Budget Cigar: Mantequilla Torpedo

[ColbyPants]

Mantequilla Torpedo
6 X 54
Torpedo
Natural

There was a thread in the "Smoking Post" that mentioned these and I decided that now was the time to fire it up!


Prelight (& construction) : When I pulled the pyramid out of the humi the first thing I noticed is that it wasnt quite a dark as I had initially remembered, more of deep tan than a dark brown. The wrapper was a little more toothy than I had first noticed as well, a bit lumpy in places and there was a tiny notch missing in one place on the wrapper. Prelight draw was a tad tight and smelled and tasted of cocoa and the inside of a big walk in humidor.


Burn :This cigar seemed packed a little more firmly than most of the ones I smoked before as well. It lit easily and I tried increments of the cut on the head, and it smoked fairly well all the way through, though always a little tight. Ash was grey and white mottled, and uneven, but held for well over 2 inches in length. At the end of the smoke it opened up but by then I had trimmed like 5/8s off of the head. This cigar burned a bit unevenly and needed corrected on a couple of occasions.

Taste: The taste started off rather bland (just a touch of cocoa) but I think that was more to do with working out the draw than anything. About a third of the way through it started to gain momentum, like a walk through a forest of oak and pine and a dash of white pepper. This smoke, while not oppressively strong, had a nice rich taste to it. Also, it was not sweet at all, very woody and herbal. About ½ way through it got really interesting, with the herbs and white pepper staying, and this wonderful taste of a someone cooking rib eye steaks over charcoal in the distance (I guess you would call that meaty, eh), and this wonderful rawhide flavor underlying (like the stitching of a baseball glove, which I had to tie with my mouth as a kid), I really liked that and it still fascinates me quite a bit as that is part of what lingers in the finish. The last third had the herbs and pepper gaining momentum again and surprisingly the cocoa coming back (have you ever smelled the inside of a Tupperware container after it has stored brownies for a few days, it was like that), with a menthol tingling sensation inside my mouth to boot. Overall while a tough draw, and a bit of work to maintain an even burn were necessary, this was overall a very interesting smoke, and when I looked it up and saw the price, I would have to say it is a good value, especially if you are into MILD cigars.

TomC