red dot

[Briandg]

I bought a box of toros from jr, about a year ago, I guess. it was mostly for nostalgic reasons, as I used to sell hundreds of red dot perfectos to a favored customer of mine. This was the maduro toro, a broadleaf wrapped short filler, with some jamaican filler. I hoped for the best, and didn't mind too much being disappointed.

I thought I reviewed them earlier, and found them to be pretty useless. HOt, tasteless, and badly constructed.

A year later, they are not so harsh, smell and taste a little better, fairly good, in fact, but still are so loosely filled that the cotton ball density of the filler can't generate enough heat to burn the wrapper. Better filled or longer filler would have made an acceptibly decent yard gar out of it. As it is, like so many cheap cut filler smokes, I've used enough butane to grill a 16 ounce ribeye trying to keep it going. Out of all the things I dislike about a cigar, that is probably top of the list.

Addendum:

I threw it away at about 3 inches or so, as it had gone out once again and was nothing but a shell with a half inch or more of burned filler inside a tube of barely scorched wrapper.

I guess the way to smoke those is once in a while hit it with really hard, hot puffs, rather than calmly puff away like a good long filler smoke. I should have tried coronas, maybe.

[tobaccoman]

hmmm. I bought 2 boxes of these for 12.00 a box at a JR Auction. I find them nice smokes. I found several reviews online that called the Maduro actually spicy and overpowering to the sweet Jamaican filler. I was surprised to actually have the first one I tried actually be quite spicy. the others while not as strong have been decent cigars. I am interested in trying a few naturals.

[Briandg]

They were just typical for a cut filler cigar. 75 cents apiece? That's just fine. I haven't had one since this review, but I suspect that a few years buried would do a lot of good for the broadleaf. I think that the tobaccos used were pretty decent.

I'm just not one who gets along with short filler cigars, as they tend to tunnel. In the big ring sizes you have to either smoke them pretty hot to keep the wrapper burning, or you have to touch them up all the time.

Last night, I was sitting in my garage with a 2006 la escepcion, typing up a story, with that stogie clamped in my teeth. it tunneled several times, too. It's more about my manner of smoking sometimes.

[Briandg]

Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree, but I suggest you try and get some special jamaican maduros on the auction. You can snag them for about $20 a bundle, about $1 a cigar. Those are fine smokes for mild maduros. The naturals are good too, I believe, milder than most connecticut wrappers.

[tobaccoman]

Not really a fan of mild... I am however a fan of cheap.. the maduros ar espicy to me but I have a curiosity about the natural wrapper with this filler blend. As a side note I had no tunneling issues per se. A few touch ups were required as I could see the potential for tunneling as the broadlesf wrapper is very thick on these.

[Briandg]

Originally Posted by tobaccoman

the broadlesf wrapper is very thick on these.

That is it in a nutshell. Short filler doesn't create a hot coal, and what heat it does generate is quickly lost. Charring and then burning a super heavy maduro wrapper takes a whole lot of concentrated heat to be held against it for a long time, otherwise it will never char, and once charred, not actually ignite. Lots of cut filler cigars that I have smoked wound up smoking so cold that the filler itself burned and left an empty wrapper. It's like smoking a pipe. It's most common with maduro. Candela wrappers on a few mixed fillers I have had never tunnel.