This year at the annual IPCPR Show in New Orleans, Toraño introduced the first release in its Single Region Series, the Jalapa. The basic idea is that each cigar in the series, a different one released every year, will contain tobacco that is grown only on farms in a very specific region of the country; so in this case, the Jalapa region in Nicaragua.

From the press release:

The concept highlights the different characteristics of tobaccos grown on individual farms in various regions in the world’s best tobacco-producing countries. Each Serie will feature a blend that is created entirely from tobaccos grown on one carefully selected farm in one particular region. The blend’s flavor and aroma will reflect the influence of the region’s soil, weather and topography.

The Toraño Single Region Jalapa will be released in boxes of 25, and will be available in three different vitolas, priced from $6.50-6.95:

  • Toraño Single Region Jalapa Robusto (5 x 52)
  • Toraño Single Region Jalapa Toro Grande (6 x 54)
  • Toraño Single Region Jalapa Churchill (7 x 50)

Torano Single Region Jalapa 1

The cigar itself is a nice-looking stick, with a red-brown wrapper that is quite firm when squeezed. The wrapper has an interesting bread scent, along with some cinnamon which made me think immediately of cinnamon cookies. The band is fairly boring looking, just red on white for the main band and white on red for the second band. The cold draw brought fairly normal flavors of tobacco and small amounts of pepper.

Torano Single Region Jalapa 2

The dominant flavors in this cigar were leather, chocolate, a sweetness that I could not identify, perhaps maple, a bit of pepper and perhaps some cinnamon on the retrohale. There was some slight spice in the beginning of the smoke, but that quickly faded into the background, never to return.

Torano Single Region Jalapa 3

The flavors did not change much at all from start to finish, and I did get bored with it fairly quickly, although I still nubbed it, of course.

Torano Single Region Jalapa 4

Final Notes:

  • This is an interesting idea for a cigar, a stick that contains tobacco that is grown only on farms in a very specific region of the country. 
  • Perhaps the fact that all of the tobacco came from the same area is one of the reasons that the cigar was lacking in complexity.
  • The draw was a bit tight for the whole cigar, but not bad enough to pitch it. The burn was wonderful, and I never had to touch it up once.
  • Final smoking time was one hour and 15 minutes.
80 Overall Score

I don't know what I was expecting from this cigar, but what I got was just a fairly basic, boring, monotonous blend of Nicaraguan tobacco flavors. Throw in the lack of any significant spice or pepper and the tight draw, and what you have is a very middle of the pack cigar. To be fair, the burn was excellent, and the price on these is an advantage, at just under $7 each, but with so many new and better blends being released for about the same price, I will not be wasting any more time on this cigar.

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Brooks Whittington

I have been smoking cigars for over eight years. A documentary wedding photographer by trade, I spent seven years as a photojournalist for the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star Telegram. I started the cigar blog SmokingStogie in 2008 after realizing that there was a need for a cigar blog with better photographs and more in-depth information about each release. SmokingStogie quickly became one of the more influential cigar blogs on the internet, known for reviewing preproduction, prerelease, rare, extremely hard-to-find and expensive cigars. I am a co-founder of halfwheel and now serve as an editor for halfwheel.