Pride Ritual Torpedo

Pride Ritual Torpedo (6 1/4x54)

This cigar was introduced last year (2010) at the IPCPR. Pride Cigars describes it as being medium to full bodied. It consists of  Dominican Binder and filler with a corojo wrapper. I could find very little info on this cigar so let's just jump right in and see what it's all about.

Video review HERE.
The cigar is a nice reddish brown color. It was a little bumpy but feels very dense in the hand.

The test draw was a little firm. The initial flavors were leather, cinnamon, roasted almonds, and black pepper. The cigar come across as medium to full bodied at this point.

A minute of two later the cigar settled into one of cinnamon, vanilla, roasted almonds, and nice pepper.
You can detect all 3 in equal amounts on the spice. The finish is one of roasted almonds and vanilla. The cigar showed signs of becoming rich. I am hopeful it does. The cigar also shows signs of changing; possibly becoming complex.

With just another minute or two the cigar did indeed become rich. The finish also changed to include vanilla notes. Pride Cigars try to achieve richness in their cigar and this one has already accomplished that.

The ash is very tight. After an inch or so the cigar remained very rich. The cinnamon notes are quite rich. The vanilla is probably helping achieve that point. The roasted almonds round out the spice nicely. The pepper is very good and not overbearing.

At about the midpoint there are no major changes. There are some raw almonds on the spice to go along with the vanilla and pepper. The cigar is still medium to full bodied. I expected more changes at this point but the cigar is quite nice the way it is.

At the end the cigar never reached full bodied but it came close. The richness of the cinnamon spice combined with the roasted almonds and vanilla were nice. The finish was one of sweet vanilla and raw almond with some lingering pepper. I found this to be a very good cigar and for a Dominican it came very close to full bodied. I went back and forth with a score but settled on one that was fitting for this cigar.

Score: 92