La Differencia Cubana Torpedo Cigar Review

Posted in Cigar Reviews | 0 comments

Had a little down time tonight, and figured I’d get in a quick smoke. I grabbed one of the La Differencia Cubana Torpedos I won on CigarBid.com. Let me preface this review by saying that the sole reason I picked up these smokes was because of their cost ($7 for a 5pk) and because of this favorable review: http://cigars.about.com/od/drmitchfade1/fr/ladiferencia.htm. I don’t  know if they have changed the blend since that review, but while I thought I was in for a nice surprise, this turned out to be one of my all-time least favorite smokes. Anyways, on with the review.

Pre-light:

The cigar looks okay ascetically. The pre-light aroma was a very strong “barnyard” scent, and actually smelled a lot like manure. I guess I should have taken this as a warning. I proceeded to clip the cigar, which was easy because of the torpedo shape. The cap/wrapper did start to unravel a little bit, but once I took a few puffs it stayed in place.

First Third:

It lit easily with my Ronson Jet-Lite, and produced a good amount of smoke. The draw was a little too loose, but not that terrible. Now, onto the flavors. The initial flavor was a nice woody tobacco, but that quickly faded to a burnt charcoal. It literally tasted as if I was licking a piece of charcoal/badly burnt meat. The problem was that this charcoal flavor lingered long after the tobacco flavor did. I made sure to smoke slowly, and while  the smoke was definitely cool, the terrible burnt flavor continued. I got about 3/4″ into it, stopped to take a quick picture, and when I picked it up to take another puff,  the ash fell off right into my lap.

Second Third:

I continued to puff away at the cigar, but continued to get the heavy charcoal flavor. I kept spitting to get the flavor out of my mouth, but it stayed. I really wanted to like this cigar because of the price point, but unfortunately it wasn’t getting any better. The cigar ended up going out about 2″ into it, and I just left it. I have four of these left, and will probably revisit them, but definitely not anytime soon. I might end up giving these to people that come over to smoke, and really don’t care what they are smoking as long as they are smoking something. Maybe they could do with a little bit of age. Maybe the flavor gets better further into the cigar. Maybe it just sucks. We’ll see.

Verdict:

Like it: Not at all.

Smoke it again: Only to give it another chance.

Recommend it: Not at this point.