BlankMindBlog

Last Sunday Tyler wanted to try out his newly acquired bait casting rod at the Three Lakes or Pope Duval Fish Management Area on the west side of Jacksonville. This area is a beautiful, safe place for you and your family to enjoy. Several of the lakes are stocked with channel catfish, bass and panfish. The areas around the lakes have picnic tables, a boardwalk and the large lake has a fishing pier.

Tyler wanted to use some of my plastic baits to work along the weeds and hopefully hook his first big bass. I had promised him and his sister that on the way home we would stop by and let him try his luck.

I knew this would be a perfect opportunity to smoke and review the Onyx Reserve Toro as I watched my youngest son fish the same lakes I did when I was his age. Rachel had decided to bring her bicycle over to the apartment so she would be free to ride around the management area as Tyler fished and I smoked.

The Onyx Reserve Toro is butt ugly. The dark, chocolate colored wrapper is heavily veined and has a rough texture. In my notes I referred to this stick as a Frankenstein cigar. On the plus side the wrapper had a pleasant sweet scent.

I backed the truck up to the third lake and we unloaded bikes and fishing gear. I left the tailgate down and since no one else was around I turned up the Jaguars and Indy game on my Sirius Satellite Radio. I gave Tyler a few hints on how to tease the fish, if there were any around, with the champagne colored weedless worm I had rigged on his new rod. He took off to claim his trophy bass and I settled in and used my large punch and Colibri lighter on the Onyx Reserve Toro.

The Onyx Reserve Toro is “box pressed” meaning as soon as it was rolled it was placed in a wood box and pressed to create a square shaped cigar. The stick was 6″ long and sported an elegant black, white and gold band. The 50 size ring gauge combined with the square shape was comfortable in my hand and would sit obediently on the tail gate without rolling off.

The smoke was thin and wispy and smelled like burnt sugar. The ash was light gray and compact. The draw was good, however this stick burned unevenly from start to finish with several touchups.

In the beginning the stick produced a mild cocoa flavor with a non-descript nuttiness. About halfway through the Onyx Reserve Toro added a peppery hint while still allowing the mild nuttiness to come through. Unfortunately the last quarter of the stick gave way to a slight bitterness that was not pleasant.

Tyler struck out on catching any fish that day just as I struck out on an enjoyable smoke with the Onyx Reserve Toro. I doubt I will make room for this stick in my humidor but I will re-evaluate this stick in the future. I was disappointed with the construction and appearance of the cigar and further disappointed with the bitterness at the end.