Adventure at the bottom of the barrel . .Al Capone Toro

Here's a stick that may only be of interest to our Kansas City BOTL. I was scrounging around along the floor of the humidor at Red-X in Riverside last week and found a closeout deal on all their Al Capone cigars; $1.59 each. Knowing nothing about them other than they looked halfway decent for the price, I grabbed a Toro.

Turns out, Al Capone is a brand started by a German cigarillo company in 1996 and made in Esteli, Nicaragua. There was a lot of complete crap passing for cigars in the 90's as anybody could make money selling just about anything during the "boom." Predictably, the Al Capone brand still exists but only in cigarillo sizes. Their full size cigars are apparently discontinued as I can find NONE available anywhere else but Red-X in Riverside. Maybe that's good for us, maybe not. Lets see . .

Contents: Nicaragua
Wrapper: Brazil
Size: Toro 6x50
Body: Mild-Medium
Acquired From: Red-X in Riverside
Price: $1.59
Smoke Time: 1.5 hours

This is not a beautiful cigar. The wrapper is course, lumpy and veiny and the construction is mediocre at best. It almost looks like something I might have rolled (and I know NOTHING about rolling cigars)!

After a difficult time getting it lit the cigar began to produce a pleasant, sweet coco flavor along with something I later decided tasted and smelled like oatmeal. It wasn't bad, just weird. The draw was near perfect but the burn was wavy and required a couple corrections. All this turned around after the first inch or so, though. It started burning evenly and the flavors moved out of the coco-oats profile and went solidly into mild creamy, coffee with a much more cigar-like aroma. The burn was slow and even leaving a firm white/grey ash.

By the second third I was becoming even more pleased with this cigar. No complex flavor changes but no problems, either.

Beginning the last third the burn hit something awful tasting. Strong bitterness and a difficult burn went on for about three minutes. After it cooked through whatever it was (dried bug?) we were back on track again with pleasant flavors and steady, slow burn. When it reached the 1.5-inch mark, I was done with it as the flavors had gone irretrievably sour.

In all, not bad for the price, but I'd be skeptical of a similar experience with another stick. Consistency is not likely at the "bottom of the box" condition you'll find these in.


Would I smoke this cigar again? No
Would I recommend this cigar? Sure, if you seek adventure.