Appearance
Beautiful chocolate colored wrapper with minimal veins. The seams are tight. The wrapper feels more oily than it looks. It's well packed with filler with no soft spots. The bands are very attractive with great color contrast.
Aroma
Comes without cello so all the aroma has escaped from the wrapper. Earthy, cedar and sweetness at the foot.
Prelight Draw
Earth, spice, black currents, black licorice and cedar.
1st
The initial draws bring big earthy notes with some cedar mixed in. The spice is beginning to develop as I can feel it on my lips and tongue. At 3/4" in some dark espresso notes join the profile with a pinch of black pepper alongside. The ash is salt&pepper gray and stacked with a bit of flake. Burn is spot on so far. Draw is perfect. Strength started at medium but is up a notch to medium+. Ash held strong till removal. Felt like it would have held well into the 2nd/3rd.
2nd
Black pepper spice is more like a dash now. Smoke production is at the low end of high. The finish is long with notes of earth, cedar, espresso, black currents and a dash of black pepper spice. The burn is off a bit due to a small tunnel just under the binder. Warm cinnamon notes join the spice profile tempering the black pepper which was not too prominent but it's always better when cinnamon notes are involved. Smoke production moves to high.
Final/3rd
Strength moves to med/full. The profile is very well balanced. The burn never fully corrected due to a couple small tunnels but didn't affect the smoking experience. The strength was at full by midway in the final/3rd right to the nub.
Overall
The Plasencia Alma Fuerte box pressed Toro provides a very enjoyable smoking experience. A very well balanced and complex flavor profile with a perfect draw and mildly erratic burn.
A Big thank you to my brother Joe @joe_boca for the sample for review.
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