601 Black Label Ecuador Torpedo

It's a nice looking stick, with very small veins in the wrapper. I clipped the tip, and it drew pretty easy. Lighting it up, I got the flavor of black pepper from the outset. In fact, there was a heavy black pepper presence from the start to the very end of the stick. The flavor I found to be very sort of woodsy, with the pepper component, and there was enough strength there to tickle the tonsils. However, as far as I'm concerned, it was an apallingly unremarkable smoke flavorwise. If you like shoving peppercorns in your mouth just for giggles, then you might like this cigar. Personally, the flavor was a big turn-off. I might add, it does NOT pair well with beer - I was left with a fairly bitter taste the entire time I was smoking that cigar which surprised me. The beer I was drinking had a fairly malty profile, which I thought might have balanced out the characteristics that I felt made this cigar unappealing.

Outside of that, the cigar performed very well. The draw was excellent, the burn was pretty sharp (I had lit it with matches, so the burn was off, but consistantly), and it produced lots of smoke. The ash was quite well packed, and had a light-gray hue. The cigar lasted me about an hour and fifteen-minutes, so it was a slow-burning stick. Aside from the taste, I have nothing but praise for this stogie.