The La Gran Fuma toro (6 x 54) was the second of a two cigar smoke comparison. The first was the La Campina corona, which got high praise. I lit up the toro with high hopes. It had a darker wrapper and I was hoping to get a full-flavored, complex smoke.

Because of the large ring gauge, I used my punch keyring to cut a hole in the head of the cigar. The pre-draw seemed a bit tight, but I decided to light it up anyway. The cigar lit with fair ease, but after the first few puffs, my fears of a tight draw were confirmed. I used my twin blade cutter to snip of the cap entirely and tried again. It was not much improved, but I decided to give the cigar a chance.

The taste was surprisingly low, giving off a faint hint of coffee and a fair amount of nut. Unfortunately, the draw was so tight that it was very difficult to get a good amount of smoke. After an inch or so of smoking, my jaws were beginning to tire from the mere act of pulling in the smoke.

The burn was pretty good and the cigar looked nice, except for a few dark spots on the wrapper, but the smoking experience was simply too much work. It burned so cool that I had to continually puff to keep it going and this only contributed to the ache in my jaws.

Finally, after about two inches I called it quits and doused the cigar with water to put it out. I have a couple more of this cigar and I think I’ll set one outside the humidor for a few days to let it dry out a little on the off-chance that it was simply to moist to burn properly. It’s an unfortunate situation, because I think the smoke would be pleasant if you weren’t exhausted afterwards. For that reason I’m going to give it three stars. If the second proves to be as bad, I’ll downgrade it to two, but at least I can say I gave it a fair shake.

Good Points

• Aesthically pleasing
• Good burn

Bad Points

• Low smoke volume
• Weak taste
• Tight draw