Paso Doble is a Thompson Cigar Company house brand of cigars made in the Dominican Republic, consisting of a blend of Dominican and Costa Rican filler tobaccos and Connecticut Ecuadorian wrappers. The Toro size cigar measures 6 inches long with a ring gauge of 50, and was part of our cigar aging experiment (identified as Brand B). Instead of rating this cigar based on only one or two smokes, ten cigars were tested over a period of seven months.
Flavor
The Paso Doble is mild-to-medium in flavor, and has a unique tangy but dry taste, especially right out of the bundle, or with little aging. The dryness and some of the tangy flavors started to subside with age, leaving some of the cigars with a nice rich and enjoyable flavor, while others tasted just plain bad. In other words, the cigars were inconsistent. When buying bargain priced bundles, it is very possible that a few dogs and/or average-bland stogies are mixed in with some pretty decent tasting cigars. This is the case with the Paso Doble. Although my final rating may be 2 1/2 stars, there were cigars tested that deserved 3 ½ stars, especially when consumed with an ice cold beer (which complimented the tangy flavor and dry finish of the cigar).Draw and Construction
All of the cigars tested were smokable, but a few had draws that were a little tighter than desirable. A few relights and touchup lights were required, but not for all of the cigars. The burn was uneven on a few cigars, while others burned just fine. As with the flavor, the construction of these cigars was not always consistent. A typical Paso Doble Toro cigar took about 40 minutes to smoke down to two inches.Value
Paso Doble is a bargain priced cigar, which costs less than a dollar per stick when purchased in bundles of 50. Therefore, even after considering that a few cigars in the bundle may not be up to par, they are still a good deal if you like the unique flavor that comes from a blend that includes some Costa Rican filler tobacco, which is not very common in most mainstream cigars. You may want to take a chance on picking up an entire bundle as an everyday cigar, or sample of few of these sticks in a Thompson sampler pack, which includes the Paso Doble along with several other Thompson house brands.Note: If Paso Doble cigars cannot be found by clicking on the "Compare Prices" button, visit Thompson Cigars.
