Thompson Amoroso Maduro - El Ridiculoso Review

[DudeGroovin]

Ok, now before you go bashing on me for smoking a Thompson, let's gets some backstory in here. A while back, I gifted a buddy with a three pack of Costa Rican puros. He travels frequently to Costa Rico and really appreciated it. He hit me back with a belicoso Sancho Panza and this Amoroso. He likes 'em and more power to him.

So, the cigar. I call it el Ridiculoso as it's real big, huge, clownish. It's the Thompson, Amoroso Maduro, Torpedo #2. I'd call it a pyramid as it tapers from a 60 ring gauge down to its length to a conical head. The construction appeared so so. The wrapper was a good color and had no large veins, but did have an obvious patch near the foot.


Tonight was my first try using the shop/garage instead of the front porch. I set myself up with a patio chair, the laptop playing a DVD, and a couple of Jack Daniels Manhattans. Not bad. Unheated, but out of wind and rain and it may motivate me to get the shop organized and turned into a proper hangout.

So, back to the stick. Pre-light, it was surprisingly nice smelling: fragrant and rich tobacco aroma. It cut ok, but was a tight draw, so I recut and it seemed fine. The pre-light taste was unremarkable, but pleasant enough. I torched it up and wham! It locked up like two feet on the brake pedal. Tight, tight, tight. Some serious massaging of the head seemed to get it loosed up. So I get a few puffs in and the burn goes immediately off. I cant keep all the wrapper lit, rotating doesn't help, it creeps, it runs, it craters. The ash splayed out as it burned with little shapes of rapper protruding well out.



It went on like this for most of the smoke. It required frequent relights and correction, although it never really got corrected. Worse yet, it kept seizing up. I was working it over like a masseuse looking for a big tip.

Surprisingly, the flavor wasn't bad. There was no spice, wood/cedar, or 7 year old Madagascar vanilla; just a straight ahead medium body tobacco flavor. Really, not too shabby at all. The strength was also medium. The flavor was unchanged till I got down to about three and half inches when it heated up and foul flavor showed up. I aggressively purged it and the flavor went away. After about another inch, the foul flavor came back and the cigar went out again. I threw in the towel and sent El Ridiculoso to the showers.



Now, if this cigar had a decent burn with the same flavor, I'd have called it decent smoke if in the $2-3 each range. It lasted a full two hours. Of course, it's gigantic, but chasing around the unruly burn was really annoying. I guess they can't all be good cigars. On the plus side, the Manhattans were just fine (gotta love Angostura bitters) and the shop may work out fine for a new cigar escape.

[Linder]

Holy smokes that thing looks huge LOL

Great news about your shop. The DVD sounded like a good idea too.

[tazziedevil]

eesh. I bought a few THompsons a few years back. Won't do that again!

[RockyP]

the one purchase i made from thompson's came with some of those. all of them we plugged

[DudeGroovin]

Originally Posted by RockyP

...all of them we plugged

What's up with that!? I wonder if all their house branded sticks are coming from the same mfg. The ad copy for the Amoroso claims it's made by Nestor Plasencia in Honduras. Hmm.....

[Diesel Kinevel]

not a fan of the thompsons dont know why......

[RockyP]

they might be made is a well known factory but they are probably given to their apprentice rollers since they are so cheap

[DudeGroovin]

Originally Posted by RockyP

they might be made is a well known factory but they are probably given to their apprentice rollers since they are so cheap

So, by buying Thompsons, you're contributing to the education of new workers starting out in their career. Wow! Smoking a Thompson is charity. I always suspected as much 'cause nobody seems to smoke 'em for pleasure....

[kansashat]

I know a coupla guys in Oklahoma that like these. I have been gifted a nattie robusto & I recall it not being too bad, but that was a few years ago......don't have a clue what I'd think now.....

[mhillsing23]

not a fan of the thompsons dont know why......

There are a few good reasons!