My Father Le Bijou 1922 Torpedo Review

2026-07-11  Five-Pack · 3/4 My Money · Steal

Verdict: Five-Pack (3/4)... for this stick, on this night, and just barely over that line. I've smoked a bunch of these, I have a box in my humidor right now, and most nights this cigar smokes like a Box Buy... which is exactly why this site rates the cigar in my hand, not the reputation. Tonight's stick fought me: tight draw, thin smoke, a couple of touch-ups, a crack late. Still very good. Not its best.

The Setup

• Cigar: My Father Le Bijou 1922, Torpedo Box Press (6 1/8 x 52)
• Blend: Nicaraguan puro... Habano Oscuro (Pelo de Oro) wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and filler, made at My Father Cigars in Estelí. This blend was Cigar Aficionado's #1 Cigar of the Year back in 2015
• Street price: around $11.75-12.25 for a single, ~$243 for a box of 23 (~$10.55/stick)
• What I paid: $154.98 shipped for a box of 23 last Black Friday... $204.98 list with a $50 discount, which works out to $6.74 a stick, and they threw in a free lighter on top. Receipt and all... my own money, nobody sent me this. (The verdict still gets judged at street. That's the rule.)
• Storage: from my humidor stock, 69% Boveda
• When/where: 7:30pm on the back deck, in the shade... 78° with a feels-like of 81 and 80% humidity, after just shy of 2 inches of rain in the morning
• Food beforehand: dinner two hours earlier... boneless buffalo wings, chicken quesadilla, mozzarella sticks with marinara, fries, and a San Pellegrino
• Pairing: just water

Before the Light... Including My Own Mistake

The wrapper is dark and not too thick, a little veiny, with one slight imperfection up near the torpedo end that I didn't expect to cause problems (it didn't). Just pulling it out of the cellophane it smells spicy... no effort required. So the cold draw surprised me: a really nice tobacco sweetness, and none of that spice on the lips at all. The draw itself was a little tight, which turned out to be tonight's theme.

Now the confession. I clipped this one without paying attention to where the cap ended, took too much off the torpedo, and watched the wrapper start to unwind on me. Fortunately I was home, so a little cigar glue put it right back down... and credit where it's due, that repair held the entire smoke. That one's on me, not My Father. Torpedoes punish you for cutting on autopilot.

First Third

First light is exactly what this cigar's reputation promises: dark chocolate, tobacco sweetness, a light spice on the retrohale. This one is rich... there were flavors in there I kept trying to place and couldn't, which is a good sign. The retro settles into a really sweet baking spice, no bitterness anywhere at the start, and a sweetness that lingers... and I mean lingers. It just never leaves between puffs. That long sweet finish is the signature of this cigar for me.

The draw opened up some from light-up... better, still not where I want it. Ash stacked like dimes except the backside, which ran a little flaky. By the end of the third a touch of bitterness crept onto the finish, though the sweetness stayed firmly in charge. The burn got a little wonky... nothing bad, but since I was knocking the ash anyway, I gave it its first touch-up.

Second Third

Mid-second-third is where tonight's stick showed its mood. Still that tobacco sweetness and dark chocolate, now with a little bitterness... and the finish picked up this odd nickel note. Like when you put a penny in your mouth as a kid... a light version of that, riding the end of each puff. The burn went properly crooked, one side burning much slower than the rest, and the smoke production ran thinner than I like the whole way through this cigar.

By the end of the third the ash had held on great, gotten flakier, and I knocked it. The burn mostly corrected itself with rotation... not razor sharp, wavy, but not worth a touch-up on its own. The nickel thing left as quietly as it arrived. The retro moved from baking spice to a pepper spice... still comfortable to retro a full pull. The dark chocolate slid well into the background, and every once in a while I'd catch an over-roasted nut note that was gone in a fraction of a second. The draw, which had been improving, tightened back up on me. The main band came off clean... a tiny bit connected to the wrapper, but no tearing, no damage.

Somewhere in here it planted its flag strength-wise: this is medium-plus to full, no question. And right at the transition I got one big head of chocolate... quick in and out, then just that lingering sweet.

Final Third

Right after ashing, the wonky burn came back... one corner lagging... so I touched it up a second time, and that touch-up worked wonders. The bitterness that had been building basically vanished, the chocolate popped back up front, the pepper eased off, and the sweetness held. If you smoke this cigar and it turns bitter on you, check your burn line before you blame the blend.

Then it started fighting me again: a small crack opened just below the burn line. It never spread and never touched the flavor, but between that, the tightening draw, and the earlier repairs, this stick made me work tonight. The pepper ramped up on the retro... not sinus-clearing, just noticeably more present.

Near the end, the profile did something I don't see often: the finish went short. The sweetness and the bitterness would both show up, hang for a moment at about equal intensity, and then just leave... after two thirds of that endless sweet linger, suddenly there wasn't much staying on the palate between puffs. Chocolate quick in and out, that over-roasted nut around the edges. And then the genuinely unusual part... in the last stretch the bitterness actually dropped. Final thirds build bitterness, that's just what they do... this one got more comfortable to retro at the end than it was an inch earlier.

Construction

• Wrapper: dark, oily, slightly veiny... one small imperfection near the torpedo end (non-issue) and one crack below the burn line in the final third (stable, no flavor impact)
• Draw: the weak point tonight... tight on the cold draw, opened up through the first half, then tightened again late. Never got to where I want it
• Burn: wonky in stretches, crooked in the second third... partial self-correction by rotation, two touch-ups, the second of which transformed the cigar
• Ash: held on great, dime-stacked on one side and flaky on the other
• Smoke output: thinner than I like, the entire smoke
• Bands: main band off clean, slightly stuck to the wrapper but zero damage... and the orange foot ribbon protected a flawless foot
• My contribution: over-clipped the torpedo and had to glue the wrapper down... the repair held all night. Cut torpedoes with your eyes open

Bottom Line

The flavors that made this blend famous showed up: dark chocolate, deep tobacco sweetness, baking spice turning to pepper, and that first-two-thirds finish that lingers forever. The stick they arrived in didn't cooperate... tight draw, thin smoke, a crooked burn that needed managing, and a late crack. A very good cigar having an off night is still a very good cigar... it's just not a great one.

Would I smoke it again? Five-Pack... for this cigar, tonight, and it just barely clears that bar. I've had this cigar smoke phenomenally, enough times that there's a full box sitting in my humidor as I write this. My history with the Le Bijou 1922 is solidly Box Buy behavior. This site's rule is one cigar, one review... I rate what I actually smoked, and tonight I smoked a Five-Pack. If this had been my first one ever, it'd be lower on my grab list. It wasn't, so watch this space... the next one gets its own fair shake.

Best for: an after-dinner smoke with time to pay attention... this is medium-plus to full and it deserves a real meal in you first. Pair it with water and let that chocolate-and-sweetness linger do its thing.

My rating 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).

More reviews