Buenaventura Picadores Toro 650 (Single Loose Cigar)

• Length: 152mm
• Gauge: 50
• Strength: Medium
• Wrapper: Nicaraguan
• Binder: Nicaraguan
• Filler: Nicaraguan

Buenaventura Picadores Toro – Single Loose Cigar

A picador, for anyone whose knowledge of Spanish bullfighting is a little rusty, is the fellow who enters the ring on horseback carrying a lance. Not a profession I'd have chosen myself. I prefer my livestock at a comfortable distance, preferably with a fence between us.

It's a curious name for a cigar, but Buenaventura has always had a knack for drawing on traditional Spanish imagery. The Picadores Toro takes a much more restrained approach to its appearance than some of the elaborately decorated cigars filling today's humidors. A simple cream-and-brown band, a handsome brown wrapper and a familiar Toro shape. There's plenty to examine once you get past the label.

Buenaventura belongs to the cigar-making world of José 'Jochy' Blanco and Tabacalera Palma in the Dominican Republic. Blanco comes from a family deeply involved in tobacco growing and manufacturing, and his work has helped establish a number of well-regarded cigar ranges. The Buenaventura name has become associated with traditionally presented cigars that put considerable emphasis on the blend itself.

The Toro is a particularly agreeable format. Longer than a Robusto, it gives the tobacco blend room to develop over the course of the cigar, while its straight-sided construction and rounded cap make preparation familiar to anyone accustomed to handmade cigars.

Looking closely at this example, the wrapper has a warm, earthy brown colour with the natural seams and veins of the tobacco leaf visible along its length. The band uses an old-fashioned typographic design, the sort of thing that wouldn't have looked out of place in a tobacconist's window many decades ago.

There's a small detail on the band I particularly appreciate: Hecho a Mano, Spanish for handmade. It's a familiar expression in the cigar trade, but it is worth remembering what it represents. Forming the bunch, applying the binder and finishing the wrapper are skilled operations, and consistency across a production run demands considerable experience.

The Picadores Toro is available here as a single loose cigar, making it straightforward to try alongside other Buenaventura sizes or compare it with a familiar favourite.

And should anybody ask why it's called Picadores, you can explain the bullfighting connection. I'd recommend leaving the practical demonstration to somebody else.