The Particulars

The Review

This review for the Montecristo Espada (Guard) - Toro (6 x 50) is based on the journal entry dated 2026-08-27

Appearance & Construction (0-3):  Good (3)

A nice, light chocolate brown that has very few and thin veins with a little tooth to the wrapper. The seams are difficult to find, the triple cap is perfect, and it’s evenly rolled with good firmness. Honestly, it’s one of the more attractive cigars I’ve seen to carry the Montecristo name. The only knock on appearance is that the triple label covers so much of the cigar itself. It seems they’re paying for the experienced rollers at the Plasencia factory for these cigars because it’s a seemingly excellent roll with good construction, firmness, and density. But holy shit, Altadis, you can use less paper! Oh, and less glue too. Removing all three bands can be a frustrating exercise in futility. If you can remove all three bands without damaging the wrapper, you’ve done incredibly well.

Draw (0-3) & Burn (0-4):  Good (3) / Average (2)

The draw is excellent, as most things made by Plasencia tend to be. The burn line starts off wavy and then evens out to nearly dead-flat with just the slightest bit of a wave, but it’s a very soft burn line. You’ll see a thicker band of wrapper charring before it actually burns up. The ash is a light gray dotted with oil crystals, with widely spaced but narrow cracks. It is a little prone to flaking, and several I’ve smoked have dropped their ash early on their own. So tread lightly if you want to stack. This one is holding well through the first third, but I am so busy writing my flavor notes that it goes out, so I safely and gracefully roll the stack off into the tray to do a relight. 🤦🏻‍♂️ Later on, minor stress cracks in the wrapper from removing the primary band let go as the heat gets closer and the cigar swells. Fortunately, cigar glue is able to remedy the issue before it affects the burn. The only real downside is that several relights have been needed, with most happening in the final third.

Flavor Profile (0-5):  Excellent (5)

This cigar explodes with flavor out of the gate with a cornucopia of delight. I’m getting baking spice, black pepper, woody notes, nuttiness, fruity zest, salty and sweet, mocha, and espresso. It’s earthy, a little musty, and goes between a tangy bite, sourness, and a smooth creaminess on the finish. If you could describe a cigar as manic, this one definitely is. But then the cigar starts to find its stride, or my brain is finally able to process all the different notes it’s being hit with at once. 😅 The sweetness is a tangy lemon that brings extra sour notes. Spice is a mix of black and white pepper and earthy baking spice. Cedar notes dominate, but there are bits of sourdough saltiness as well, while leather grows in intensity to round out the earthy notes. Medium cocoa notes and black coffee round things out. At times, the lemon gives way to raisin fruit notes.

Into the second third, the white pepper and sour notes stop dominating while the mocha and cashew nuttiness take more of the limelight. Meanwhile, leathery earth and dry mustiness set the undertone for the flavor profile. The citrusy zest and tangy sourness pop their heads in from time to time to provide some additional flavor. Black pepper comes and goes, but the exotic spices persist. Is it the special aged tobaccos shining brightly, or just the cigar equivalent of a 7-course meal thrown into the blender? 🤷🏼‍♂️ Who knows, but the complexity is fantastic, although it does get a little out of balance from time to time. The leather builds to the point where I’m waiting for a ball gag to come out, but that intense sweet-and-sour mix keeps pulling me back in.

Getting into the final third—and this is a slow-burning cigar BTW—the overall blend profile is holding steady. Cedar, leather, earth, a bevy of dark exotic and baking spices, and lemony citrus still bring tangy, sour, and slightly bittersweet notes. Black pepper has returned but without any harshness; this is a relatively smooth cigar as it has a moderate creaminess to the finish that carries peanut shell notes to it. Mocha is stronger in the final third than it was in the first half, accentuating those nutty notes in the finish. All in all, a very enjoyable and complex blend that still totally holds up a decade after its introduction.

Overall Experience (0-5):  Great (4)

I hate to say things like this, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this cigar to the newer smoker. There are a lot of flavors to unwind in the blend and it almost feels overwhelming at times. Add in notes that you might not be familiar with, and it can be off-putting at first. But if you’re seeking something more complex and interesting, this is absolutely worth checking out. I can say from my own experience that I was overwhelmed and a little confused the first time I smoked this cigar, and it’s grown on me each and every time I’ve come back to it. These bastards age like a fine wine, too.

The value proposition is always a challenge, though. These bad boys were $11 a decade ago and now run close to $18 for singles. That feels steep, but as many of the big brands are susceptible to heavy discounts, you can find it for a lot less. A cursory glance as of this writing shows some retailers with them for $17-$18 per stick, while I’m finding heavily discounted 5- and 10-packs that are running as low as $6-$7 per cigar. At the discounted price, it becomes an absolute no-brainer, but it means you’re likely buying from a large online catalog retailer and not a small, locally-owned business. Such is life sometimes…

Overall Score and Individual Journal Entries

While the review is based off one instance of journaling this cigar; there's a number of reasons you can have different experiences smoking the same cigar multiple times. A blend can evolve with age (for better or worse), palates evolves, preferences change, and sometimes you just get a bad example!  This section captures the ratings from each journal entry and the related journal photo.  Below you'll find an aggregate score based on every time the cigar has been journaled. Unless it was a gift or on-off smoke, this section will be updated every time I journal this cigar!

The Flavor Wheel

With every cigar I journal, I capture simple ratings of the basic flavor categories that I experience.  These are more generalized than what you would see in a review, but a distinct profile can still be built out.  When multiple instances of the same cigar have been journaled, the scores are averaged out in an attempt to build a reliable flavor profile based on my palate.

The values entered for the strength of each flavor range from 0 to 3.

• 0:   No flavor detected
• 1:   Mild flavor
• 2:   Medium flavor
• 3:   Strong flavor

Note: desktop / large screens will see a flavor wheel while mobile / small screens will see a bar chart.

With every cigar I journal, I capture simple ratings of the basic flavor categories that I experience.  These are more generalized than what you would see in a review, but a distinct profile can still be built out.  When multiple instances of the same cigar have been journaled, the scores are averaged out in an attempt to build a reliable flavor profile based on my palate.

The values entered for the strength of each flavor range from 0 to 3.

• 0:   No flavor detected
• 1:   Mild flavor
• 2:   Medium flavor
• 3:   Strong flavor

Note: desktop / large screens will see a flavor wheel while mobile / small screens will see a bar chart.