Pre-light Experience

The wrapper on the Gurkha Pure Evil Toro is medium brown with a hint of red to it and carries some thick, but well pressed veins. The seams are smooth and the caps well applied. The band is black, silver and red and has a holographic skull and denotes the company and line. The aroma from the wrapper is a mix of musty cedar and earth while the foot brings cedar, breadiness and light ammonia. The pre-light draw brings a pretty detailed cedar along with a mild spiciness on my lips.

First Third

The cigar begins with toasted cedar, dusty earth and mild cinnamon. At a quarter inch in, a light creaminess joins the profile. At a half inch in, the smoke is exhibiting a velvety smoothness. The retrohale is toasted cedar, dusty earth with light black pepper zinginess. At an inch and a half in, the cinnamon transitions to black pepper. As the third comes to a close, the toasted cedar is up front, with dusty earth a bit behind and black pepper a bit further behind and light creaminess in the background. There is a cinnamon roll note that is on the finish on random draws. The strength was right at medium.

Second Third

As the second third begins, the dusty earth and black pepper are even in the middle of the profile. At a half inch in, the overall profile has become slightly dry. The retrohale is now toasted cedar with some dusty earth, black pepper and light creaminess. As the third comes to a close, the toasted cedar is up front, with dusty earth and black pepper in the middle and light creaminess in the background. The strength remained at medium.

Final Third

As the final third begins, the black pepper mellows a bit. At three quarters of an inch in, the black pepper picks back up and take a slight lead over the dusty earth. The retrohale is now toasted cedar, zingy black pepper and dusty earth. At an inch and a quarter in, the toast level becomes pretty heavy. As the cigar wraps up, the profile is heavily toasted cedar up front, black pepper a bit behind, dusty earth a bit further behind and light creaminess in the background. The strength bumped up to slightly above medium.

Burn

The burn line was a bit wavy throughout, but never needed any attention. The ash held on in inch and a half increments.

Draw

The draw was a bit loose through the first third and then moved to right where I wanted it.

Overall

The cigar began with toasted cedar, dusty earth and mild cinnamon. A light creaminess joined in fairly quickly. The cinnamon transitioned to black pepper a bit later. The second third saw the profile become a bit dry. The final third saw the toast level become pretty heavy. The Gurkha Pure Evil Toro had a nice start, with a velvety smoke delivery. The second third dropped a level as the flavor profile wasn’t quite as interesting and maintained that level the rest of the way. I liked how the cigar started, and really wished it could have kept the cinnamon component throughout. I would be interested in trying the Robusto vitola to see how that fared, but I’m not really sure that I’d come back to this Toro.

Aaron Loomis

SCORE

5.85

Cost/Point

$1.62

Scoring System

Personal Cigar Review: Gurkha Pure Evil Toro