Vitola: Cheroot-ish- 6.5” x 40 ring gauge
- MSRP $7.50
- Samples provided by Miami Cigar & Company
Background
The last time I reviewed a Toscano Cigar product I wasn’t all that impressed with it…good, but not great, and I haven’t purposely repeated the experience. The Toscano Classico was rough, rustic and deeply fire-cured in flavor. So when I got a new package from Miami Cigar & Company and it included the new Toscano Stilnovo, I can’t say I was really excited to try it. I had purposed to burn the first one and if I didn’t like it, I would use the second one in a pairing. Funny thing, though…I did like it.
Stilnovo indicates “innovation” (the origins of the word are in Dante Alighieri’s new style of writing from the fourteenth century); what it means here is Toscano’s fusion of Italian and Caribbean ways of cigar-making. They use long filler leaves of Kentucky-seed tobacco grown near Tuscany, a fermented Italian Kentucky binder—a first for any Toscano product—and an American Kentucky wrapper. All the leaf is fire-cured, fermented, then aged extensively.
The use of a binder leaf allows for the Stilnovo to be burned as a single cigar or cut in two and burned as two half cigars. Burning as a single stick causes more change in ring gauge with more complexity, while burning as half sticks is said to yield a better draw and get right to the strongest part of the blend from the beginning.
I burned the first one as a full stick and will chop this second one in half for review purposes…and keep the other half for that pairing I mentioned before. Miami Cigar & Company—American’ distributors of Toscano Cigars—provided me with the samples.
image courtesy Miami Cigar
Prelight
The packaging is nicer than the old style Toscano packages. The boxes are a deep red with white type and colorful artwork. It’s a good look for a cigar that is a little more expensive than the Classico—almost double the price, as a matter of fact. The band is also red and white mostly, using the “SN” logo for the brand.
If you’re like me, you will look at this cigar and not know what end to fire up…even the band doesn’t make it clear. It all made more sense when I learned you could cut the stick in half and puff on either end. The wrapper leaf was dark chocolate brown, rough and really rustic looking, with lumps throughout and not even close to a symmetrical and even shape. Sniffing the wrapper got a pungent fire-cured aroma, notes of hickory and other hard-woods smoking, plus a little earth. The foot of the stick had more of the same.
Cutting the stick in half did have a fantastic effect on the cold draw. Whereas the whole cigar was tight, the half-stick had a good flow of air with flavors of charred wood, red pepper and earth.
Flavor
Getting the halved cigar lit was a little more challenging than the tiny end of the full stick, but I immediately had an excellent draw producing tons of smoke and flavor. While the cold aromas and flavors had classic Kentucky fire-cured written all over them, once the cigar was burning, the smoky flavors were not as intense as I expected. There was a good amount of earth and semi-sweet chocolate, then plenty of hickory and wood, along with a good red pepper flake on the finish. It’s hard to really describe thirds of this short a smoke, so we’ll go with halves. The first half was mildly sweet and spicy with continual punctuations of hardwood smoke.
As the cigar tapered down in the second half, it got more intense, spicier and smokier. There was still a little sweetness in the mix and earth in the background
Construction
I had to touch up the burn line a few times, but the draw was excellent and the ash held on a reasonable amount.
Value
Given that you have a choice between one longer smoke or two shorter ones, and based on the fact that it’s a pretty good flavor either way, I’m going to say these are worth it.
Conclusions
This cigar won’t be for everyone. Some people are just going to be turned off by the whole fire-cured flavor…and that’s a shame. This is a good cigar, combining the best fire-cured leaf from Italy and Kentucky for a smoky, spicy experience that is better, in my opinion, than the KFC from Drew Estate. If you are a fan of those sticks or a fan of fire-cured pipe tobacco, this is a cigar you should try out. I’ll take a second look at it in a few days, along with a whisky I think might just be perfect to go along with it.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10
