Jose Blanco’s New Senorial Cigars Are Worth A Try

Jose Blanco has a well established reputation after a long career at La Aurora and a shorter stint at Joya de Nicaragua. Leaving a short retirement, Jose created Las Cumbres Tabaco in 2014 to launch his new Senorial blend, marketed as a full bodied, full flavored cigar. This blend uses Dominican Piloto Cubano and Dominican Corojo fillers with an Esteli Nicaraguan binder, all wrapped by an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper. The brand comes in 5 sizes, from a 5 ¼ X 46 to a 7 X 38. Las Cumbres gave me a Senorial Toro Bravo (6 X 54) at the 2015 IPCPR to review.

The Toro’s band is refreshing – soft colors with a hand brushed appearance and the “Senorial by Jose Blanco” in gold. The cigar itself is better looking than average with an aroma of must. The initial flavor is pepper but that soon gave way to earth and hay. Spice surfaced but remained in the background as buttery cream and then earth again continued to the end. The Toro was complex, never bitter and there was no hint of tar buildup. The draw and ash were very good but the smoke volume was average. I found the Toro to be more medium bodied than full and I enjoyed it for 1 hour and 45 minutes – a long time for a cigar this size. The SRP is $9 and that is about right for this cigar. I rate it a 4 out of 5.