Carlos Torano Signiture Series

**entheomation** · 06-02-2005, 07:43 AM

I am smoking the Carlos Torano Signiture series right now along with my Cappicino. I expected it to be a bit more heavy than the CTE59G but its very smooth and enjoyable so far. Here are some of my notes, Very well constructed. The smooth dark brown wrapper leaves look completely flawless like it was made by a machine. Little veins except one small one going right down the center in perfect harmony with the way the its wrapped together, like feng shui for the tobacco leaf. Initial soft milky taste immediately after light up, not the harshness that i'm use to especially for the first smoke in the morning.

I expected it to be much heavier and bite the tounge but its rather smooth. At first I had a bit of trouble with an uneven burn that was likely the result of my excitement and improper ignitition technique. I quickly solved this with a dab of saliva and another quick flash of a match. This immediatelly remedied it and a beautiful completely symetrical burn devoured it all the way down to where I am at now, which is the last 2-3 inches just. The burn is just meeting the second of the two very classy bands. The bottom most band is a silky smooth white background with a rich gold color beating the Carlos Torano signiture in an elegant cursive text with plain text stating 'Signiture Collection' depicting the particular make of this wonderful cigar. The top band is in the same color scheme with a nice CT logo and a gold castle on a felt green background which created a synergistic dissonance with the contrasting whitish, light grey ash.

As I blow the smoke out through my nose I can taste the distinct flavor of coffee, possibly more so than I have ever tasted it in the past with any other cigar. The smoke begins to ware on my toung a bit and is starting to leave that slight bite of a burning sensation, which usually happens when I start to reach this point on a cigar. Another pass of smoke out through my nose, which rather tickles a bit, is leaving me thinking that this may very well be my new favorite cigar. I do not recall the exact size of this specimen but I believe it may be the robusto or the toro. This cigar was on sale for $3.00 thanks to fathers day coming up. As I peel off the first and largest band of this wonderfull smoke the cigar is starting to reach its end. I believe this smoke is the Signiture series as it truely embodies the spirit of Carlos Torano. Rather than simply smolder and fade out this cigar is dying with the utmost dignity.

I will deffinately have to put this one up to the casa torano and compare as these are a bit cheaper. I smoked the Casa outdoors and the Signiture had the luxury of being consumed in the wee hours of the morning when my virgin pallate is clean from the toxic nicotine free air of the outside world. Poor guy, didn't even get to see his first sunrise. Thanks for letting me review this cigar, I hope I did okay.

Best wishes to all and to all a good smoke,

-entheomation

**PuffTheMagicDragon** · 06-02-2005, 11:18 AM

WOW. I love the Exodus and have a signature in the humi. Now I am VERY excited to try it. I also picked up a Tribute but ended up sending it to a friend. Thanks for the review, you got my mouth watering now.

**entheomation** · 06-09-2005, 09:32 AM

Smoked a second signiture today and it really didnt even come close to impressing me as much as the first one I smoked. At first, I was convinced it could have possibly just been my palate, the taste in mouth (which was for the most part Null) but after cleansing my mouth with first capacino and then a 12 ounces bottle of water, the taste was still the same. Rather dull but in a harsh, uninviting way. Very much different from the original cigar. The construction wasn't as good either. The wrapper even began to peel about 1/2 way through and this cigar was stored in ideal conditions. This particular cigar was from the same box/batch as the original. Are the signitures really this inconsistant or did I just get a bad one? The tobacconist that I have purchased this from is really the last store, out of three local shops, that I would chose to shop with.

Although this particular store is the closest to my home (this is a chain store and the second one I would chose is its sister store which is slightly further from home) there are a few things about it that really turn me off. First off is the employees. Because this is also a cigarette shop they hire Cigarette Ladies. Now there is nothing wrong with Cigarette ladies as my late grandmother is (died from lung cancer, as did her husband) and my mother still is a cigarette lady. These are the older ladies whos skin color resembles that of a tarry used cigarette filter, whos voice is very 'raspy' and smile is delightfully lacking of whiteness (*Specialized Tobacco Toothpaste remedies this well! Do it regularly fellow smokers!).. However, the primary cigarette lady, who regularly runs the store is rather unfriendly despite the fact that I use to shop there regularly, and still do stop in and spend my hard earned miniscule income on their cigars. Which brings us to my next problem, Their inventory.

Now, there fathers day sale is rather nice as they dropped the prices on many of their cigars, but I have noticed and pointed out some rather serious problems with their cigars. One major one was a large amount of Mold growing on the the quantity of three La Vieja Habana boxes. Now, I first noticed this a month before I actually said anything and thought that it could possibly be bloom.. 4 weeks later I come in and the mold has spread to the other boxes and is much more abundant. Their small walk in humidor has a single humidifier, which they placed these open, non-celophaned cigars directly above. I grabbed one of these white as snow sticks and rubbed my finger on the mold to see if it smeared, and it was indeed mold. When I notified the one nice worker, who actually cared enough to step into the humidor and see what I was talking about, she simply aknowledged that it was mold and left. The next time I came in, the cigars where still there, only moved to a different shelf, that was low to the ground and a bit difficult to see. Their selection is poor as are the quality of some of their smokes. But I do occasionally come across something good at a reasonable price.
This doesn't nessessarily concern or effect many of you, despite the fact that a lot of you are from the same area that I am... But I am guessing that these problems with the shop may be the reason of this cigars poor quality, the signiture that is, at least I hope so.

I'm going to smoke my cao italia now and see if it is indeed my palate or not.