Mi Querida Triqui Traca No. 764

The story of the massive cigar being reviewed today starts with a relatively tiny cigar that was released in mid-2018.

Technically, the story begins in 2016 when Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust released the Mi Querida line, the company’s first cigar to use a Connecticut broadleaf wrapper. After expanding the line in a few different sizes, the company introduced the Mi Querida Firecracker, a 3 1/2 x 50 parejo size with a long pigtail fuse. It was part of Two Guys Smoke Shop’s long-running Firecracker series, where a number of manufacturers have produced cigars in the small size with a long pigtail.

That cigar was described as a tweaked version of the blend that was “frontloaded with ligero.”

In 2019, the company said it was expanding that line in the form of the Mi Querida Triqui Traca, which added a strong Dominican ligero to the otherwise Nicaraguan filler combination.

Then in early 2020, Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust added two new sizes, a 6 x 52 toro and a 7 x 64 gordo extra. That brings the total number of Triqui Traca vitolas to four.

• Mi Querida Triqui Traca No. 552  (5 x 52) — $10.75 (Box of 20, $215)
• Mi Querida Triqui Traca No. 648 (6 x 48) — $11.75 (Box of 20, $235)
• Mi Querida Triqui Traca No. 652 (6 x 52) — $11.95 (Box of 20, $239)
• Mi Querida Triqui Traca No. 764 (7 x 64) — $13.95 (Box of 10, $139.50)

The name Triqui Traca is a reference to a local term in Nicaragua used to describe various types of firecrackers.

• Cigar Reviewed: Mi Querida Triqui Traca No. 764
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: Nicaragua American Cigars S.A.
• Wrapper: U.S.A. (Connecticut Broadleaf)
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Dominican Republic & Nicaragua
• Length: 7 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 64
• Vitola: Gordo Extra
• MSRP: $13.95 (Box of 10, $139.50)
• Release Date: Sept. 24, 2020
• Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

This is a rather large cigar, longer and thicker than the 6 x 60 size that is normally the largest cigar you’ll find in a line, if it is even offered. The wrapper is extremely uniform in color and has fewer veins than many cigars much smaller. The very supple feeling and texture from the wrapper of the gigantic Triqui Traca is something notable. As far as the aroma goes, it’s medium-plus with smells of freshly poured concrete, leather and walnuts. The foot is a bit stronger with lots of chocolate, a bit of leather and a wet mud smell. Cold draws are a reminder that I’m going to be here for a while due to the volume of air, but flavor-wise they deliver cocoa, blueberries and something that reminds me of watered-down Dr. Pepper. One rather interesting sensation is the draw. It’s certainly not tight, but I can tell that I’m not getting airflow all the way through the cigar, something that I imagine is a result of the sheer volume of the vitola.

The Mi Querida Triqui Traca No. 764 starts with lots of bread flavors over leather, chocolate, creaminess and fruitiness. While there’s a ton of smoke production coming from the foot, there’s not much making it into my mouth on the very first puff. Once again, this is one of the quirks of the size. By puff number three, there’s smoke everywhere: in my mouth, coming off the foot, above the ashtray, in front of my face, heading towards the ceiling. Flavor-wise, the first third settles on a mixture of earthiness and creaminess over the base over some leather and cream soda. While there are times in which I get other flavors, none of them seem to stick around for more than a couple puffs and outside of the wet mud sensation, none of them really return during the first third once they disappear. The finish reminds me of my mouth 15 minutes after drinking some cola—back when that was a regular part of my life—some sharp sweetness that has been muted. Beyond that there’s some woodiness, a coffee fruit tea sweetness and a mild amount of pepper. Retrohaling leads to more earthiness, albeit drier now, and burnt butter. While there’s not much in the way of new flavors, there is a velvet-like texture to the smoke that is different than how the smoke feels in the mouth. The finish of the retrohale has oak and creaminess. Flavor is medium-full, body is medium-plus and strength is medium-plus.

More than 90 minutes in and I’m getting close to the midway point. There are two notable changes. First, the cigar is burning much slower than the first third. Second, the sweeter flavors are quickly trailing off. It’s still dominated by earthiness, but given the lack of sweetness, it seems much earthier. The fresh mud flavor is more intense, there are some wet leaves adding a seasonal fall-like flavor and some toastiness. While the creaminess is gone from the initial smoke, it shows up a bit on the finish, joined by some more earthiness and a touch of black pepper. I keep waiting for the black pepper to get more intense, but it never seems to get much further than the starting line. As such, it’s about an hour-and-a-half of lots of earthiness. Retrohaling produces an acorn flavor, more earthiness and some of those wet leaves. Altogether, the profile is medium-full in flavor, medium-plus in body and medium in strength. As is the case with most cigars of this size, construction is excellent. Smoke production is massive. The cigar seems comfortable being puffed every 45 seconds, with me waiting four minutes in between puffs, and everything in between. There are massive inch-long chunks of ash that fall into my ashtray.

For the first inch of the final third, which is right around three inches remaining overall, I’m bored. The profile hasn’t changed much and I’ve had enough earthiness for the week, let alone the day. But as the cigar nears the two-inch mark, things are changing. There’s a mustard flavor that brings some edge, as well as sunflower seeds and white pepper. Those do well to help break up the moronity of earthiness. That being said, if I had to describe the final third in a vacuum, it’s earthiness. The finish is dominated by bread flavors, though there’s some creaminess and sweetness underneath. Retrohaling produces a lot of nuttiness, which is a welcome change to the profile. On one sample, it’s more of a rye whiskey flavor, complete with a bit of pepper to help produce a burn. The finish of the retrohale has acorns, nuttiness and some burnt popcorn. Even a minute after retrohaling it seems like the finish is building, getting richer and richer. That being said, the profile is still medium-full at best, medium in body and medium in strength.

Final Notes

• Almost every cigar I review is lit via one of a handful of single flame torches I keep around. This is one of the rare times when I deviated from that plan and instead opted for the triple flame Colibri Quasar Table Lighter, which is the desktop lighter we keep in the halfwheel lounge.
• This will be a cigar that scores better than I subjectively liked it. At no point was the flavor offensive—rather, it was just boring—and the construction was great throughout. The combination of decent flavor and great construction will score better than cigars with decent flavor and decent construction.
• I loved the dynamic profile of the Mi Querida Firecracker, which is not present in the massive version of the Triqui Traqa. While I think that some of the other Triqui Traca sizes are closer to the Firecracker, to me it’s the size that delivers the dynamics profile the best.
• It’s a bit fascinating to think that this blend started with a 3 1/2 x 50 parejo and now has a 7 x 64. If my math is correct, this is just over three times the size in terms of volume than the Firecracker.
• I also find it an incredible contrast between the confusing names of the Mi Querida line—where this size is called Gran Buffalo—and the simplicity of the Triqui Traca line, which uses the very simple number combination.
• Confusingly, the Gran Buffalo size was originally introduced as the Mas Sucia before the name was changed.
• There has been a second release of the Mi Querida Firecracker, which uses the red bands found on the Triqui Traca line instead of the dark blue bands that were used for the first release.
• While I wouldn’t recommend this cigar to someone with a low nicotine tolerance, I never really felt the effects of the nicotine once I was done smoking. I certainly wouldn’t imagine that would be the case if I smoked a cigar that was three times the size of the Mi Querida Firecracker.
• One interesting part of smoking a cigar this large meant the bands are larger. I was able to see the pattern that is the red background on the band, something I don’t think I’ve ever noticed before.
• Cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.
• Final smoking time ranged a lot. The shortest time to smoke it down to an inch remaining was three hours and 45 minutes. The final sample I smoked took just under four hours and 45 minutes.
• Site sponsors Atlantic Cigar Co. and Famous Smoke Shop carry this cigar.