Mid April I saw a Facebook post by my friend Barry Stein, announcing the return of Kilo. Knowing Barry for a few years and with an upcoming trip to Nicaragua two weeks later I decided to shoot Barry a message and ask him who’s making the cigars. All Barry would tell me they were made in Esteli, but when I told him I would be there soon he made me swear secrecy and told me Noel Rojas from Guayacan cigars was making them. I shot Noel an email and we made an appointment in Esteli.

Noel showed me his factory and gave me a pack of 10 Kilo Toros, funny detail, I saw the cigars with bands even before Barry did. Noel is a great host, with a nice factory, good cigars and some innovative ideas. I need to try more of his cigars.


Now the cigar, the dark wrapper feels silky and has a few thin veins, the band is simple but stylish and due to the gold it will pop in the humidor. The cigar has a pretty strong hay aroma. The predraw is flawless with hints of raisin and white pepper. I can’t feel any construction errors.

First flavor I get is a strong taste of toasted coffee beans with soon herbs too. After a centimeter I taste oak with the said herbal flavors. After an inch I mainly taste woody flavors. After a third the cigar gets a bit dry, so I have to take a few sips of my rum & coke.

The flavor doesn’t change much, except the herbs make place for a mild toasty taste and pepper. Halfway I get some spices too. After that the flavor doesn’t change much, but who cares? I like what I taste. The spices like nutmeg and cinnamon slowly get a bit stronger. At the end the woody flavors are the strongest.

The smoke is white and pretty thick. The draw is flawless. The ash is white and but not so firm, so it breaks quickly. The burn is pretty straight. The color of the ash keeps surprising me, it might be the whitest ash I’ve ever seen. The cigar is full flavored but medium in strength. It took me one hour and 40 pleasant minutes.

Would I buy this again? Yes, and i would love to try other vitolas too. And it makes me curious about other cigars from Noel’s factory.

Appearance: 8
Construction: 9
Draw: 9
Burn: 8
Smoke & ash: 8
Aroma first part: 7
Aroma second part: 8
Aroma third part: 8

(pictures on my blog, too lazy to copy them)
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