Lampert 1593 Edición Blanca Toro

First there was Edición Azul, then Edición Rojo and now Edición Blanca. Intentional or not, Lampert Cigars now has red, white and blue lines.

Earlier this summer, Lampert Cigars announced a number of new releases, many of which are slated to only go to a select group of retailers. For the moment, the new Edición Blanca is only available at one retailer—SmallBatchCigars.com, the online storefront of MAXAMAR Ultimate Cigars in Orange, Calif.—though that is because of a soft launch. Lampert will release the cigar to other stores in January.

As for the cigar, it debuted in a 6 x 52 toro size that uses a two-year-old Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper over a three-year-old Dominican binder and fillers that have been aged for three-to-five years. It is being made at Julián Sued & Compañía in Tamboril, Dominican Republic, which is the first time the company has released a cigar from this factory.

There’s also a 3 3/4 x 52 short robusto size that will be sold exclusively in Europe.

“We have had a wonderful relationship with the Maxamar/Small Batch team and wanted to treat their customers to a sneak peek of sorts,” said Dr. Stefan Lampert, founder of Lampert Cigars, in a press release in June. “We have finalized the blend after last year’s PCA and the cigars have been put into production shortly after, so they have had plenty of time to rest before release.”

• Cigar Reviewed: Lampert 1593 Edición Blanca Toro
• Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
• Factory: Julián Sued & Compañía
• Wrapper: Ecuador (Connecticut)
• Binder: Dominican Republic
• Filler: Dominican Republic
• Length: 6 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 52
• Vitola: Toro
• MSRP: $15 (Box of 10, $150)
• Release Date: June 2022
• Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

The first thing I notice about the Lampert 1593 Edición Blanca Toro is that the bands are a bit more detailed than I recall from past Lampert releases. In particular, the dragon-like characters on the sides of the bands are very well done. As far as the wrapper, it has a fair amount of red hues breaking through the brown color and the visible texture looks a bit like a heavy parchment paper, though it doesn’t feel like that when I run my fingers over it. There are some sharp veins that are very pronounced and I notice discoloration around the caps on two cigars. All three cigars feel very firm, which gives me a bit of concern. Aroma-wise, the wrapper smells like milk chocolate with barnyard, leather and earthiness serving as secondary notes. The foot is slightly more intense, around medium-plus, with chocolate, floral flavors, artificial cherries and something that reminds me of the smell of paint. Cold draws are a bit tight with meatiness, bread, leather, sweet cocoa, oak and lime—everything is balanced and the overall profile is slightly sweet.

Leather and earthiness are the first two flavors to hit my palate, followed by some peanut shells, burnt toast and a touch of mineral flavors. Unlike the cold draw, each flavor is isolated and it’s pretty easy to identify them. The draw is slightly tight on all three cigars and it seems to be affecting the burn rate as it takes me about an hour to get through the first two inches. Flavor-wise, there are cashews, hay and earthiness leading the profile over some creaminess and a bit of a tart flavor. Everything seems muted, something that could also be related to the firmness of the cigar. The Lampert 1593 Edición Blanco finishes with bread, cashews, lemongrass, some earthiness and a touch of harshness. I find the finish to be noticeably milder than the main flavor. Retrohales have different types of nuttiness, herbal flavors, something that reminds me of a very ketchup-based barbecue sauce and white pepper. They tend to be medium-full and a lot more interesting than when I don’t try to push the smoke through my nose. The finish is more bitter with a generic nuttiness and earthiness over some leather and black pepper. Overall, flavor is medium-plus, body is medium and strength is medium. All three cigars need at least one touch-up to help with smoke production, though the ash itself is burning evenly.

For better and worse, the pace the cigar is burning at remains very consistent, so it takes nearly another hour before the second third comes to an end. Flavor-wise, a roux-like creaminess is emerging as the main flavor, slightly edging out some dry crackers. Underneath those two flavors are walnuts and some semi-sweet creaminess. The finish has hay, more of the roux flavor, the sweeter creaminess and touches of white pepper. Retrohales deliver lots of generic bread flavors along with leather and white pepper. Once the smoke leaves my nose, I find a much more interesting mixture of cinnamon, a vibrant nutty flavor, some of the roux flavor, floral flavors and some dryness. Flavor picks up to medium-full, though some parts of it, such as the retrohale’s finish, tend to be milder, while body is medium and strength is medium. Around the halfway mark, the smoke production begins to recede and I end up making two touch-ups for smoke production on the cigars I smoke.

The Lampert 1593 Edición Blanca Toro keeps the roux flavor for the final third, though nuttiness is now the strongest flavor. Like before, two flavors are stronger than the rest, the list of which includes lavender, earthiness and some sharpness. The finish has earthiness, a toastiness that reminds me more of a campfire than of burnt bread, leather, saltiness and bits of white pepper. Retrohales have nuttiness over earthiness and leather. Those three flavors remain part of the finish, though there’s some added black pepper and lemon flavors to make things a bit more interesting. Flavor is full, body is medium-full and strength is medium. The smoke production continues to decline, which leads to an increased rate of touch-ups to help keep the cigar lit until the end.

Final Notes

• From a color perspective, I would not have guessed these wrappers would be listed as Ecuadorian Connecticut.
• All three cigars showed multiple signs of having too much tobacco in them. The cigars were firm to the touch, the draws were tighter than the normal, smoke production was an issue and I regularly felt like I wasn’t able to taste all of the flavor profile. There could be other reasons for all of these things, but too much tobacco in the bunch would explain all of these.
• Given Lampert’s comments that these cigars were put into production after the 2021 PCA Convention Trade Show, which took place in July, I think this really highlights that aging a cigar can fix some problems but will be completely ineffective at fixing some things, like too much tobacco in the bunch.
• After I finished smoking the first cigar, I noticed a small amount of tar on the cap of the cigar. I hadn’t noticed this while smoking the cigar because I didn’t taste any of the tar-like flavors. I’m not sure where it emerged, but it wasn’t enough to affect the flavor profile.
• For what it’s worth, I found that cigar—particularly in the first third—to be sharper than most cigars, including the other two cigars I smoked.
• There are very few cigars that I smoke where the four different flavor areas we mention—the smoke in the mouth, the finish after that, the retrohale, the finish after the retrohale—were at consistently different intensity levels.
• At last month’s 2022 PCA Convention & Trade Show, Lampert showed off new packaging that took advantage of the different colors used for the names of some of its lines. For example, the Edición Rojo comes in bright red boxes and the Edición Azul is moving to a similar box design in blue.
• When I first learned about Lampert, it was relying on Omar Ortez’s factory in Condega, Nicaragua for most, if not all of its production. This year alone, the company has announced new products made at Julián Sued & Compañía, the Kelner Boutique Factory and Tabacos de Costa Rica.
• While still quite rare, these lengthy exclusivity times for new products are becoming more and more popular, particularly for smaller companies. For example, Patoro did a similar concept with its Terre Blanche line.
• Cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.
• Final smoking time was two hours and 30 minutes on average. This really was dependent on how far into the final third I wanted to smoke. Each cigar consistently took two hours to get to what I would consider the start of the final third.
• As of now, the only place to purchase the cigars is SmallBatchCigar.com.