This Vegas de Santiago puros torpedo was one of my favorite daily cigars when I started smoking and I
reviewed back in the day. I still light one every now and then. They are affordable and nice. And about a year and a half ago I exchanged some mails with Rudi about sampler, when I decided to bomb 18 of my American friends with a Vegas de Santiago sampler. Rudi gave me a great deal on the sampler, which contained torpedo of all the 5 different blends that Vegas de Santiago released so far. Much to my surprise, one of those samplers arrived at my doorstep as Rudi found it appropriate to thank me for bringing business to his company and sending his cigars to my friends of whom most never heard of Vegas de Santiago before.
The cigar is a 6x52 torpedo with a maduro wrapper, packed in cellophane. The torpedo has a nice shape and contains a few veins. The construction feels good and the cigar has a deep barnyard smell. I like the simple band, nothing fancy but it tells you all you need to know. The predraw is good and I taste a mild spicy tobacco.
I taste a pleasant but dry wood flavor with some mild bitter coffee. After an inch the coffee turns into an earth flavor
Some time later I taste mainly wood, dry but pleasant with a mild chocolate in the aftertaste and some herbal spiciness. Halfway and further it is only herbs and wood, the chocolate has gone and won't return.
The smoke time of this cigar is an hour and a half. The draw and burn are good and I get a decent amount of medium thick smoke. The ash of this full flavored and medium full bodied cigar is firm.
Would I buy this cigar again? I still have a few left, but once they are gone I will order a new bundle.
Appearance: 8 / 10
Construction: 7 / 10
Draw: 7 / 10
Burn: 7 / 10
Smoke & ash: 7 / 10
Aroma first part: 7 / 10
Aroma second part: 7 / 10
Aroma third part: 7 / 10