Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano
Binder: Dominican
Filler: Nicaraguan, Dominican (Ligero)
Size: 6 x 54 “Gran Toro”
Body: Medium/Full
Price: $5.50

This is one of my all-time favorite cigars. It is inexpensive. It is well made. And it is lauded by the experienced experts; such as Cigar Aficionado which bestowed upon it “Best Bargain Cigar of 2010.” And also gave the line ratings such as 92 and 93. The Gran Toro I am reviewing received the 92 by CA.

The Vallejuelo PR machine cranked this out in January, 2011:
“We have been working for years, making cigars for others, but I have realized that
it gives me a good feeling when people like / love our cigars.
If they don’t like them then I am even more happy, if at least they tell me,
so we can improve them. One thing is true, it’s impossible to make a blend which everybody likes, but I consider to have a winner if 85 % likes the blend.
And that is the case with Vallejuelo. We created the Vallejuelo blend for the Swiss market which is dominated by Cuban Cigars.”

I had to clean up the English grammar a bit on the preceding statement so it made sense. But you get the idea. Maurice Koks is very proud of his blend.

Construction is excellent. The stick has a flat mounted, triple cap that is often seen in Cuban cigars. The seams are invisible and there a fair amount of veins. The medium brown wrapper is tinted by that Colorado red that comes from the Ecuadorian soil.

I have been marinating these cigars for over 9 months. And I haven’t smoked one this time around. I have smoked my share in the past but I’ve never let one age this long.

I sniff and detect cedar, pepper, wood, leather and cocoa. The spice and wood are very strong. And actually makes my eyes water a bit when I sniff the foot.

I clip it and light up.

I get some wonderful flavor on the first puffs. The wood is dominating but the spiciness is close behind. A creaminess is immediate proving aging works. I wouldn’t have expected the creaminess quotient until farther into the cigar.

I hear the cigar making a snap, pop and crackle noise which means it is not humidified properly. 9 months is a long time to keep a cigar at a perfect humidity level and I’m afraid I failed. So my fingers are crossed that the wrapper doesn’t go south during the review.

A citrusy flavor appears giving everything a tartness…offsetting the creaminess a bit. The spiciness is tamed by age. It is not as I remember it…which is to say it had a bit of a Garcia blast of pepper at the start.

The cigar is so well balanced that it is damn near shocking. I could construe the cigar right now, at the first inch, as a flavor bomb; but it is different than other flavor bombs I have reviewed.

Due to the age, the cigar is smoother than my tushy. Trust me on this. I grab a Diet Coke because of the cocoa element and I am rewarded.
The wrapper is cracking now. But I intend to smoke this baby unless it falls apart. Since the flavors are outstanding, the humidification wasn’t that badly off; otherwise there would be a terrible musty taste to it.

As I leave the first third, a fruity sweetness appears. The cocoa is matched in strength by espresso. The draw has been perfect from the get go. And the char line, well done…in spite of the disintegrating wrapper.

The fruit is blackberry or boysenberry. Closer to boysenberry. Which is a berry invented by Walter Knott in Buena Park, Ca. back in the 1930’s. They had a farm and did some hybrid work and came up with a boysenberry. A boysenberry is a cross between a European Raspberry, a common Blackberry, and a Loganberry. Cordelia Knott was making a fortune making boysenberry pies at their roadside stand. Walter encouraged her to sell her outstanding fried chicken too.

Soon, they had expanded to a small diner and in the 1950’s, Knott’s Berry Farm was invented. Your history lesson for the day.

The spiciness has returned. There is a toasty component now. All of the flavors are expanding and coming forward from behind the curtain. Now, it’s a flavor bomb. It also looks like a wreck.

I bought the Vallejuelo at Atlantic Cigars. Which is where I buy a lot of my cigars because I paid to join their VIP Club? Giving me great deals on cigars.

The stick is very complex now. More complex than any cigar I’ve smoked lately.

The halfway point brings an onslaught of fruit, cocoa, sweetness, cedar, wood, toast, and creaminess. This little piggy is going to market.

The size of this cigar is just about the limit of what I like to smoke. But all that aging has given it the qualities of a smaller cigar. I don’t want to put it down.

The last third is more of the same except, if I can believe it, the flavors are more intense. The body has moved from medium to a fuller bodied stick.
The spiciness has become what I call a Garcia blast. Strangely, it didn’t start with it but it is certainly ending with it. My tongue is numbing out.

Fortunately, this stick is ready to smoke in a few weeks after purchase. You won’t get the complexity and richness I am experiencing, but it is based on that limited resting period that I keep coming back to this cigar.

This is the best $5 cigar I’ve smoked; in spite of my inability to keep it properly humidified. It could easily go for $7-$9 a pop.

Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS