La Gloria Cubana Artesanos De Tabaqueros
Once again the gracious people at the General Cigar Company sent me some samples of the cigar up for review today. I should mention that the last company I expected to want me to review their cigars was the General Cigar Company. To my surprise, they have been very generous to the bloggers out there, including myself. There is always a risk of a bad review, but they know that’s a risk worth taking.
You probably noticed something strange about the wrapper. The first third is wrapped with a Connecticut shade leaf, while the rest is covered in an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper. As many of you know, I’m not big on the back-stories about cigars. My focus is – Did it taste good? How did it burn? What about the draw? How much money? Where can I get it? At the end of the day that is all I am concerned with. I’ll catch the back stories sooner or later, but honestly I don’t care. So without further ado, I filled up a glass of water and here is my review.
Wrapper: Connecticut Shade & Ecuador Sumatra
Binder/Filler: ???
Size: Toro 6 x 50
Price: $8.00
Pre-Smoke & Construction:
Both wrappers had a toothy appearance. The Sumatra wrapper had larger veins but overall everything looked decent. Each wrapper had a slightly different odor – The Sumatra portion had an earthy smell with a slight spice. The Connecticut wrapper had a mellower earthy smell. I couldn’t detect any aroma from the foot. The pre-light draw was a ever so slightly snug, but not to the point of being a problem. Overall the cigar was firmly packed, with a soft spot here and there. The pre-smoke draw had a dark natural tobacco taste.
The burn required a couple corrections in the first third, but evened itself out. The ash held for just under an inch.
Flavor:
The first third is the Connecticut wrapper portion of this cigar. It had a nice mellow spice accompanied by earthy notes. After about an inch into this third, the smoke feel became thicker and had a creamy sensation. To round things up, a nice nutty component came about and completed the first third. I’d say the body was in the medium range, and wasn’t bad at all.
The second third is where I got into the Sumatra wrapped portion of the cigar. A dual wrapped cigar like this can help you realize how much the wrapper can effect the flavor. As soon as I hit this third, nice sweet coffee flavors entered the picture. When exhaling through the nose there was a smooth pepper with a tinge of sweetness. The smoke feel was a little creamy. As progressed to the end of this third, I picked up some cocoa flavors. To round things out were pleasant earthy notes. The body remained in the medium range.
The last third went into the upper medium to lower full bodied range. The smoke feel became very smooth can creamy. The pepper really mellowed out but kept some of it’s zing. At times the dominant flavor was cocoa, and other times a spicy cinnamon-ish flavor would take over. All the while fairly strong black coffee flavors were present. Faint earthy and nutty notes were in the background as well.
Conclusion:
This was a good medium to full bodied cigar. I liked how it steadily ramped up in flavors and body. The flavors changed enough to hold my interest, and nothing was unpleasant. I think this is worth trying for yourself. I imagine they are available at some local shops, as well as online. I’d be curious of your experience differs from mine.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 at 1:00 am and is filed under Cigar Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Jason Broadway August 17th, 2010 at 6:58 pm
We had a La Gloria event in the shop last month, and heard similar reviews. My favorite portion was the last third- smooth and creamy just like you said.
Keep up the great posts!
Jason