My Father Blue Toro Review

2026-09-07  Five-Pack · 3/4 My Money · Steal · by Eric

Filed under: Cigar Bands · CT Broadleaf · Tight Draw · Honduras · Ligero / Seco / Viso · Purging & Pace · The Ash · Retrohale · The Draw · Bitter Cigar?

Verdict: The My Father Blue Toro is a Five-Pack (3/4) at about $12 street... a bready, creamy, nutty cigar with great construction that a lingering bitterness kept from being more. The second third and a rewarding final third are the case for it. A snug draw that never fully opened and a bitterness that rode along most of the night are the case against. Without that bitterness, and with more of the vanilla that showed up at the nub, this would be an argument for a Box Buy. Tonight it wasn't.

Brand

My Father

Line

Blue

Vitola

Toro

Size

6 x 54

Wrapper

Connecticut Broadleaf Rosado

Binder

Honduran

Filler

Honduran

Made in

Honduras

Factory

My Father Cigars Honduras (El Paraíso)

Street price

$12

My Father Blue is the García family's first cigar out of their new Honduran factory in El Paraíso, released in 2025. A Connecticut Broadleaf Rosado wrapper over a Honduran binder and Honduran Corojo and Criollo fillers grown on the family's own farm there. Not to be confused with Don Pepín García Blue, which is a different cigar entirely.

The Setup

• Cigar: My Father Blue, Toro (6 x 54). Connecticut Broadleaf Rosado wrapper, Honduran binder and filler, made at My Father Cigars Honduras in El Paraíso.
• Street price: about $12 a single online. Boxes of 20 list right around $195.
• What I paid: $8.58 a stick... a box of 20 for $171.58 after a discount, free shipping, ordered online in January 2026. My own money, nobody sent me this. I bought the box because earlier singles were that good.
• Storage: the Herf coolidor at 69%, about seven and a half months of rest since the box landed.
• When/where: started around 8:30 at night on the back deck. No wind to speak of. By the end it was 69°F, feels-like 68, 84% humidity... probably a little warmer when I lit up, and comfortable the whole time.
• Smoke time: about an hour and thirty-five minutes.
• Food beforehand: dinner around 5:30, chicken potato casserole with a San Pellegrino. Friends came over after and we did ice cream sundaes, but that was a minimum of two hours before the cigar.
• First cigar of the day, paired with just water.

Light Up and First Third

Pre-light this is a nice looking cigar. Triple cap, medium brown, not toothy, small veining, and nothing wrong with the wrapper that I could see. Straight cut with the Xikar XO, lit with the Guevara Lux single-flame torch.

The cold draw is just a light sweetness, no tingle on the retro. It was also snug from the cold draw on... not unworkable, not enough that I reached for the draw tool, and the draw tool was sitting right there. Hold that thought too.

Toast and light-up: a super sweet breadiness and some milk chocolate. That's a good start.

A few minutes in it settles into a light bitterness, a slight nuttiness, a little baking spice, leather, a very light roasted coffee, and that breadiness. On the retro it's a very mild baking spice, breadiness, a little cream, and leather. It's mild, and it's good.

About midway through the first third the draw is still slightly snug. On a single draw it's a leathery milkiness. Take a double draw and you get heavier leather, some nuttiness, coffee, and breadiness. The retro is baking spice, cream, a light nuttiness, breadiness, and a little leather behind it. The breadiness and cream trading back and forth is a really nice combination. My one complaint at this point: it's a little more bitter than I like overall.

The burn line has been a little wavy, and rotating the slow side to the bottom has handled it. No touch-ups. The ash is tight with just a couple of flyers here and there.

Right after the ash there was slightly more bitterness, and the general nutty note turned into a specific peanut. Retro: baking spice, that peanut nuttiness, leather, very mild cream, and a medium roast black coffee.

Second Third

Only about a quarter inch into the second third, and that bitter note that was consistently there through the first third has pretty much gone away. Still a bready, creamy smoke texture, smoke production about average, and no touch-ups. A woody note shows up... I don't have a specific wood... plus leather. The retro is baking spice, breadiness, light peanut, a mix of leather and cream together with neither one overpowering the other, and some black coffee.

The secondary band came off when the burn line was just about touching it. Glued very well, but only to itself... no glue on the cigar at all, and it came off perfectly clean.

This is where the cigar starts telling you how it wants to be smoked. I'm liking the single-draw profile better than the double. The double draw is still good... a slightly burnt nuttiness, leather, cream way in the background, coffee, and a touch of bitterness... but I'm only doing double draws because the cigar seems to need them to stay close on the burn all the way around. On a single draw it's almost a bit of cardamom, a very mild almond, specifically almond, and black coffee. Sometimes there's cream, sometimes there isn't. Retro that single draw and you get very mild baking spice, almond, breadiness, cream, then leather and a very light black coffee. The baking spice is mild enough that I could comfortably retro the entire draw.

Half an inch into the second third I'd already call it by far the better third, and I'm hoping it just continues.

Near the end of the second third the retro is still baking spice, breadiness, cream, light leather, light black coffee. Really good. The single draw is roasted almonds, leather, coffee, and a light bitterness that lingers... just a light bitterness, nothing that stings the tongue. The double draw is leather, more peanut than almond now, coffee, and a touch of the flavor of baking spice, though the actual spice itself is slightly more black pepper than baking spice.

The burn's been a little wavy the whole way, no touch-ups, slight rotations and it burns clean. The ash is still compact, a little flaky, but no flyers that came off far enough to worry about landing on me. The draw has opened up a little too... not where I want it, but not as snug as the first half.

Primary band off at the end of the second third, same story as the secondary. Glued very well, but only to itself, not to the wrapper. Came off perfectly clean, nothing wrong underneath.

Before ashing, the flavor was leather, coffee, and a very mild nuttiness. The cream and breadiness were gone, which was disappointing, because I really enjoyed that profile. The retro was a mild nuttiness first, leather, a touch of cream, a touch of black coffee, and just a hint of baking spice with that leather. The ash came off completely clean, stayed together, nice point from the ligero straight in the center of the cigar.

Final Third

Straight after the ash: leather is the primary note on a single draw, then a slight breadiness and nuttiness right behind it, and coffee. The bitterness climbed up a little too. My hope was that once some ash built back up and protected the ember it would die back down the way it did in the second third. Retro: almond is the primary note, leather right behind, coffee right behind that, and a hint of bitterness. No earthiness at all so far through this cigar.

Then a draw that was sweet, nutty, and creamy, very quickly followed by leather and some coffee. That's really good, and I wanted it to keep going.

Half an inch in, it did. That sweet nutty creaminess is consistently there on a single or a double draw. It hits pretty good up front, then it's very quickly replaced by leather and black coffee. No baking spice, no earthiness, but then a light bitterness comes in after and hangs on the palate. It's not drying. It hangs out for a while and fades. I just wish it wasn't there, because everything else is really good. The retro is a little more black pepper now, some leather, light creaminess, and coffee. One single draw was all almond, then leather and coffee, then that same light bitterness that comes in, hangs around, and fades.

Halfway through the final third is where I'll say it plainly: this cigar rewards patience. Take a single draw and you get that sweet nuttiness with a little cream before the leather and coffee show up. Take two draws and you get leather, heavy black coffee, a little earthiness, and bitterness that just kind of hangs out. Substantially better on a single draw. The only reason I was playing with doubles at all was to keep it burning evenly, and even so, no touch-ups at all through the entire cigar. Retro a single draw here and it's super rewarding... mild baking spice, sweet cream, slight nuttiness, very light leather, light roasted coffee.

Near the end, the ash was still holding but getting flakier, and I tapped the flakes off a couple of times. Even on a single draw it's heavy leather, medium black coffee, a touch of earthiness, and not really any sweetness left. Retro: black pepper, a touch of nuttiness, leather, and a medium-to-dark roast black coffee. When I ashed it, the ash broke away clean and stayed together, but this time it broke straight across... no more center point.

Then the surprise. The first draw with the ash gone had a really good hit of something sweet up front, before the leather, coffee, and a light earthiness took over... prominent, but just for a moment, and I couldn't tell you what it was. Then that bitterness lingered again, with a very light breadiness and a hint of cream alongside it. On the retro it was almost like vanilla, along with leather, cream, and black coffee, the bitterness still there too. Multiple draws confirmed it: a hit of vanilla, prominent but very, very quick... there and then gone almost immediately, leaving leather, coffee, a light earthiness, and that light bitterness on the finish. Good, but weird, because it wasn't there through the entire rest of the cigar. It left pretty quick and didn't stick around long at all. By then the burn had gone very wavy with a good third of the cigar barely burning. Had it been burning evenly, that vanilla may have stayed around longer.

Construction

• Wrapper: medium brown, not toothy, small veining, triple cap. No issues I could see, and the foot band came off without a problem.
• Draw: snug from the cold draw on. Not unworkable, not enough to bring out the draw tool, but tighter than I want. It opened up a little in the second half and never got to where I wanted it. This is my one real knock on the construction.
• Burn: a little wavy the whole way, one corner mostly, and slight rotations handled it. Zero touch-ups. The only time it got really wonky was the very end of the final third after the last ash, when a good third of the cigar was barely burning.
• Ash: tight, a little flaky later on, a couple of flyers early and none that mattered. Every ash came off clean and stayed together, with a point in the center from the ligero on the first two. The last one broke straight across.
• Smoke output: about average.
• Bands: both the secondary and the primary were glued very well, but only to themselves... no glue on the wrapper, and both came off perfectly clean.

Bottom Line

Everything about this cigar is good except the one thing that wouldn't leave. Bready, creamy, nutty, with a retro that was rewarding all night and a second third that was by far the best stretch. Construction was great... zero touch-ups, clean ashes, clean bands. But that bitterness hung on and was present through most of the cigar, and it ramped up a bit in the final third. Never overpowering, never to the point of being unenjoyable, and not drying... just there, all over the palate, and I found myself rinsing with water to get rid of it. Add a draw that never opened up the way I wanted, and that's what knocks it down.

The cigar also rewards patience. Single draws gave me the sweet nutty cream. Double draws gave me leather, heavy coffee, and more of the bitterness. If you smoke this one slow, you'll like it more.

Would I smoke it again? Yes... a solid Five-Pack (3/4) for tonight's stick. I've had this cigar before without that bitterness through it, and it was good enough that I bought a box on the strength of those smokes. I have more of them in the humidor and I'm not upset about that. But this is one cigar, one review, and I judge the stick I smoked tonight, not the ones I remember from months back. Had the bitterness stayed away, and especially if that vanilla had shown up more than once, this would be an argument for a Box Buy. It didn't, so it isn't.

Best for: either way you want it. You can focus on it and chase the single-draw flavors, or you can hang out in a group and not worry about having to mess with the cigar, because the construction won't make you. Smoke it slow, and keep water nearby.

My scale, one question only... would I spend my own money on this again? 4 Box Buy (box on hand, always) / 3 Five-Pack (yes, a few live in the humidor) / 2 Hand-Me-One (wouldn't buy it, wouldn't turn one down) / 1 Not Even Free (I'd rather smoke nothing).

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