Talamanca Cigars from Costa Rica

A couple of months ago I received a package from Costa Rica containing a nicely presented sampler from a cigar maker called Talamanca Cigars. I don’t have a lot of information on their webpage, which is a shame, as it looks like they tried to make a modern and visually appealing website, but it really has no substance. I like to see the blend information on each cigar, not just a picture and price. Many of the embedded links don’t seem to work either. It looks like they sell direct to consumer, however with little more than a size and strength listed, I’d be hesitant to buy without more details. The sampler they sent contained a representation of their offerings, with two of a couple of the styles, in a nicely labeled box. The one problem I found is that four of the cigars are the same size, and once a cigar is removed, the rest shift around, no longer lining up with the labels. With a little help from Attila, the guy who contacted me and sent the cigars, I think I got them lined up right, as the wrapper shades are very close. It was short-sighted of me to not take a photo of the sampler before I started smoking the cigars, but the two I smoked when I took this picture were distinctive, a 6.1″ x 52 torpedo and a 4″ x 50 petite robusto.

The torpedo was a nice smoke.  It burned well, although faster than I would have liked, and had a nice sweetness along with a pretty straight forward tobacco flavor. The construction was very good, it burned evenly and had a firm, but adequate draw.  The website lists this as “strong”, although I found it to be solidly medium. I thought it was a nice cigar that I would smoke again. I wonder if this is the same blend as what they call “Original”? I’ll get to the “Original” Robusto later.

Since the Torpedo shorted me in smoking time, I followed it up with the 4″ x 50 pigtailed Seis. The website lists this one as “medium”, but I found it to be much stronger than the torpedo, which was listed as “strong”. This was a little powerhouse, and you could see the dark ligero in the foot. It almost was a logical progression from the torpedo, if the torpedo burned longer and built in strength. It has some of the tobacco sweetness too, and I thought it was a pretty good little smoke.

Friday’s smoke was the Talamanca Special, which is 5″ x 54.  This was on the stronger side too, and had a nice, even burn. There’s not much more I can say about it, as I believe it to be the same blend as the Seis, just a little large format.  Same holds true with the Gigante, which is more of a Churchill at 7″ x 48, although the Gigante was a bit mellower than the smaller vitolas. Where I failed this week was not smoking the two that I assume are a different blend.  There’s a Café Café and a Machista, and they have what appears to be different wrappers, at least. I’ve got an e-mail in with questions, but as of publication, I haven’t received the answers yet.  Maybe I’ll get to them today and update this post.  I really don;t have any complaints about the cigars, they were all perfectly good cigars except for the fast burning torpedo (the upside being getting a second cigar in!). The website needs a lot more information about both the cigars and the company. Whether these ever see the light of day thanks to the FDA remains to be seen, Google searches don’t give much information either. The only thing I can tell you about the name is that Talamanca is one of six cantons that make up the province of Limón in Costa Rica. It is the largest of Costa Rica’s 81 cantons.

I’d like to thank Attila for sending these from Costa Rica, it was kind of exciting going to the post office to pick up a package from abroad, not really knowing what it was. Kudos to them for the nice presentation of the sampler.

That’s all for now, until the next time,

CigarCraig