Sometimes I feel like the budget cigar reviewer on CI who actively searches for sticks that fit his budget but also appeal to his palate. Truth be told, I’m finally in the financial position where I can smoke much more expensive sticks on a daily basis, but I must admit that most of the time, I just want something akin to a Budweiser. It’s like a good friend of mine used to say in college, “Godammit! Just gimme a fuckin’ beer!”
That’s how it is with the cheap sticks I love to smoke like the Toraño Dominico or Roly or Cusano M1. Smoking them is like drinking a Bud. As for the Dominico, there is nothing remarkable about it. It’s a mild smoke that presents hay and cedar throughout the stick with a slightly nutty – if short – finish with little to no nicotine.
From an aficionado’s point of view, it’s boring as fuck so it would receive and has received low scores. But I love it because of its lack of complexity and more importantly, its complete lack of off-putting flavors. It’s pedestrian at best. That said though, the Toro I’m smoking is solidly built, has an even, if slightly wavy burn line that hasn’t required any touch-ups or relights, and the best thing about it is that each puff produces lots of smoke!
In fact, I’m smoking one as I write this, taking a break from some work I was doing this morning. I love smoking when I’m intensely focusing on a design or engineering document like I was doing prior to writing this. It helped me think through a rather complicated process I was trying to illustrate for my engineers.
Okay… I’ve praised this stick several times already. But amazingly enough, I actually had a stick the other day that I couldn’t finish. It was harsh and bitter. I got through the first inch and chucked it. Up to that point, the twenty or so other sticks I smoked were all consistent. It was only that one stick that was truly shit to me. That’s not a bad track record at all.
Unco B's Stogie Diary 