El Baton (J.C. Newman) Double Toro Review
I found myself in need of a properly humidified cigar yesterday
night after things got a little out of hand in my humidor. It is nearly impossible to keep the
conditions right with 115 °F highs, lows in the mid 80’s, humidity in the 70%
range and the impossibility of sleeping without the AC running.
Now, I don’t know if you’re smart on weather stuff but when
you take 80 °F air with 70% humidity and drop the temp down past the dew point,
to the humidor 60s, you experience a phenomenon called, “rain.” (Ok, it’s really just condensation dripping
on you from the ceiling.)
I have a dehumidifier but it filled up and automatically
shut off over night so I was afraid to smoke anything from my humidor
as it was trending soggy, hence my emergency trip to the Base Exchange to find
a worthwhile cigar for a nice, evening smoke.
When I walk into a cigar store, if I don’t already have
something specific in mind, you can bet that I’ll come out with something dark
and fat. That is, I like strong, full
bodied cigars with complex flavors.
Yesterday, the first cigar I saw that fit the bill was an El Baton
Double Toro which is distributed by the J.C. Newman cigar company.
Here are a few quick facts about the J.C. Newman Cigar
Company from Wikipedia:
J. C. Newman Cigar Company
Oldest family-owned premium cigar maker in the United States
Dominican Republic
cigars
·
Cuesta-Rey
·
Diamond Crown
·
Diamond Crown Maximus
·
Diamond Crown Julius Caeser
·
La Unica
·
Rigoletto
Honduran cigars
·
Don Jose
·
Trader Jacks
Nicaraguan cigars
·
El Baton
·
Brick House
·
Alcazar
·
Quorum
United States cigars
·
Rigoletto
(The Newmans also distribute the
Arturo Fuente blends but none of the brands above are
Fuente cigars.)
The El Baton line is a Nicaraguan puro
with a dark, corojo wrapper that gives it, in my
opinion, an unrivaled look and feel. The
magic of the corojo seed seems to turn out some of
the highest quality wrappers, whether you’re talking a Nicaraguan crop, a true,
vintage Cuban corojo or a wrapper grown anywhere else
in the central American region. I love the stuff and, from the looks of it,
the torcedore who rolled the cigar did too.
I only drink water when I rate a cigar to be sure that my
pallet is not manipulated by a flavor that didn’t come from the smoke. In this case I wonder if there was something
in the water because after I lit up and settled in, I started to taste things
that I didn’t expect. I tasted sweetness,
black tea, tapioca and apricot with a leathery finish!
Suspecting insanity, I cleansed my pallet, took another slow
puff, considered the long finish and the flavor was
the same! The smoke was cool and drew
easily thanks to a thick, strong ash; voluminous and flavorful with an
excellent bouquet. The complexity in
taste and aroma remained throughout the life of the smoke even as it took on
the right amount of spiciness towards the end.
I was expecting to overpay for a mid-quality, every day
smoke when I bought this El Baton Double Toro but, now, I’m scoring it an 87
and recommending that you try one too.
JDE
