Country of Origin: Honduras
Color: Maduro
Length: 6"
Ring gauge: 50
Wrapper: Nicaraguan maduro
Binder: Honduran
Filler: Honduran
OK, THIS cigar is the absolute coolest - so let's first start with the aesthetics, and the history behind the aesthetics before we talk about the flavor profile...
The Leaf by Oscar lines are part of the Rodrigo Cigars portfolio. So apparently, the famous "Island Jim" Robinson (owner of the renowned Leaf & Bean in the Strip district of Pittsburgh, PA) hooked up with Oscar Valladares, of Oscar Valladares Tobacco & Co. in Danli, Honduras. After taking one of the cigars from the factory, he was unable to find anything to protect it and keep it fresh to smoke at a later time, so he grabs a tobacco leaf and proceeds to wrap the cigar with it. Not only did it protect the cigar, but it also imparted some additional oil to the cigar wrapper. VOILA!
As with all of the Leaf by Oscar lines, the Maduro Toro is wrapped with a colorado maduro tobacco leaf twisted at the cap and the foot and secured with a band made of some specialty fiber-type paper. Once this relatively dry outer leaf is removed, you're left with a gorgeous cigar with a blotchy, oily, chocolate brown maduro, slightly toothy wrapper with a great deal of small veins. The foot provides a very rich peppery tobacco aroma (so much that actually made me sneeze - which never happens). Cold draw revealed some cinnamon spiciness with an element of sweetness. The cigar lights easily, but burns ever so slow and evenly, with a persistent and pleasantly aromatic waft of smoke that lasts pretty much throughout the smoke.
This medium-to-full bodied cigar produces some thick and chewy smoke - quite savory. This cigar smacks you right off the bat, with a great deal of pepper and leather which dominates the first third of the smoke, especially on retrohale. However, as it transitions to the second third, the smoke smoothes out a bit and progressively loses its pepper, giving way to earthy, pungent barnyard, and hay flavor with some subtle notes of sweetness detected on retrohale. These robust flavors remain consistent to the nub, that doesn't burn hot and leaves a long sweet finish on the palate. Total burn time approximately 1 hour, 30 minutes.
Very, very nice stick here... The Leaf by Oscar Maduro Toro is a wonderful smoke that I most definitely plan to pick up again and again, but not before I get my hands on the Corojo, Connecticut, and Sumatra lines first!