Oscar Valladares McFly Toro

I am the least qualified of our reviewers to talk about “Back to the Future.”

Normally, that wouldn’t matter at all, but in the case of today’s review, the intro would be a lot different if I was around in the 1980s. By the time I got familiar with “Back to the Future,” it was an old movie with a DeLorean, and given my interest in cars as a child, that’s how I identified the movie. Obviously, there’s a lot more to the movie that brought the world Marty McFly and Doc Brown than a failed car brand.

In case you couldn’t put two and two together, today’s review is inspired by the film. It’s the second cigar—after the Super Fly—introduced by Oscar Valladares Tobacco & Co. to be inspired by a film. Like with the Super Fly, it’s not just the name that makes the inspiration clear. Once again, the packaging also makes the connection quite clear.

 

In this case, the packaging attempts to recreate the holographic elements that gained popularity in the 1980s. While tough to pick up in pictures, the appearance of the box changes depending on both the angle you look at it and the angle that the light hits the box.

As for the cigar, it uses a Mexican wrapper over a Honduran binder and fillers from the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Nicaragua. When the company showed off the cigar last year, it announced three initial sizes.

• Oscar Valladares McFly Toro (6 x 52) — $11.50 (Box of 20, $230)
• Oscar Valladares McFly Churchill (7 x 48) — $12 (Box of 20, $240)
• Oscar Valladares McFly Sixty (6 x 60) — $12.50 (Box of 20, $250)

• Cigar Reviewed: Oscar Valladares McFly Toro
• Country of Origin: Honduras
• Factory: Oscar Valladares Tobacco & Co.
• Wrapper: Mexico
• Binder: Honduras
• Filler: Dominican Republic, Honduras & Nicaragua
• Length: 6 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 52
• Vitola: Toro
• MSRP: $11.50 (Box of 20, $230)
• Release Date: October 2021
• Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

While not completely hidden, it’s tough to get a sense of the cigar’s appearance with its two bands still attached. Once the secondary band is removed, the picture becomes a lot clearer. The wrapper has a sandpaper appearance thanks to a general lack of oils, though it’s not the prettiest-looking cigar. There are a few obvious veins that have some darker colors, which can get a bit distracting if I stare at them for a few seconds. The brushed foot—something that isn’t entirely obvious with the secondary band attached—extends about a third of an inch from where the wrapper ends. One sample is quite firm, though the other two are pretty normal from a firmness perspective. The wrapper has some sugary sweetness—almost like a sugar candy—but also something that reminds me of the aroma of a plain pizza sauce thanks to a sweet tomato flavor. One sample also smells a bit like the smell of paste. The foot’s aroma is more like that initial sensation, a sweet sugar candy aroma along with some floral hints, cedar and black pepper. Cold draws only intensify the candy and floral flavors, though there’s some lemonade-like citrus as well.

Despite all of the candy and floral flavors I found before lighting up the cigar, it does not start all that sweet. It’s a medium-full mixture of cedar, earthiness and smaller amounts of creaminess and nuttiness. On one sample, the cedar and nuttiness are both more dominant and more vibrant than the other two. Regardless of the start, the first third is led by earthiness. From there, the starts diverge quite a bit. Two cigars have the earthiness accented by black and white pepper with hints of nuttiness and creaminess. The other cigar has a much more vibrant nuttiness that combines with some creaminess. Those differences only get extended on the finish: two cigars have a gritty earthiness over black pepper; the other cigar is peanut butter leading some charred flavors and a lingering black pepper. Two cigars have earthiness, a building red pepper and grittiness while retrohaling, the other cigar tastes like peanut butter, though it’s oddly not as rich as the main flavor. Despite the profile, the retrohales more or less finish the same, a bit more charred than when the smoke is in the nostrils, but otherwise quite similar. Flavor is medium-full, body is medium-plus and strength is medium to medium-plus. Construction is great on all three cigars.

All three cigars see an uptick in nuttiness during the second third of the McFly Toro, but the starting points matter a lot. The two earthier samples see the nuttiness just edge out the earthiness, followed by secondary flavors of cedar and black pepper. The nuttier sample has turned into a full-on peanut butter profile with meatiness, cedar and white pepper serving as secondary flavors. Retrohales are pretty similar on all three cigars: earthiness over meatiness, herbal flavors, creaminess and touches of citrus. The finish is even more herbal with nuttiness, burnt butter and a new car smell-like sensation. All three cigars have a building pepper that keeps building for nearly a half-minute after each retrohale. Flavor is full, body is medium-full and strength is medium-plus. Two cigars need touch-ups to help with smoke production during the second third, one cigar is burning flawlessly.

The outlier sample led by nuttiness is a bit of a hybrid between its first and second third. It’s still more peanut butter than nutty, but it’s not as rich as it was in the second third. That being said, it’s still a dominant nutty profile that easily outdoes the earthiness and pepper. On the other two, three flavors—nuttiness, meatiness and earthiness—battle for the top spot, never settling on a clear leader. Behind that, there’s oak, black pepper, herbal touches and some creaminess. The finish of the McFly has meatiness over nuttiness, charred earth and herbal flavors. Some retrohales fail to register much of a difference from the flavors I pick up when the smoke is solely in my mouth, but there are times when I can taste some added mineral flavors joining the nuttiness and meatiness. The finish has a sharper white pepper and a bit more herbal flavors, though it’s pretty similar to the rest of the profile, just a tad bit grittier. Flavor is medium-full to full, body is medium-full and strength is knocking on the door of medium-full by the end. One cigar needs touch-ups in the final third, but the other two make it through the final third without any issues.

Final Notes

• The Oscar Valladares McFly finished eighth on halfwheel’s Packaging Top 10 for 2021. It’s a well-deserved finish for a pretty creative concept.
• There might not be a company with a portfolio that has more interesting packaging top to bottom than Oscar Valladares Tobacco & Co. There’s nothing the company sells that comes in plain-looking packaging.
• It’s pretty rare to see a box with this shape—a wider 20-count box—that uses a sliding lid. I’m sure there are other examples, but my mind has been trained to believe that this box should have a hinge to the point where each time I went to grab a cigar from the box, I tried to open it like the lid was on a hinge.
• While the front of the band looks like it has glitter on it, it doesn’t. I’m quite thankful that glitter wasn’t used as that seems like something that would be quite messy.
• In Patrick Lagreid’s most recent review, he mentioned how easy the bands were to remove thanks to the application—and possibly the composition—of the glue. That is not the case on the McFly where the bands were very difficult to remove without tearing the paper.
• I am quite curious to see where this series goes. Is a 1990s movie next? Does the cigar need to use the word “fly” in it? Personally, I think there’s a pretty good opportunity for a “Jaws” cigar.
• This is a classic case of why smoking three cigars is important. Two of the three cigars tasted quite similar, but there was a clear outlier. In this case, I enjoyed the outlier a bit more than the other two, though if you don’t like a nutty profile then your opinion would probably be quite different.
• Cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.
• Final smoking time varied from two hours and 10 minutes to two and a half hours.
• Site sponsors Atlantic Cigar Co., Famous Smoke Shop and JR Cigar carry the Oscar Valladares McFly Toro.