The Particulars

The Review

This review for the Warped Isla del Cocodrilo Toro Grande Limited Edition - Gran Toro (6.5 x 54) is based on the journal entry dated 2026-06-26

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

Much like every guy dreams about his own cocodrilo, this one is longer and thicker than the original. The Ecuadorian Desflorada wrapper is beautiful as always. It’s soft to the touch, radiates a medium sheen, and features light mottling and thin veins. The cigar feels a little light for its size but is adequately firm; the seams are tight, and the triple cap is clean. You won’t find a lot of poorly rolled cigars coming from Hostos’s factory. The main differentiator between this and the regular Isla del Cocodrilo is the addition of the secondary band that has an image of a globe on it—referencing its original status as an international release—with two stylized crocodile heads on each side. Which, oddly enough, got me to finally notice the hidden crocodiles in the original band. Both are just lovely, nicely executed bands.​

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

Using my favored PerfecPunch, the draw is spot-on. The burn starts clean and even; it’s a great start. The ash is a light gray that’s accented by the extremely dark ash exposed between the cracks and striations. There’s a little bit of flaking and crumbling, but I’m not wearing any of it just yet. The ash was holding beautifully until roughly halfway between the first third and the midpoint, where I needed to dump it for a relight. We’re at the most humid point of the year here in Louisiana, so relights on longer stacks are going to happen. I’m mainly looking to see how it burns with regular dumping and after a solid relight. The burn line itself has been beautiful—flat with only a hint of a wave to it.

Flavor Profile (0-5):  Great (4)

The big boy starts off with a white bread base note that’s accentuated by salt, creating a flavor exactly like a soft pretzel. If you’ve never been to Philadelphia or a Wawa where they have these big, cold, chewy, soft-baked pretzels, you might not be able to make the association, but others will know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s a drier, chewier version of your standard pretzel flavor. I’m also getting a good dash of white pepper and a strong cedar woodiness. It takes a little bit of time for the other flavors to start to develop, but since this is a longer cigar, we have plenty of burn left for that to happen. It’s really a question of whether you will have the patience to let the flavors develop—plenty of us are just into instant gratification. There’s a little bit of a citrus sweetness developing with notes of super mild coffee, earth, and a growing nutmeg or allspice flavor mix.

Getting into the second third, the lemony sweetness develops stronger notes of tart and sour. The white pepper (which is starting to shift to black) has a lot of bite, kind of like… a crocodile (let’s all collectively groan at that one). But there’s a much more obvious term for this: lemon pepper. Creaminess is low, but the blend is relatively smooth with a lot of tingling on the tongue and palate from the spice mix. I’m noticing how chocolate is largely absent—or I’m just not picking it up—but the coffee is slowly increasing. There’s a bit more earth, leather, cinnamon, and nutmeg in the blend alongside growing peanut flavors. But by and large, it’s mostly pretzel, cedar, and the whole gamut of lemony spices keeping it on the drier side. My biggest gripe that’s keeping me from loving this blend is the lemon pepper; because of the dry profile of the blend, it really hits the back of my throat and has moments of harshness.

With the final third, the sourness of the lemon has faded back, and it’s more tart, citrusy, and sweet. There’s still a mild peanut-shell nuttiness, but it’s predominantly pretzel and cedar with medium coffee and light earth. The lemon pepper spice is still at a medium-full intensity, leaving a nice tingling sensation in my mouth alongside bits of nutmeg and cinnamon, but still leaving a slightly sour note as well. And really, when was the last time you enjoyed a lemon party? 😂 There have been light floral notes occasionally throughout the smoke as well, but they appear a little more consistently in the final third. While there are no real changes through the finish, the final third brings it back to being a much more enjoyable blend.

Overall Experience (0-5):  Excellent (5)

If you’re a fan of the original Cocodrilo, you’re going to like this one. You don’t always see it with the bigger vitolas, but this has a bit more intensity. If you don’t like drier blends, then it’s probably worth skipping, especially if you haven’t enjoyed the other Cocodrilos. But I’m really curious to see how these develop with age. The original Isla del Cocodrilo Toro didn’t wow me when fresh, but it vastly improved after 6 months. This feels like it might be on a similar trajectory. A little age might tame the harshness of the black pepper and the sourness of the lemon that dragged down the second third. So I’m going to give my remaining cigars some time, revisit them in 3 to 6 months, and then maybe again a little while after that.

Review Base Rating (0-5):

4.75

Is it Burnable?

Most likely (good stick, but look for a deal)

Review Final Score (0-10):

8.67

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.