Each Saturday and Sunday we’ll post a Quick Smoke: not quite a full review, just our brief take on a single cigar.

This was last year’s addition to the mild Toraño line, said to have begun life as the house blend for the family’s Central American operations. The six and ¼ inch by 50 ring gauge Toro has a pretty wrapper – which I believe is a Connecticut Broadleaf grown in Ecuador – and excellent construction. But the flavor is just so-so. A thick, woody taste predominates, punctuated by a bitterness that’s biting rather than intriguing. There’s a little of the warm, dark coffee or cocoa flavor that’s often associated with maduro wrappers, but I wondered if these cigars might develop better with a few years of aging.

Verdict = Hold.

-George E