Perez-Carrillo La Historia Silk Toro Review

2026-08-30  Hand-Me-One · 2/4 My Money · by Eric

Filed under: Burn Issues · Field Repairs · Dominican Republic · Ecuador · Habano · Retrohale · Bitter Cigar?

Verdict: Hand-Me-One (2/4). There's a cream-leather-coffee cigar in here that kept trying to show up, but a bitterness that never left, a wrapper that cracked in at least six places, and touch-up after touch-up on the burn is not a $16.50 experience.

E.P. Carrillo renamed the company Casa Carrillo in 2025, and the Silk was the first cigar to wear the new name on a foot band. It's Lissette Perez-Carrillo's project: three candidate blends went out to a panel of women retailers and cigar smokers around the country, and the winner became the Silk — an Ecuador Habano wrapper over a binder and filler the company doesn't officially disclose. Unlike the box-pressed core La Historia, it's rolled round, made at the company's Dominican factory, and produced in small batches to keep it somewhat exclusive.

The Setup

• Cigar: Perez-Carrillo La Historia Silk Toro (6 x 52), round. Ecuador Habano wrapper; binder and filler officially undisclosed. Made at the Casa Carrillo factory in the Dominican Republic.
• Street price: ~$16.50 a single; it comes in boxes of 10.
• What I paid: around $14 of my own money. I don't remember where I picked it up.
• Storage: main humidor at 69% RH, resting at least a few months.
• When/where: back deck at the house, eight in the evening. 80°F with a feels-like of 81 and 68% humidity, dead calm... looking out at the trees, not a leaf moving.
• Food beforehand: about two hours before, chicken and pasta in a tomato paste, olive oil, and spicy blend sauce with some cream in it, then a San Pellegrino, and three water crackers right before the smoke to clear any oil off the palate.
• First cigar of the day, paired with water.

Light Up and First Third

Pre-light, this was a nice-looking cigar: light brown wrapper, small veins, a triple cap. It has a foot band protecting the bottom of the foot, and I like foot bands... as long as they're glued only to themselves. This one was also tacked to the wrapper leaf, and taking it off tore the wrapper a little. That annoys me every time it happens.

Straight cut with the Xikar XO double guillotine. The cold draw was very good: a light, mild sweetness and a slight tingle in the nose on the cold retro. And that's when I saw it — a crack in the wrapper. Then another spot. I did not like where this was starting, so I went inside and got the cigar glue. One of the cracks was right at the secondary band, which meant peeling that band off too; it came off fine. Three cracks glued before the thing was ever lit.

While the glue was curing, my dad called, and by the time we hung up I had found and glued quite a few more cracks that were not there the first time I rolled the cigar around. And here's the thing: this wasn't abuse. It rested in my main humidor at 69% for months, the humidor sits around 66-68°F, it spent fifteen minutes in my 72-degree kitchen, and it walked out into an 80-degree evening. No temperature shock, no dry storage. The cracks are on the cigar, not on me.

This is exactly why you keep cigar glue on hand. Without it, three-plus cracks pre-light means I'm not lighting it up, and at this street price you're basically taking a twenty dollar bill and throwing it in the garbage. Same logic as owning a draw tool: a plugged cigar without one is money in the trash too.

Once the glue set, I toasted it with the Jetline single torch. Side note on evening smokes: in dim light you can actually see where the torch flame is hitting and where the ember is taking on the foot, way better than daytime. Toasting draws gave a nice sweet breadiness with leather and a touch of nuttiness. The first draws after light-up: a sweet creaminess and leather right off the front, a very light nuttiness, some very light roasted black coffee, and a light woodiness — nothing sharp, just there. The retro carried a good amount of baking spice with creaminess, leather, and light roasted coffee, and a leathery creaminess lingered on the palate. Strength at this point: very mild. It was a pleasant start.

It didn't last. The burn went crooked almost immediately — not wavy, just straight-up crooked, a quarter inch on one side and half an inch on the other — so I touched it up, and right after that touch-up the cigar turned bitter. Not leather-bitter or coffee-bitter. Just bitterness, first thing on every draw, and only after it toned down did cream, leather, and coffee show through. The retro became a clean white pepper — not earthy, just clean spice — and you had to wait it out before you could find the underlying flavors: a faint creamy sweet leather and a very light roasted coffee. The prominent flavor was really kind of no flavor at all, just that white pepper.

And the burn kept going crooked. There was zero breeze. Every draw, the ember glowed red all the way around the wrapper, so it wasn't an unlit spot. This cigar just wanted to burn crooked.

By the end of the first third the bitterness had toned down a touch — leather and coffee first now, then bitterness — but the sweet cream was mostly gone, down to a hint. Retro still white pepper, and after it you went hunting: a little leather, a little black coffee, very little cream. Kind of bland. That's not what I was expecting; I'd heard really good things about this cigar. I could also see the cigar bulging where the glue was, which had me wondering if it would hold.

Second Third

When I ashed it, the exposed cone had a nice point on it, well centered — so the filler was burning the way it should, which made the crooked wrapper burn even more of a head-scratcher. Touched up the line and kept going.

Single draws through here: woodiness — no specific wood, just woodiness — leather, coffee, and less bitterness than before. A double draw brought a good amount of bitterness back up front. The retro mellowed: white pepper, milder now, with leather coming in quick behind it, a subtle creaminess, and a little coffee. Then mid-third the bitterness ramped back up hard enough that I was thinking about laying the whole thing down. It was not enjoyable through that stretch. But it backed off: a roasted nuttiness and deep leather on the draw, rolling into a bitterness that lingers and slowly fades, then a little creaminess and a medium-roast coffee behind it. Strength up to mild-plus. And the burn mostly corrected itself through here — I didn't have to grab the torch for a good stretch, which I appreciated.

The end of the second third was the best this cigar got, and it was legitimately good. The main note turned to cream, with nuttiness, woodiness, leather, and medium-roast black coffee behind it. The retro taught me a lesson, though: push too much smoke through and it's a wall of clean white pepper and leather, full stop. Ease off and you get white pepper with cream right there beside it, leather, and a little coffee. For the first time since the light, I was really happy with where this cigar sat.

Then came band removal, and I was praying the main band wasn't attached to the cigar. It mostly wasn't — a tiny piece of wrapper came off on the band, no visible tear — but the band was hiding another crack. This one ran halfway around the cigar in nearly a straight line. With the flavor finally coming around, that was the last thing I wanted to see. Dab of glue, and the hassle with gluing mid-smoke is the glue doesn't get much time to cure before the burn line shows up. Then, checking the rest of the cigar, I found one more crack just past where the burn line was headed — close enough that gluing it was pointless. Whatever this wrapper is, either I got a bad one or it is ridiculously delicate.

Final Third

After the ash came off to start the final third, the bitterness climbed right back to the front. A little cream, then leather and coffee, and the nuttiness and woodiness were gone. The retro was the bright spot: a good amount of white pepper, then leather, a touch of creaminess, black coffee — that part was decent.

By halfway through, the pattern was locked in. A single draw got rewarded: nuttiness and cream come quick, then leather, then it rolls over into bitterness. Two draws in a row got punished: just a mouthful of bitterness. So I stuck to single draws, only doubling up when the ember needed the help. Smoke production actually increased through here — heavier than average by the end. And the glue held; that band crack never spread another millimeter.

Here's the detail that tells you what this final third was like: I was drinking water every few puffs and swishing it around my mouth, because the bitterness would linger between draws and never clear on its own. I don't do that. Even on bitter cigars, I don't have to do that.

Strength finished at medium — it climbed all night but never pushed past it. I took it as far as I was willing to take it, which was most of the way, and set it down. Sometimes the cigar rewarded you with cream and nuttiness and leather before the bitterness took over. But the bitterness always came.

Construction

• Wrapper: Pretty to look at — light brown, small veins — and ridiculously delicate. Three cracks glued before light-up, several more found and glued mid-smoke, one hiding under the main band, and one more past the burn line I didn't bother with. Months of rest at 69% RH and no temperature shock, so this isn't a storage story. Either I got a bad stick or this wrapper can't handle real life.
• Draw: Very good, cold and lit. Maybe a touch snugger than I'd like mid-smoke, never a problem.
• Burn: Crooked from light-up and it fought me for two thirds — at least four touch-ups, no relights. Clean burn line the whole time, just crooked, with the filler cone burning centered underneath. It finally settled into serviceable late.
• Ash: The bright spot. Tight, stacked well, held on, and came off clean and whole into the tray every single time. A little flakiness here and there off a vein, and you could always tell where the glue was because the ash looks weird at those spots.
• Smoke output: Normal early, heavier than average by the final third.
• Band: Three bands, and two of them caused problems. The Casa Carrillo foot band was glued to the wrapper leaf and tore it coming off. The secondary band came off clean. The main band came off without damage but was hiding the biggest crack of the night.

Bottom Line

There's a decent mild-to-medium cigar somewhere inside the Silk. That stretch at the end of the second third — cream out front, nuttiness and leather and medium-roast coffee behind it, a well-behaved white pepper retro — was the cigar I think they meant to make. But that's not the cigar I got. I got a night of managing: glue before the light, glue during the smoke, touch-up after touch-up, and a bitterness that moved in after the first touch-up and never fully left, right down to rinsing my mouth with water through the entire final third. At $16.50 a stick, "the good parts peek through if you babysit it" is not the deal.

Would I smoke it again? Hand-Me-One (2/4). Hand me one at a herf and I'll smoke it without complaint — when this cigar was on, it was pleasant, and the ash and draw were never the problem. But the question my scale asks is whether I'd spend my own money on it again, and the answer is no. It's possible I got a bad stick — the crack count says something went wrong somewhere — but the bitterness wasn't a construction problem, and the verdict gets judged on the cigar I smoked, not the one I hoped for.

Best for: clean white pepper retrohale fans who smoke slow — this cigar rewards light single draws and gentle retros, and punishes anything more. Keep water alongside. And whatever you paid for it, have cigar glue within reach before you light it.

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).

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