Today I bring you a review of the La Rosa Cubana stogie. Huge props to our friends over at Stogie Guys for taking the time to send me this stogie and to get my opinion on it. At the end of the review you will also see an embedded video hosted over at YouTube of me smoking the La Rosa. This is something new and were going to try and provide 7-10 minute video clips to accompany our written reviews.
I guess the unique thing about the La Rosa Cubana is where these cigars are rolled. While there are a few cigars that are rolled in the USA like in Miami, the La Rosa is rolled in downtown Manhattan NYC. Not the place where you would imagine a tobacco production setup.
The La Rosa Cubana that I’m smoking is their Robusto shape weighing in at 5 inches long with a 50 ring. It features a natural Connecticut shade wrapper and according to their website a blend that is made up of 75% Cuban and 25% Dominican. They also offer a Dominican maduro wrapper version in all of their sizes.
Inspecting the cigar you will notice that its not one of the most attractive stogies out there. A lot of visible veins but relatively smooth to the touch and a firm construction. I actually like the simple looking band they use. Kind of gives off that blue collar worker look to it. I took a few sniffs before cutting and toasting and you get a nice sweet toasty almost nutty smell coming from the wrapper.
Experience a pretty crappy cut. A lot of the loose filler kept falling out. My first few puffs after toasting the foot were a bit harsh. The tobacco had salty taste to it that just didn’t blend well with the natural earthy tobacco flavors.
Slow even burn was a nice touch and shows that the guys at La Rosa put some effort in the actual construction. I have to say they really missed on the flavor profile. To me it was harsh. The La Rosa had a very salty and herbal taste to it that just didn’t do it for me. Occasionally I experienced a nutty flavored short finish to it but the nutty flavors were few and far between. I loved the licorice aroma it put out but the flavor profile was not my thing.
Maybe I got a bad stick. Maybe the couple months resting in my humidor weren’t enough. I can see the La Rosa Cubana as a yard-gar or something to smoke to keep you busy but I don’t think I’m going to find a place in my humidor for these but I thank the Stogie Guys for sending me the stogie to try. Every stogie has a following and I’m sure these do too.
Love the added video content. Anyway we can subscribe to the videos? Like RSS where it updates when a new video is added to a past review?
Jerry- Sounds like you’re experience wasn’t as good as mine. Maybe as a New Yorker I was giving La Rosa the hometown discount.
I’ve got some pictures from my visit to their store/factory here.
Also, like the video feature.
Patrick – Sorry I couldn’t give it a better review…but I do appreciate you taking the time to see what I thought! Maybe it was just a bad stick…it photographed well, I think the shots of it were the best shots I’ve ever taken with a digital camera.
Jacob – My blackberry buddy! Thanks for stopping by, watching the video and leaving a comment. I’ll look into getting a video RSS feed up. I’m not sure how I can get two different feeds for one site though. I guess I could put the videos on a subdomain or something. Stay tuned!
Great review and the video is dandy. But for the kids out there — don’t fill your lighter with a half-lit cigar in your mouth. Jerry is a professional. Do not try this at home!
Just kidding there bro. I’m looking forward to more videos, but I think I’ll pass on the Rosa Cubana. I trust your judgement, and “harsh and salty and herbal” just doesn’t entice me for some reason.
Cigarfan – Thanks for checking out the videos. This is actually the first video I shot while actually taking notes and reviewing. Some of the other videos (Exodus 1959, Lot 23 and Don Juan Urquijo) were done after the fact so I had some cheat sheets so it was a lot of fun to do a “live” recording of a new stogie.
I think I’ve received like 20 messages from the folks at YouTube telling me to get a better lighter…even when I think the thing is filled it goes out. LOL.
Jacob & Anyone else interested – If you don’t want to register on YouTube and subscribe to my channel to get notified of new videos you can add the following RSS feed to your reader:
feed://www.youtube.com/rss/jcruz1027/youtube/videos.rss