Toscano Garibaldi (6" x 38)

The Toscano Garibaldi is one of those cigars whose character makes far more sense once you know its history. Introduced in 1982 to commemorate the centenary of Giuseppe Garibaldi's death, it honors the legendary Italian patriot who was himself an enthusiastic Toscano smoker. Yet the cigar's personality owes just as much to celebrated Italian writer and noted cigar aficionado Mario Soldati, who favored the sweeter, gentler Toscani once produced at Cava de' Tirreni and encouraged the creation of a cigar in that style. Today, Garibaldi is produced at Toscano's historic Lucca factory, carrying forward a distinctly Italian tradition that bears little resemblance to conventional Caribbean cigar making. At the heart of Garibaldi is dark fire-cured Kentucky tobacco. A carefully selected Italian Kentucky wrapper surrounds a filler composed primarily of Kentucky grown around Benevento in Campania, rounded out with selected imported Kentucky. There is no conventional binder, and its unmistakable double-truncated-cone shape is pure Toscano. The Benevento leaf is particularly important to Garibaldi's personality, lending aromatic spice to a profile that Toscano deliberately designed to be mellower and sweeter than many of its more formidable traditional cigars. Expect dense smoke carrying toasted wood, warm spice, earth and the distinctive smoky character of fire-cured Kentucky, delivered with medium strength but plenty of aromatic presence. What makes the Toscano Garibaldi compelling isn't refinement in the conventional Dominican or Nicaraguan sense. Its appeal lies in authenticity. This is Italian Kentucky tobacco, fire-cured and fashioned into a cigar according to a tradition more than two centuries old, with a rustic shape and flavor profile that proudly reveal where it comes from. Garibaldi is also an unusually approachable doorway into the Toscano world: aromatic and unmistakably smoky, yet softer and more accommodating than some of the marque's stronger expressions. Pair it with an espresso, a glass of red wine, or a sweet Italian wine and you begin to understand why this wonderfully idiosyncratic cigar has remained part of Italian smoking culture for more than four decades.