La Colonia Miami Torpedo

The La Colonia Miami Torpedo is one of the vitolas from the inaugural line of cigars launched by La Colonia Cigars. This project is a collaboration being done with the Casa Fernandez / Tabacalera Tropical factory located in Miami, Florida. The La Colonia Miami was blended by famed blender Arsenio Ramos and Casa Fernandez company President Paul Palmer-Fernandez and rolled by the company’s top torcedores. La Colonia Miami is a Nicaraguan puro and incorporates the company’s signature Aganorsa farm tobaccos. Last year, we had an opportunity to sample the La Colonia Miami in the Robusto Extra format and were very impressed. Today we taken a closer look at another vitola, the La Colonia Miami Torpedo.  This is a blend that shines in the torpedo format.

The La Colonia name is a reprise of an old Cuban brand from the 19th century. The branding of the cigar features the slogan “Flor de Aganorsa” and pays homage to those famed Fernandez Aganorsa farms located in Nicaragua.

Without further ado, let’s take a closer look at the La Colonia Miami Torpedo and see what this cigar brings to the table.

Blend Profile

As mentioned above, the La Colonia Miami is an all Nicaraguan puro. The blend features 5 to 7 year Aganorsa farm tobacco.

Wrapper: Nicaraguan
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Country of Origin: United States (Tabacalera Tropical / Casa Fernandez Miami)

Vitolas Available

The La Colonia Miami line was been launched in four sizes.  A lancero has recently been added to the line.

Corona: 5 x 44
Robusto Extra: 5 1/2 x 50
Toro: 6 x 52
Torpedo: 6 1/8 x 52
Lancero: 7 1/2 x 40

Appearance

The La Colonia Miami Torpedo has a medium brown wrapper. There is some subtle darker marbling that can be seen on the surface. The surface of the wrapper also has a light oil coat on it. There are some visible veins while most of the wrapper seams are well hidden.  There is a gentle tapering on the tip of the cigar.

The band has a black, burnt red, gold, and silver color scheme. The text “La Colonia” is in a dull gold script sitting on a black oval. There is a burnt red oval ring with silver trim surrounding the black oval. On the top of the ring is the text “FLOR DE AGANORSA” in dull gold font while the text “MIAMI” on the bottom of the ring – also in gold font. The remainder of the band is black with gold trim. On the right side of the band is a red rectangular shape with silver trim. On that rectangular field is the text “AR LC PP” in gold font.

Preparation for the Cigar Experience

I started things with a straight cut to remove the tip of the La Colonia Miami Torpedo. I removed less than half of the tip so that I could still get a good effect of the tapering this cigar had to offer. The cold draw provided some notes of natural tobacco, wood, and a very subtle spearmint flavor. Overall I considered to be a satisfactory pre-light draw. At this point I was ready to light up my La Colonia Miami Torpedo and see what the smoking phase would have in store.

Flavor Profile

The La Colonia Miami Torpedo picked up right where the pre-light draw left off as I picked up notes of wood, white pepper, and some of that spearmint note. As the flavor profile took form, the wood and spearmint transitioned to notes of natural tobacco and cedar. The retro-hale had more of a classic black pepper note.

As the cedar, pepper, and natural tobacco remained in the forefront, the signature flavor of the La Colonia Miami surfaced – namely the chocolate egg cream note. This was a background flavor early on.  By the later part of the first third, this flavor moved to the forefront.

The second third, saw the cedar notes return to the forefront – joining the egg cream notes.The pepper and natural tobacco notes remained in the background. Some of the chocolate qualities from the egg cream note surfaced in the background as well.

The last third saw the pepper notes also return to the forefront joining the cedar. The egg cream, chocolate and natural tobacco remained in the background.  This is the way the flavor profile held until the end. The resulting nub was cool in temperature and firm to the touch.

Burn and Draw

Overall I found the La Colonia Miami Torpedo to be well constructed and it performed quite well when it came to burn and draw.  From a burn perspective, I found this cigar to burn in a straight path. There was some jaggedness early on with the burn, but after a few touch-ups, I found the jaggedness diminished.  The resulting ash was white in color.  I found this to be a firm ash that came off the cigar in nice clean chunks.  There was some minor flaking along the way, but again nothing to be concerned about.  The burn rate and burn temperature were ideal.

Burn of La Colonia Miami Torpedo

The draw was outstanding to this torpedo.  It performed as well as any parejo with the added bonus of getting the tapering effect during the smoking experience.  The draw was not too loose not too tight. It produced an ample amount of smoke along the way.

Strength and Body

In terms of strength and body, I found the La Colonia Miami Torpedo to pretty much be in the same wheelhouse as when I smoked the La Colonia Miami Robusto Extra.   The cigar starts out medium to full in both strength and body. Both attributes increase in intensity and by the last third, I found this cigar to be full strength, full-bodied. The Torpedo seemed to do a great job at balancing both strength and body throughout the smoking experience.

Final Thoughts

Back in June, when we assessed the La Colonia Miami Robusto Extra, I noted the La Colonia was a brand worth keeping an eye on.  Smoking the Torpedo only underscored that statement in my book. When a Torpedo can deliver a performance as good or better than its a parejo counterpart, it is worth a lot in my book. There should be no surprise at how the La Colonia Miami blend delivers. This cigar line is using some excellent raw materials (Aganorsa tobacco) and being produced by the factory that captured our 2014 Factory of the Year award (Casa Fernandez).

The nice thing is there are enough subtle differences with the Robusto Extra and the Torpedo to make a difference in the two cigar experiences. This nice thing is both provide great options. I found La Colonia Miami Torpedo concentrated the spice a little more – and it worked beautifully on this blend. I’d probably still steer this to a more seasoned enthusiast. As for myself, this is an outstanding vitola in the La Colonia Miami line – and its one certainly worth of a box worthy smoke.