Last week (July 26th) I attended the La Flor Dominicana event at Bethesda Tobacco in Bethesda MD. At the event I picked up an assortment of La Flor Dominicana stogies. The series that caught my eye immediately was the Gran Maduro Cabinet.
First I want to give a shout out to Mike, Greg & Charlie at Bethesda Tobacco. Great bunch of guys, who know their stuff and are truly passionate about stogies. Next event I’ll be more on top of my camera skills and actually take some pictures instead of standing around smoking.
The Cabinet edition by La Flor Dominicana is following the old Cuban tradition where the best cigars are Cabinets and are packed naked (no bands) in boxes of 50. La Flor Dominicana follows this tradition by offering the Gran Maduro and their 2000 Series in Cabinet editions.
The Gran Maduro #6 weighs in at 5.75 inches long with a 54 inch ring and has Dominican filler and binder wrapped within a Ecuradorian sun grown wrapper. As you can see, its not much to look at. I actually lost track of it inside my humidor as my humidor is starting to contain more and more naked stogies (Camacho El-Legend Ario, RP Edge).
The Ecuradorian wrapper has some visible veins but are fine to the touch. The wrapper is a bit dry to the touch and not oily like most other maduros out there. And as you can see, has some spots which if it wasn’t for them, I would’ve never been able to figure out what stick it was. Once you place this guy in your mouth, the spiciness just jumps off the stogie and onto your palette.
Even with my trusty Palio cutter I can never cut these Belicoso (Torpedo, Missile or one of the many other names for this shape) correctly. I always cut too little and when I go back to fix the cut, I end up cutting too much. So if you have any advice on cutting this shape stogie, please let me know. Do you just nip a little off?
Pretty powerful initial draw. Not a lot of smoke but a lot of spice flavor upfront! The draw was a bit uneven (this could be because of my crappy cut job) but the uneven draw is masked really well as the spice is all over the place. After the first inch the draw started to get a bit heavier and it took on a bit of acrid taste.
The Ecuradorian wrapper stayed intact and I had no burn issues which surprised me since the draw was a bit uneven and erratic. By erratic I mean the draw kept changing. Sometimes it was really easy, other times it was a bit tough and heavy.
Towards the end the acrid taste dissipated and the spiciness mellowed out a little and gave way to a subtle sweet finish that stays with you a bit after you put it down. Its an easy smoke and it doesn’t challenge your palette with all the tastes being very discernible. While at the event I picked up a handful from their Reserva Especial, Double Ligero and their Limitado II lines. The Limitado II line is a limited edition numbered stogies limited to 1,000 boxes of 50 sticks. I’m letting the Limitado II get some age in my humidor so in the future look for a review on it.
La Flor Dominicana Website – http://www.laflordominicana.com
Bethesda Tobacco Website – http://www.bethesdatobacco.com
I usually like to cut a torp so that it leaves an opening about the same size as I get when I guillotine a flat cap, or use a large punch on a flatty. It’s kinda like playing with conic sections, but more fun. Don’t be afraid to cut it too far down — that’s the nice thing about torps. Unlike parejos, if you cut a little too much it’s probably not going to unravel on ya. But you’re right– once you cut it, it’s hard to fix it, especially if you slobber as much as I do. That’s a nice looking wrapper there. Great lighting on the middle pic!
I picked up a couple of these and smoked them with a friend tonight. I have to say that we both really enjoyed these cigars! My dealer told me that they were somewhat limited in their distribution, so if you get a chance definitely pick some up.
I’ve heard the best way to cut a belicoso/torpedo is English style, with a V-cutter, the two Vs cancelling each other out & leaving more surface area, so in the end you’ve got as much draw space as on a standard vitola after the guillotine treatment.
So I guess Inquisition into Spanish cigars is best made with the tools of the Protestant British than those of the Catholic French.
Make sense?
Oy!