The year 1959 was a very tough year for many Cuban families in the cigar business. After owning their farms and factories for many generations, to have them suddenly taken away by a ruthless dictator is something that still stings all these years later. One of the families to experience this injustice is the Torano family.

After being forced from their native land, they were able to return to the cigar business, this time utilizing tobacco in new places like the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Honduras. The cigar I am discussing today is the Torano Exodus 1959, 50 year. It is a cigar that Torano released in 2009 to commemorate their departure from Cuba and their fresh start in the land of opportunity.

The Exodus I am smoking for this review is a 5 x 55 box pressed. It's a beautiful cigar with two copper color bands. The cigar has a dark and rich Brazilian Arapiraca wrapper. The binder is Honduran and the filler is composed of Nicaraguan tobaccos.

The box pressed is done perfectly. This is not an easy task, as the cigar has to be slightly under filled to avoid having the wrapper tear after it is pressed. Too little tobacco and it won't burn correctly, too much and it rips open.

For those who don't like box pressed cigars because of the bits of tobacco they sometimes get in their mouth, remember to use a punch or V-cut and this problem can be avoided.

The cigar starts off right away with some nice coffee and cocoa notes. This is expected, considering the wrapper. This cigar produces a thick, yet cool and clean smoke. The coffee notes seem to intensify a bit with a little pepper spice coming into focus as I get to the midway point of the cigar. The pepper never overpowers the other flavors which make me believe that there's not a lot of Estelí filler in this cigar. It also provides a nice medium bodied experience which I would recommend to anyone who has been smoking cigars for a little while and is ready to move on from the milder sticks.

I had the good fortune to travel to Estelí, Nicaragua with Carlos Llaca-Torano a few weeks ago and we enjoyed a few of these sticks during our visit to the factories and fields, which produce most of their wonderful cigars. As I take my last few puffs of this cigar in my office at home, I can't help but think back to the ones that I smoked while I was in Nicaragua. If you never have the opportunity to visit Nicaragua or Honduras, at least you can get a taste of it by smoking one of these great cigars. There's fifty years of hard work and dedication represented in this stick and that alone is worth giving it a try.

Long Ashes,

Chris Gwaltney, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits North Florida Regional Manager. Certified Tobacconist and Cicerone Beer Server. Follow me on Twitter @abccigarchris.