My Father El Centurion Toro Grande Review

The biggest, longest, coolest size of the line

The My Father El Centurion Toro Grande is a medium-full 7 by 58 - a Nicaraguan puro with a Sun Grown Criollo 98 wrapper over Criollo, Corojo Habano and Sancti Spiritus fillers, in a soft box-press. It's the big-ring flagship size of the line, the largest and longest-smoking format El Centurion comes in, and it delivers the signature cedar-and-cocoa character broad, cool and stately. It smokes cedar, bittersweet cocoa, leather, espresso and mellowed black pepper over about ninety-five minutes - the longest, most relaxed way to enjoy the blend.

What the huge 7 by 58 format does is broaden and cool. The big ring puts a lot of tobacco in play against proportionally little wrapper, so the ember burns cool and the cedar-and-cocoa profile spreads wide and smooth, the Nicaraguan pepper mellowed into balance rather than sharp. It's the most relaxed, generous size of the line, complexity delivered at a stately pace over an hour and a half, the Criollo 98 sweetness rounding the rich volume. Construction is classic My Father: a rich reddish wrapper, an excellent box-press draw, straight burn, a thick heavy ash.

My reservations are about scale and strength. It's still a genuinely medium-full cigar with real pepper, so a mild-palate smoker or beginner should start with the My Father Connecticut. The 7 by 58 is a big commitment - in both the ninety-five-minute burn and the large ring, which not everyone enjoys in the hand. And the soft box-press won't suit every grip. If you want the blend tighter and quicker, the Robusto; for balance, the Toro. For a long, cool, generous evening with El Centurion, though, the Toro Grande is the grandest expression.

Where it fits is the unhurried evening smoke for an experienced smoker who loves a big ring and has time to spare - a long after-dinner sit, a weekend cigar, or the size for savoring the blend cool and slow. It pairs beautifully with coffee or a dark spirit. As the largest size of a blend that earned its comeback, the Toro Grande is El Centurion at maximum.