Troianiello Cigars is a Scranton, PA based cigar company that produces premium cigars as well as flavored cigars in the Dominican Republic. I know, when you think of Scranton you think of Parodi and Avanti Toscano style cigars, which is now owned by Toscano Cigars in Italy, by the way. I’ve smoked my fair share of those, fun fact, if you ever had an Avanti and thought the packaging reminded you of a Tootsie Roll, that’s because they actually bought the packaging machine from the Tootsie Roll company! Michael Troianiello messaged me and asked me if I’d try his cigars, so I bought a sampler from his website. This guy also owns a masonry company, so I gotta be careful what I say…
I decided to get the most imposing cigar in the sampler out of the way. He made some substitutions because what he sent varies from the sampler advertised. I started with the 7″ x 70 Troianiello Capo. This was a monster cigar with a San Andrés wrapper (natural), and Dominican fillers. The website says it’s a black broadleaf wrapper, this certainly was not (and a change request has been submitted). I had some dental work done on Wednesday and I wasn’t sure how that was going to impact my ability to smoke, so I got a few in early in the week so as not to be caught unprepared for today’s post. Followers of my Instagram will notice that it wasn’t an issue after all. The Capo was a very nice, medium cigar with some white sugar notes. I like the flavor quite a bit, but it took some attention to keep it going right. It was big, and after two plus hours I put it down. This blend in a toro would be awesome.
Next up was the Troianiello Gina Marie. This Toro is presented in a Connecticut Shade (presumably Ecuador), and San Andrés Barber pole wrap, with Dominican fillers. Gina Marie must be a relative, doesn’t sound like the name of the family barber to be. This was a very pleasant cigar. I got the same white sugar sweetness I got with the Capo, considering they share a wrapper, that makes sense. There was also the creamy component from the shade. Burned well and had a nice flavor, medium to light bodied overall. I don’t have anything bad to say about the cigar.
After surviving the dental work, I went next to the Troianiello Trifecta. I admit, I’m a sucker for the triple wrap barber pole style cigars, I find the colors to be very complimentary, this is a beautiful cigar. It has a San Andrés Maduro, Connecticut shade and Candela wrapper leaves over Dominican binder and filler. This one takes the Gina Marie one step further and adds some tanginess from the candela, although the white sugar was hard to find. Some nuts, some coffee and tanginess, it was a very nice cigar.
Of the remaining three cigars he sent, one was a Whiskey flavored cigar, and since I haven’t had Whiskey in close to 40 years, this is of little interest to me. It’s not part of the sampler he advertises, so I assume it was a well meant add on. He also sent a couple petite coronas in the Maduro bend as he may have been out of stock of the Robusto size, and I’ll get to them another time. This left the Troianiello Luciano Michael Churchill. This has a nice Connecticut shade wrapper, with aged Dominican binder and fillers. This might have been my favorite in the selection. It wasn’t a particularly mild cigar, it had a little oomph to it. I got some really interesting exotic spice flavors, perhaps some nutmeg and cinnamon. It burned for an hour and a half-ish, and was quite enjoyable. This is a new company, I think it launched in ’21, which was a bold move considering the time. They look to be sold in a lot of locations in the north-east part of PA, and are available on the website for purchase. Although these may not enter my own rotation, they were good cigars, if I saw the Maduro and Habano in the wild I would pick some up to try. I hope this all doesn’t leave me open for a cement shoe fitting.
Yesterday I ended up back at Harrisburg Beer and Cigar. When I heard that Steve Saka would be stopping by I wasn’t really planning to go, as we’d just seen his wife there two weeks ago, but I got wind that my old friend Stace was thinking of flying up from Charlotte, I figured I’d go to hang out with him for a bit. It was great seeing him, last time I saw him was at the 2016 IPCPR show. he’s genuinely oneof the nicest people I know. Steve is OK too, and the hospitality of James and Nick at Harrisburg Beer and Cigar is unmatched. I smoked a couple of my favorite DTT cigars while there, a Red Meat Lovers and a Mi Querida. If you go there, try out the massage chair. Photo courtesy of Stace.
That’s all for today, until the next time,
CigarCraig
