Carlos Toraño Loyal Torpedo

The Toraño family has been around for over ninety years making some of the most luxurious cigars. It all started in 1916 when Don Santiago Toraño immigrated to Cuba from Spain. He immediately started working with the tobacco leaf and became a broker for the prized crop. His growing family all became involved with the tobacco and eventually became one of the most well known and respected growers of the Cuban tobacco leaf, owning over 17 farms. One of Don Santiago’s sons, Carlos Toraño, took his knowledge and passion for the tobacco leaf to the Dominican Republic where he is credited as one of the driving forces of the country’s tobacco growing industry. The Carlos Toraño cigar lines have all been highly rated, achieving scores consistently in the high 80’s and low 90’s in Cigar Aficionado, Smoke and other industry trade magazines.

Debuting at the 2011 IPCPR (International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers) Show in Las Vegas, the Loyal is yet another great addition to the Toraño family of cigars. When released, the current president of Toraño Family Cigars, Charlie Toraño, said, “Our new brand, Loyal, is dedicated to my father’s long standing commitment to provide exceptional quality cigars without breaking the bank. To him cigars were never a far reaching luxury, but one of life’s simple pleasures.” The Loyal starts with aged long-fillers from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic, encased with a Nicaraguan binder, and wrapped in a very toothy and very oily Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper. Once rolled, the cigars are then put down for another nap in the Toraño vaults. Medium-bodied, you can expect a spicy start with core flavors of coffee, earth, and sweet tobacco. Pair it with a Belgian Triple on a spring afternoon.

Honduras has been a tobacco growing and cigar manufacturing area for hundreds of years, but it was the Communist revolution in Cuba that really put Honduras on the map. In the 1960s, many Cuban cigar makers fled their homeland and arrived in Honduras to re-establish their way of life. The immigrants took advantage of the climate, soil, and geography, which were well-suited to tobacco growing, and began producing high quality cigars. The center of the Honduran cigar industry is the city of Danli and the nearby Jamastran Valley. The majority of the world’s pure Corojo tobacco is grown here, now that Cuba has stopped production of this iconic, spicy, and rich variety in favor of Corojo hybrids. Other important areas of Honduran cigar production include the Talanga Valley, Copan, and Trojes.