Saga Golden Age - Toro review

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Here we have my second review of the Saga Golden Age line, this time in the 6" x 52 rg Toro size.

Before the fire: The foot has a sweet, musty leather smell. Maybe the sweetness is cedar? I'm not sure. My main exposure to cedar are anti-moth balls or cedar planks, and those are too strong and not pleasant. Maybe after I order my first box of cigars I'll spend a bunch of time sniffing the box :)

The wrapper is toothy, and also has pronounced veins. The color is a pleasant milk chocolate color.

I've gotten in the habit of toasting my cigar before cutting or punching it, but even so I'm surprised to get spice off of the pre-light draw.

Light 'er up!

I get a creamy texture to the smoke, but not a creamy taste. Kind of odd, but not in a bad way.

Tobacco notes start to come in, and at the 1/2" mark, the sweet, musty leather note I smelled on the foot makes its appearance in my mouth.

A few more puffs later and I start to get notes of hay, as well as cream (taste).

1" in and the tobacco notes are moving up the taste hierarchy. I also notice that the taste really coats my mouth and lingers for awhile.

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This cigar also had a pigtail cap, but I used a guillotine cutter, as I don't really trust pigtail caps. In this picture you can see the inside of the pigtail cap, as well as the interesting vertical gold bar on the primary band. It's hard to make out in this picture, but it says "HANDCRAFTED".

As the 1st 1/3rd ends, spiciness makes its appearance and starts to leave a lasting tingle in the back of my throat.

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Look at that ash! Of course, the longest intact ash I've ever had on a cigar falls, hits the lip of my ashtray and onto my foot. Sigh.

Since I'm at the halfway point now, I've noticed that the spiciness is fading a bit, and wood notes are coming in.

I end with about 1.75" left in the cigar, as I'm starting to feel the nicotine buzz shift from "buzzed" to "dizzy".

Total time - 90 minutes

Additional notes: I've been slowing down my draws, but lengthening them, and this has really worked well for me. I think the chemical taste I've mentioned before in posts is a combination of the cherry burning too hot, and my palate getting fatigued. I noticed that if that flavor started coming in I just had to take shorter draws and the other flavors would come back. Eventually I backed off too much and the cigar went out. I can't wait to get my humidor and start keeping my cigars at 65% instead of 69%.

Slowing down has also allowed me to taste more subtleties, but I still can't put a name to most of them. Oh well, this hobby is a journey, not a race!