Thurman Thomas Maduro Toro (6x52)

The nice folks over at StogieBoys.com sent me a surprise prize pack for the next giveaway (Details will be posted soon) and also sent a couple of the Thurman Thomas Connecticut and Maduro to review for the site. If you're not familiar with Thurman Thomas, he is a Hall of Fame running back who spent most of his NFL career playing for the Buffalo Bills. Like golf, football and cigars pair well together. I decided to start with the maduro first since I am fan of that maduro sweetness. There isn't a lot of blend information on these sticks, but I can tell you that they are made in General Cigars in the Dominican Republic and utilize Dominican long fillers. The Milk Chocolate brown wrapper has minimal veins and smooth seams. The maduro is rock solid, well packed, and has very little give when pinched. The body offers up the aroma of barnyard and hay and the foot offers some light earthy notes. I used by StogieBoys V-cutter to clip the cap and found the cold draw to be just a tad on the firm side of perfect. The flavors on the cold draw were of cocoa and molasses. The wind is not blowing at all so I used matches to toast the foot and get things started with no problems.

The Initial third opens with some very nice flavors. Notes of cocoa and a nice earthy spice, balanced by the mild maduro sweetness. The finish is moderate and has a caramel-like tone. There is a touch of spice, especially noted on the retrohale, that leaves a tiny tingle on the tongue. As I progress through the first third notes of coffee start to emerge. Going into the second third the cocoa moves to the background as the coffee moves into the foreground. The smoke and the finish have taken on more of a creamy texture as the coffee notes become more rich and really work well with the subtle earthy spice. There are a few woody oak notes popping in on occasion as well. Going into the final third the woody oak notes take on some depth and really start to shine. The caramel-like finish has become more of a dark roast with a bit of a black coffee bitter sensation. This in no way detracted from the smoking pleasure. Construction on the samples I received was excellent and ash held to around 1.5" at a time. The maduro's burn went a touch wavy but always corrected itself with no help from me. Final verdict? For the 3.60 per stick price tag, you're cheating yourself not to give them a try. They are exclusive to StogieBoys and can be purchased as a single or in bundles of 25 and boxes of 25 (like myself, some people love box collecting). You can find more information about Thurman Thomas at  www.thurmanthomascigars.com and find his cigars only at StogieBoys.com. Once again, thank you to Sheryl and the StogieBoys team for providing the samples for the review. The review of the Thurman Thomas Connecticut can be found HERE