Toraño Exodus 1959 Gold 20th Anniversary Torpedo

Carlos Toraño cigars have been around for 90 years! Their four generations of family cigar-making tradition began back in 1916 when Don Santiago Toraño emigrated from Spain to Cuba. After the Cuban revolution of 1959, his son Carlos would forever change the tobacco industry by introducing the concept of growing Cuban seed tobacco plants in the Dominican Republic. The seeds he brought from Cuba to the Dominican Republic yield tobacco that is today known as 'Piloto Cubano'—a term you may be familiar with—which we can all enjoy these days due to the instincts of this cigar maestro. Since Carlos' untimely death, his son, Carlos A. Toraño has continued the family business, expanding tobacco-growing to Nicaragua, Mexico and Ecuador, while also bringing Carlos Sr.'s grandson into the trade. Today, the company is the only family cigar business to own and operate cigar factories in each of the leading cigar producing countries (Nicaragua, Honduras and the Dominican Republic).

The Exodus 1959 Gold 20th Anniversary commemorates the mass departure of Cuban cigar families and their impact on the cigar industry after the nationalization of all tobacco farms and cigar factories by the Cuban government in 1959. The Toraños were one of those very important families. The Toraño Exodus Gold 20th Anniversary is filled with creamy notes of earth, cedar, and coffee with hints of chocolate. The taste is medium-to-full-bodied with a sultry Ecuadorian Habana wrapper, accompanied by a complex blend of Nicaraguan and Honduran tobaccos which is held securely in place by a Connecticut Broadleaf. Superbly constructed, enjoy it with a shandy.

The Nicaraguan cigar industry originated when Cuban cigar makers escaped the revolution and re-established their livelihood in Nicaragua with Cuban-seed tobacco. Blessed with dark, rich soil, their new home was ideal for tobacco cultivation and Nicaragua quickly became known for cigars that rivaled Cuban quality. Unfortunately, revolution and war came to Nicaragua in the 1980s and devastated the industry, but it’s rebounded dramatically and is once again producing tobacco considered by many to be the finest in the world.

The Esteli Valley is in many ways the heart of Nicaraguan production and is known for its very powerful and spicy tobacco. The Jalapa Valley produces arguably the finest tobacco in the country: somewhat sweeter and less intense than Esteli, but extremely complex. The tobacco of the Condega Valley is often described as a blend of the other two regions.