Toraño Exodus 1959 Silver Torpedo

Rounding out Carlos Toraño’s extremely successful Exodus 1959 series is the Silver Edition. This premium 100% long-filler, handmade cigar honors the Cuban cigar families who escaped Castro’s takeover of their lands and factories in 1959. Its well-aged filler combination of Costa Rican, Honduran and Mexican tobaccos is held together by a Costa Rican binder, then encased in a handsome Honduran Criollo ‘98 wrapper. Look for a moderately oily sheen on this firm and substantial cigar. We found it burned evenly to the very end and never needed relighting. We also found this medium-to-full-bodied smoke notably smooth. So did Cigar Aficionado, who rated it an impressive 92. Look for substantial spice in the flavor, with notes of black pepper, leather, cedar and undertones of nuts in this complex smoke. We found the finish spicy and the tobacco flavor prominent. We recommend pairing it with a cappuccino and a brisk 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.