I was gratiously given this cigar from Genreal Cigar during IPCPR and I told them I would post a review online, so here it goes.
La Gloria Cubana Artesanos de Miami Campana Chica Torpedo
Size: 5.5x58
Wrapper: Natural Nicaraguan
Filler: Dominican, Nicaraguan
Binder: Ecuadoran Sumatra
Country: Miami, FL USA
Factory: El Credito Cigar Factory
Day/Time smoked: August 14th, 3:00pm
Drink: Coca Cola Classic
Cut: Double Guotine
This cigar is not your typical "torpedo". It is more of a Pyramid shape to me. It has a redish hue wrapper on it with few viens and is not of a "perfect" form. I was told that this was a new shape that a special mold had to be made for this cigar. It is a square pressed pyramid. They had a engineer type of person try to make the mold, with no success. Eventually one of the rollers came up with the idea and it is in process of being patented. Very appealing to the eye in the fact that its not your typical round cigar.
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This cigar lit fairly easily with decent amount of smoke. I cut the cap somewhat short so I didn't get a loose draw, but had to cut a little more because it was too tight at first.
The first third was pretty uneventful and I almost was upset with it. But kept it going. It has typical faint woodsy/toasty note and thats about it. The first inch or so was very mild but had nice, but not strong flavor.
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Once the cigar started to burn into the taper more, during the 2nd third, the wrapper gave more flavor with subtle spice and pepper. I like a little spice, just enough to retrohale it and notice it more that way. The pepper followed when the spice slacked off. This cigar gets alot better into the middle, so don't let the beginning fool you. The burn was kind of funny in a sense that the middle burned slower than the wrapper did. The burn was very even on the outside with no touch-ups ever done to it. Plenty of smoke with an awesome room aroma that is very pleasing to the senses.
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The last third I really took my time with so it would not burn hot or get bitter. I have learned to take the smaller RG cigars slower to avoid a bad bitter hot taste. The wrapper really took over and was good. We talked to the blenders and they said a thinner leaf can give 40-50% of a cigars flavor and a thicker wrapper 50-60%.
Not so much spice or pepper. More of a chocolaty cocoa taste. It started out a little sweetness to it but quickly diapated into a darker cocoa flavor. This i really liked.
The ash stayed tight throught the whole time. It never once fell. A few times I figured it would, but it didn't. The ash had some flakes in it but no big deal.
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Overall a goor cigar! I would deffinately smoke this again and would suggest it to anyone to try. I am a sucker for weird shaped cigars and usually they don't smoke all that well, but this one did just fine.
Good cigar, if I was to give a grade, I would say 89-91 area overall.
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