Guayacan Toro by Noel Rojas
The Guayacan by Noel Rojas has been out on the market for a bit over a year now. They made a good appearance at the 2012 Chatanooga Tweet-up. Noel Rojas has a deep history in the cigar business. Born in Pinar Del Rio, Cuba, he started working in the tobacco fields at the age of 13. After his mandatory military service, he went back to making cigars in which the Cuban Government shut him down for one reason or another. Then, he became an artist and made wooden sculptures from the Guayacan tree. Although he had a license to be an artist, he didn’t have a license to collect the Guayacan wood. Apparently, you need a license to many things in Cuba. After that bust, he left Cuba and headed to the United States to restart his cigar career.
Cigar Stats
Size: 6 1/8 x 52
Vitola: Toro
Wrapper: Habano Ecuador
Binder: Nicaraguan Corojo ’98
Filler: Nicaraguan Corojo ’98
Sizes Available:
Robusto: 5×50. Toro: 6×52. Torpedo: 6 1/8 x 52 Box Pressed Churchill: 7×50
First Looks
This darker brown shaded Equadorian Habano wrapper has a nice look to it. It is nicely complimented by a beautiful band showing a tobacco field farmhouse and nice scroll work along the edges. One of the most beautiful bands I have seen in a good while. The wrapper has a few veins running the length of it. Going back to his Cuban heritage, Noel puts a triple cap atop the cigar. Some people say a triple cap is a play and means nothing. To me, It allows an extra binding on the wrapper to keep it from unraveling as well as more to cut into on the head if needed. The triple cap played its key position as I didn’t get a smooth cut on the cap. The first two caps came off from the irregular cut, but the final cap held strong and maintained the wrapper from unraveling from the head.
The foot has a nice aroma of some straw, fresh cut grass, hints of nutmeg and cinnamon. The cigar as a whole is a solid pack. Not too hard or no soft spots, just a good bunching, binding and rolling job. The wrapper has a faint aroma of earthy dirt-like aromas. With a straight cut clip off the cap, I get a nice, slightly lesser than milkshake thick draw that is pretty much where I like a draw to be at. The cold draw reminds me of a spearmint flavor along with hints of a light straw flavor.
Construction: The room note of the Guayacan reminded me of a seasoned wood burning in a campfire. Very woody, yet somewhat smoky, yet somewhat clean. From a clean and even burn line comes a darker shaded ash. Each dirty white, grey and black ash lasted about an inch and half and never looked to drop on my lap.
Flavor: There is a nice pepper blast as I smoke through the first portions of the cigar. The backend of the smoke has a nice leathery/earthy note that I enjoyed. The finish has a nice creaminess that lingers well, but the peppery spice lingers longer on the tip of my tongue. With about an inch or so of ash, I got hints of vanilla. Approaching the half way point a nice smoky wood flavor comes into play and the pepper blast eased off into the background.
At halfway, there is a little bit of a salty flavor associated with the wood notes. The creaminess now mingles with the pepper and strengthens a slight bit. This cigar is turning out to be a pretty nice smoke. There a hint of a vegetal twang on the finish of the cigar; any stronger and it would have be unfavorable. But it is kept to a lull and easily overlooked.
The final portion of the cigar somewhat maintains the flavors of the middle portion. The wood notes transition into more of a leathery wood note and I like that change. The creaminess still lingers on the long finish of this smoke. At the very end, the pepper from the first portion tries to make a comeback, but never fully does. It has ended in style, it never got bitter or needed any touch-ups on the burn or any relights.
Final Thoughts: This is a nice cigar to enjoy during these cooler fall days. It produced a nice cool smoke that matched the cool afternoon. A nice med-full bodied cigar with notes of pepper, charred wood,slight notes of vanilla here & there and ended with some nice leather notes. It is not overly complex, but complex enough to keep you engaged in the smoke. A nice cigar to keep around. I could smoke this cigar pretty much anytime of the day. Its not too bold for a mid-morning or lunch smoke. I smoked it on a fairly empty stomach and had no nicotine side effects. But, not too light to smoke as a nightcap smoke. I would definitely purchase these and would recommend them.
*This cigar was provided to me, unsolicited, from Gary from Emilio Cigars (distributor of Guayacan), for this review. Many thanks to Gary for the opportunity to review this cigar!
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