Vegas de Santiago chaman torpedo

[Don Fernando]

Vegas de Santiago from Costa Rica is one of my favorite cigar manufacturers, and they have 4 different brands, the Puros, Originales, Don Luis and the Chaman. The Chaman is made out of filler and binder from Costa Riga and Nicaragua with a Connecticut wrapper from Ecuador.

I smoked the Torpedo, a 153mm ring 52 cigar which has a nice oily wrapper and the aroma of straw and hay. The first flavor is mild leather and halfway I could taste a pleasant sour which is gone pretty soon. There is not a lot of progress in this cigar, the flavor is very even. The smoke is thick and white and the ash is firm.

Would I buy this cigar again? No, I prefer the other Vegas de Santiago brands.

[Don Fernando]

And yet another Vegas de Santiago revisit, this time I revisited the Vegas de Santiago Chaman, which I reviewed back in 2007. I revisited it because I decided to break open the sampler Rudi send me, as explained in yesterdays review of the Vegas de Santiago puro torpedo. This cigar has the same size as the Puros, 6x52.



I like the band, simple but stylish. The wrapper of this cigar is smooth and silky, light colored and only has a few thin veins. The construction feels good. The predraw is fine too and I taste raisin with a mild pepper. The cigar has a wood smell.



I taste coffee with some pepper on the top of my tongue. The coffee turns into an earthy flavor. The pepper disappears and I taste a mild chocolate on the background. The flavors remind me of a Cuban cigar. If this was a blind tasting, this part of the cigar would definitely put me on the wrong track. The flavors are dry and almost powdery, both the earth flavor and the chocolate.



The dry powdery earth and chocolate flavors don't change for a while and then, somewhere between midway and two thirds the flavors change into wood and earth, the chocolate has gone and the cigar doesn't taste like a Cuban anymore, although it is still very nice (I don't go with that 'Cubans are better than non Cubans' stigma). Near the end the cigar gets more spicy and peppery.



The smoke time of this torpedo is an hour and twenty five minutes. I got lots of smoke that was reasonable thick. The silvergray ash is quite firm. The draw is good and the burn is even better. This cigar is full flavored and medium to full bodied.



Would I buy this cigar again? I might, seems like I like them better now then I did 3 years ago

Appearance: 7 / 10
Construction: 8 / 10
Draw: 7 / 10
Burn: 8 / 10
Smoke & ash: 8 / 10
Aroma first part: 7 / 10
Aroma second part: 7 / 10
Aroma third part: 8 / 10

[kelmac07]

Nice review Ferdie!!

[papichulo]

Ferdie, you have gained my interest. Have you tried the corona in the Chaman line?

[Don Fernando]

no, only corona I smoked was the Secretos del Maestro. I smoked all their torpedo's though

[papichulo]

I think I may order up a sampler or something. If you like costa rican cigars, try Don Tuto.

[Don Fernando]

never had Don Tuto, had some Don Ursulo though. Will check Don Tuto out.