Cigar Review: Tarazona 305

Torpedo, 6.5” x 52 ring gauge / $8.18, MSRP

I was looking through my cigars for something to review this week and I came across this one.  I got this in a trade from Chris (@Leo_Botl) a while ago and I had forgotten about it until I came across it.  There aren't any retailers of this cigar out here so it is a little difficult for me to find at a B&M at the moment.  The cigar is comprised of Nicaraguan fillers and binders with a Costa Rican maduro wrapper.  They come in boxes of 25 in Churchill, robusto and torpedo sizes.  This is the first one of these I've tried.


The wrapper on this sample was a nice dark brown in color with a good amount of oils to it too.  The wrapper was also fairly smooth to the touch with only a couple fine veins to it.  The band on this cigar is quite simple and easy to tell who made it and what the line is.  When I took the cigar out of the cellophane I could smell an intense aroma of manure and barnyard, more-so that I usually get, with barnyard coming from the foot.  The cigar was fairly firm to the touch as well with no soft spots.  After clipping it and taking a cold draw on it I noted some chocolate and spice with a slightly tight draw.  


Once I lit this cigar up I got notes of chocolate, spice and leather.  At the time I smoked this cigar I thought the wrapper was a Connecticut broadleaf since it had the exact tastes I'm used to getting out it.  The draw was a bit too tight though and I gave it another slight cut with my MTX.  This helped a bit, but not as much as I would have liked.  The cigar started off pretty firmly in the medium range and stayed there through the first third.  Towards the end of it I did start getting a slight creaminess on the finish.  The ash held on for about three quarters of an inch before needing to be tapped off.  The burn did start canoeing but I didn't adjust it yet.


As I got into the second third, the draw did open up a bit.  I started getting notes of earth, coffee, and leather with hints of chocolate and cream.  The spice was still present although it wasn't as strong as the beginning.  I would say that the cigar did start to climb in strength to the upper end of medium during this third too.


The final third of the cigar saw it finish off with flavors of wood, coffee, earth, and cinnamon with a slight chocolate finish.  The draw did continue to open up a bit, but it still wasn't where I would have liked it to be.  The burn did pretty much even itself out without any extra fire applied to it. 


Overall this was an enjoyable cigar.  I would have enjoyed it more if I was able to get more smoke out of it though.  I do want to give this cigar another try, probably in a parejo shape, to see what I can get from another sample.  I do think that this cigar would be approachable by most and if you like CT broadleaf I'd give this a try.
 

Body: 7/10

Strength: 7/10

Complexity: 7/10

AFP Scale

Prelight: 2/2

Construction: 1.5/2

Flavor: 4/5

Value: 1/1

Total: 8.5/10