Hoyo de Monterrey Hoyo de Tradición Toro

Country of Origin: Honduras
Length: 6"
Ring Gauge: 52
Wrapper: Honduran
Binder: Connecticut
Filler: Dominican, Honduran, Nicaraguan

Info: For over 100 years, Hoyo de Monterrey has been a favorite in palaces in Europe and political backrooms in Washington, at poolside in Hollywood and backside Broadway. But it is more than the cigar of princes and presidents or movie stars and impressarios. Hoyo de Monterrey is the cigar for anyone who appreciates real cigar flavor. The hallmark of Hoyo de Monterrey is its very sweet and aromatic tobacco blends, which have been favored by generations of smokers.

Hoyo de Tradicion pays homage to Hoyo's traditional taste in a new iteration created with a unique blend of tobaccos from around the world. Its wrapper, a Viso Rosado leaf from Honduras' famed Jamastran Valley, has been combined with a Habano Connecticut binder and a blend of sweet Nicaraguan, Honduran, and Dominican filler tobaccos to create a special aroma and refined sweetness that ushers in a new tradition of smoking pleasure.

Whether you consider it a new tradition or the continuation of an old one, Hoyo de Tradicion represents uniqueness in taste and style that transcends time.

Appearance: Though a bit rustic looking, this was overall a rather nice looking stick. Medium brown, and evenly colored, there were no prominent veins or discolorations. The wrapper was smooth and visibly and tactilely oily, generally looking like a good cigar to smoke.

Pre-Light: A quick pre light sniff revealed notes of a distinctly nutty nature. Clip was easy and the pre light draw consisted of more light nutty notes and some earthiness.

Burn/Draw: The cigar lit easily. The burn line on this cigar, while never perfect, never wandered far enough to be a real issue, and corrected itself most of the time. One or two minor touch ups were needed, but nothing major. The draw on this cigar was free and easy producing cool billows of rich round smoke. The ash was pretty uniform in color and rather light grey.

Flavor: I would like to start off by mentioning this is a decidedly medium strength, medium bodied cigar. Those out their looking for only ass kickers might want to move along. That said it is a flavorful, if a bit simple, and well balanced cigar. It really doesn't develop a whole lot throughout the duration of the stick, but the flavors it does have seem to suit it. There is an undertone of earthiness, and a beautiful nuttiness I seem to find in the non Cuban Hoyos that I like was here as well. The third thing that was most prominent was some woodiness. There was a little peppery spiciness and the very beginning and end of the cigar but mostly the flavors described above. Overall this seems like a very reasonably priced and decently flavorful everyday style smoke. It succeeded in making my mouth water. I suggest giving one a try.

TomC