –Ryan H. (Ryan H.)

Overall Impressions

Draw: 95

“Great draw for a box pressed cigar. ” –John A. (John A.)

Burn: 92

“burn was good, I had minimal relights, and it burned cool” –Mickey T. (irratebass)

Construction: 95

“This was a beautifully crafted cigar. ” –John A. (John A.)

Overall Strength: Medium
Overall Body/Complexity: Medium
Experience Overall: 91

“I really enjoyed this cigar. No idea what it is but reminds me of some AVOs that I have smoked. I first 1/3 was my favorite part as there was a lot more complexity (perhaps due to my palate being fresh) but the great flavors continued throughout the cigar. Vibrant intense flavors even though I smoked it pretty fast. ” –David F. (dfafjf)

“I was anxious to smoke this one, don’t see many box pressed cigars. It was beautiful looking and smoked wonderfully. Now for the downer, it was severely lacking any flavor for the first third, talk about boring! When it did finally start picking up flavor on the second half it was pretty one note. I will have to hard pass on these. ” –John A. (John A.)

“This cigar just wasn’t for me. I was afraid that it was my senses that were off, because this was the 1st cigar I’ve had in about 2 week, because I was down and out with the flu, but I smoked another cigar after and all my senses were on point.

There just wasn’t much to this cigar sadly. the looks were very deceiving I was expecting maybe more spice, but it was quite mild…..don’t judge a book by it’s cover. ” –Mickey T. (irratebass)

“Box worthy stick in my opinion. Was a very enjoyable cigar” –Ryan H. (Ryan H.)

“This was an absolutely enjoyable cigar! The flavors were good and varied and the performance was excellent. My finest wish is that a couple of boxes of this cigar end up having one of the top shelves of my humidor… Absolutely worthy of a spot in anyone’s rotation ” –Jason H. (Jokey Smurf)

Smoking Time (in minutes): 85

To view the complete scores and notes, click here.

Blind Cigar Review: Dapper | El Borracho Toro

Overall Score – 92 – Great