Cigar Review: La Flor Dominicana Double Claro No. 50
Cigar Review: La Flor Dominicana Double Claro No. 50
Back Story/Product Info:
“La Flor Dominicana steps away a bit from it’s full bodied cigars this year with the release of the La Flor Dominican Double Claro cigar. Using an Ecuadorian Claro wrapper to give it more of a medium body, this cigar will be a favorite amongst fans of Candela wrappers. That familiar taste of the Candela wrapper with a bit of boldness that you can expect from La Flor Dominicana!”
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Claro
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Dominican
Strength: Medium Bodied
I consider myself a pretty experienced smoker ; if you name something out of any of our stores, I’ve probably smoked it, and can most likely tell you about my experience in detail. However, in this case, I had no idea what I was getting myself into– never in my life have I ever smoked a cigar with a Double Claro (American Market Selection, Candela) wrapper until now. At first, I was a little skeptical, as whenever someone describes a cigar as “green”, it usually is an indicator that a cigar needs time to age before reaching its’ full potential. To my surprise, this little green cigar had a great smoking experience to offer, though it does not (or was intended to, to my knowledge) have the same flavor/strength profile of most of LFD’s line.
Pre-Light:
Appearances are an integral part to making a first impression. Though this cigar was green (it didn’t glow in the dark– already checked!) it had typical LFD construction and quality control, which translates to a beautiful wrapper, and seamless construction. Also, only the wrapper is green, the binder and filler still are of aged tobaccos that yield the usual Colorado shade that we associate binder and filler with.
The pre-light aroma often says a lot about how a cigar is actually going to smoke. Although this cigar had a Candela wrapper, I got plenty of barnyard and sweet notes from the wrapper. The pre-light draw, though a little firm yielded notes of caramel sweetness, along with the same barnyard characteristics as mentioned before.
Lighting Up/The First Third
I seem to be doing this more often for some reason: I have been meticulously toasting the feet of my cigars before smoking them. Perhaps it’s some tobacconist instinct, to do so during the winter months, because of the drier air to ensure a better burn? Who knows . Anyways, when toasting the foot of this cigar, I smelled a ton of cedar– this is is unlike the majority of the LFD line, which usually is earthy and smoky. Luckily, I’m a fan of all of the mentioned qualities, so I made a note of this aroma, and continued smoking.
The first puff told me a lot about this cigar: mild to medium flavor, medium body. I was greeted with a generous amount of sweet and grassy notes, with the caramel sweetness outshining the grass slightly. As mentioned in my previous review, it’s very important to blow some smoke out of the nose ; I caught some nutmeg that I wouldn’t have caught with my tongue! I’m often working when smoking cigars, so from time to time I put them down to help customers. When making a trip into the humidor, I noticed that this cigar has a medium finish– in other words, the flavor lingered for a while after putting it down, but was easily washed away by water, or black coffee.
So far, so good.
Halfway Point:
At the halfway point of this cigar, I was starting to get more profound notes from the wrapper, which is of barnyard nature. This eventually eclipses the grassy nature of the cigar, turning into a sweet, barnyard- esque flavor profile.
The construction of this cigar is still holding up quite well. The wrapper didn’t split, and the burn was straight as a razor. Also, the ash held quite well, as I was still holding on to over an inch of ash! Solid! At times, I’ll admit that I smoke aggressively, and when I smoked this particular cigar, it was “one of those days”. However, even with that said, was still getting a nice, cool smoke that still tasted smooth and complex.
Finish:
Even towards the end, the blend still evolved into a slightly bitter coffee flavor, with the remains of the sweet notes from earlier in the cigar. I ended up smoking this cigar well past the band, to the length of about 1.75”. Yes, it was that good! I was quite impressed by this cigar, and it wiped away any predispositions that I had about cigars with green wrappers. Go LFD! Come on into one of our five stores and try one (or buy a box) today– you won’t regret it!
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