[Note: Postscript cigars have been featured on the Stogie Fresh 5 podcast at least 1 year in the past. These reviews will have no scoring, as do most of our reviews, but are intended to revisit the cigars after yet another year of age in the Stogie Fresh humidors.]

The Troya Clasico Toro was first featured in podcast Episode-131 on Sunday, August 24, 2008. These sticks have been resting peacefully in my cabinet humidor and have an extra year of age on them.

A little history on the Troya brand, Troya cigars were made in pre-revolutionary Cuba beginning in 1932 and are in fact still made today as a relatively obscure and hard to find machine made cigar. Despite their rarity they enjoyed a small but devoted following, as evidenced by the fact that they survived the nationalization of the industry when Castro came into power and when many smaller brands were lost. Like the legend of Troy itself, the brand has endured.

In 1985; a California company began production of a cigar for the American market and saw further opportunities for Troya as a brand name. These original Troya cigars were respected and sold well, but like many of the best cigars of that generation, the waxing and waning fortunes in the 90’s Cigar Boom left them battered. But once again, they survived and in 2004 the blend was revamped and another line, the Troya X-Tra was introduced to appeal to those with a penchant for full-bodied cigars.

Then, in a fortunate series of events, Jose "Pepin" Garcia, one of the hottest cigar makers around, was talked into manufacturing the Troya Clasico line for the company, which was introduced to the U. S. market in January of 2007 as a limited edition cigar. The cigar was blended by Don Pepin and is also manufactured at his factory in Estelí, Nicaragua.

The Troya Clasico is a Nicaraguan puro using tobaccos grown in the Jalapá region of Nicaragua. The wrapper is a Corojo Oscuro and sports a binder and filler of Corojo and Criollo. The Clasico comes in three sizes — robusto, Toro and Churchill and is offered in boxes of 20 cigars. The cigar I am revisiting today is the 6-inch by 52 RG Toro.

One thing interesting about this batch of cigars is that they had a box date of May 2007. That is the great thing about Don Pepin Garcia, who regularly puts box dates on cigars that he makes, which is in keeping with his own heritage in the Cuban cigar industry. In any case, what this tells us is that, though these cigars have been in my humidor for a year, they were boxed 2 years and 2 months ago. Now we get a much more accurate picture of their true age.

That said, I fired up a Troya Clasico Toro this past week. This cigar has an interesting flavor profile. During the first ½ inch, I was treated to a very Cubanesque tangy spiciness. It's the same feature that I find in many Cuban cigars. That spiciness is apparent both in the flavor and on the retrohale, where the spice will light up your nasal mucosa like so many fireflies.

With over 2 years of age on these cigars, they are starting to mellow and are currently a medium-bodied smoke with full flavors. Not a really complex smoke, but some very flavorful spicy characters with some wood and leather notes.

The draw and burn were great. I had nothing even close to a burn problem with this stick. The burn line was even, though a bit blistered and the draw was been smooth.

As I got into the second half, there was a lot of sweetness that was emanating from the tobacco. I love the combination of sweet spice that Don Pepin can squeeze out of his blends. Just makes them lip-smacking good.

These are fine cigars, the only problem is that I'm not sure if they're making these any more. I don't know for sure, but if you can get your hands on a box of these, you will enjoy them as they are a classic Don Pepin blend.

~Doc