I had a few positive experiences with La Flor Dominicana in the past so I had high expectations when I took this Ligero Natural L500 from my humidor. The cigar is a bit too big for my taste, not in length which is 5¾, but in ring size which is 60. On the La Flor Dominicana website they claim it is full bodied, and I like that.



The construction feels good and the aroma is a stable smell with lot of herbs. The Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper is smooth, silky and light colored. I see a few veins. I punch the cigar and get a good predraw that leaves a peppery taste on my lips with some dry wood.



I taste coffee and a mild citrus like sourness on the background. After half an inch I taste some wood, the coffee and citrus have disappeared. The flavor gets weaker.



Halfway the wood gets a little musty and I also discover a sweetness in the flavors. After ⅔ the cigar gets a little bit spicy



The smoke time of this cigar is 90 minutes. The draw is great and I got a good amount of smoke. The firm ash is salt & pepper colored. This one dimensional cigar is both medium bodied and medium flavored. I got a huge flame while purging.



Would I buy this cigar again? What do you think?

Appearance: 8 / 10
Construction: 7 / 10
Draw: 8 / 10
Burn: 7 / 10
Smoke & ash: 7 / 10
Aroma first part: 6 / 10
Aroma second part: 6 / 10
Aroma third part: 6 / 10

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Now some of you know that I would like to try all different Cuban regional editions and I have collected quite a few of them. An American friend, who studied in Madrid for a semester, used his spring break to travel Europe and I offered him and his friends a place to stay in Amsterdam for the few days that they were in town. As a thank you Ben brought me one of each Spanish regional edition, the 2007 Vegas Robaina Maestros, the 2008 Ramon Allones Grandes and the 2009 Punch Gran Robusto. I decided to light the Ramon Allones Grandes, there is something about the Ramon Allones brand that I like better than the other two brands.



This chocolate brown cigar measures 7.1 inch with a 49 ring and looks quite impressive with that length. The mild oily wrapper is a bit messy and has lots of veins, but the finish is flawless. This stogie has a recognizable Cuban barnyard smell and the construction feels good. The predraw is fine and I taste dry flavors of nuts and wood.



I taste a full leather flavor with some earth. I have said it before and I am going to say it again: these flavors are classic Cuban and these specific flavors you can't fine in cigars from other countries. Leather and earth from other countries does taste different. I am not saying that Cubans are better than non Cubans or the other way around, I love both Cubans and Non Cubans. I am just saying that you can taste the difference. The aftertaste is a bit nutty. After an inch I also taste some chocolate on the background and the chocolate flavor is a bit creamy and sticky.



After ⅓ the nuts are getting a bit stronger and the flavor comes close to the strength of the leather and earth. The aftertaste is a mild chocolate. The nut flavor tastes a bit like hazelnuts. All flavors gain a bit strength and the nut flavor becomes the dominant one. The background is now leather, earth and chocolate. The chocolate gains power after ⅔ while the nuts and leather disappear. The nub also reveals some herbs and is quite spicy.



The smoke time of this Pacos is exactly two hours. This cigar gave me a good amount of thick smoke, a good draw, a good burn and some light colored firm ash. This cigar is full flavored yet medium bodied. The cigar burns clean, I did not get a flame when I purged.



Would I buy this cigar again? I suddenly have the urge to visit some old colleagues from the Barcelona office

Appearance: 7 / 10
Construction: 7 / 10
Draw: 7 / 10
Burn: 7 / 10
Smoke & ash: 7 / 10
Aroma first part: 8 / 10
Aroma second part: 8 / 10
Aroma third part: 8 / 10

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I'm not gonna tell the the story of the "my father" blend again, I guess by now everybody knows that it is a tribute from Jaime Garcia for his father Jose 'Don Pepin' Garcia. The cigar is a Nicaraguan puro with a rosado wrapper and is made at the My Father factory in Esteli, Nicaragua.



The rosado wrapper looks nice, chocolate brown color with just a few minor veins. The top of the belicoso is quite round. The band is detailed and awesome. Once I remove the cellophane I smell a very strong barnyard aroma. The construction feels great and the predraw is fine. I discover raisins in the predraw and the aftertaste is peppery. The cigar has a length of 5½ inch with a 54 ring.



I taste a full flavored spicy coffee with that signature Pepin twang. After half an inch I also get some wood on the background. An inch later the pepper decreases in strength, the wood becomes the main flavor with the coffee on the background. At ⅓ I can also taste herbal flavors and some sweetness.



The sweetness disappears as quickly as it showed up and I only taste wood and herbs. The herbs slowly gain power, with a hint of pepper and some wood on the background. The cigar slowly becomes more spicy and more peppery. Near the grande finale the wood and herbal mix gets stronger and the aftertaste is a black pepper flavor.



The smoke time of this cigar is about 95 minutes and during that time I got a lot of smoke, that was reasonably thick. The firm ash has a pepper and salt color. The draw and burn are good. There is a lot of build up in this full flavored, full bodied cigar because I got a huge flame when I purged. After finishing the cigar I was a little light headed, guess I had a light vitamin N overdose.



Would I buy this cigar again? Yes, not a whole box, but a single every now and then.

Appearance: 7 / 10
Construction: 7 / 10
Draw: 7 / 10
Burn: 7 / 10
Smoke & ash: 8 / 10
Aroma first part: 7 / 10
Aroma second part: 7 / 10
Aroma third part: 7 / 10

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This cigar was a gift I got at a herf at my place from a friend. I don't know the box code, so I can't tell if this is an aged cigar or not. I think it has some age, as the tax band mentioned a price lower than the current (government fixed) price, but no more than 7 years as the tax band mentions a euro price and the older bands mention the price in euro and guilders or guilders only.



This 6.6 x 43 Dalias has a nice oily wrapper with a few veins but the cigar itself has some spots, like it has acne. There is also a distinct waterspot on the wrapper. The construction feels a bit soft and the aroma of the cigar is a quite strong barnyard aroma.



I can taste some earthy tones, spicy and quite full. I taste some leather too, it is all classical Cuban. The flavors are complementary and well balanced. The texture is quite creamy.



After two inch I also taste some citrus like sourness, just a little hint of it though, and some toast. The leather has left the building. Halfway some nuts join the party but they disappear just as sudden as they appeared. The flavors is a mix of earth flavors with some toast, but mostly earthy notes.

After ⅔ I can taste a mild chocolate flavor on the background of the earthy with toast flavor.



The cigar produces a nice amount of smoke with a nice thickness. The draw is a bit on the loose side, but not so much that it bothered me. I had to correct the burn in the beginning, but after that it burned good. The ash is pretty dark, frayed and not very firm. I would rate this as a medium bodied, medium flavored cigar.



Would I buy this cigar again? Yes, a single every now and then or maybe a box at one of the online retailers.

Appearance: 7 / 10
Construction: 6 / 10
Draw: 6 / 10
Burn: 6 / 10
Smoke & ash: 8 / 10
Aroma first part: 7 / 10
Aroma second part: 7 / 10
Aroma third part: 7 / 10

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Last week was a good week for a Tatuaje fan like me. While some Tatuajes are making their way to the Dutch cigar shops, I haven't seen the tubos here yet, not the black nor the red, but last tuesday I got bombed a Tatuaje Verocu tubos and the next day I was meeting an American botl that was in Amsterdam for a day and he handed me another. I smoked the one he handed me right there and then and decided to light the one from the bomb for a review.



I must say that I love the tubo, the Tatuaje tubos are the best looking tubos that money can buy with an honorable mention for the Cuban Partagas P2 ofcourse. The cigar itself is a torpedo with a sharp top. The wrapper is dark and oily with a few tough veins. The cigar has a mild barnyard smell and a double band, the red Tatuaje band and then a second band which says 'verocu tubos'. Now from what I've heard this is a 'tat red on steroids' due to the extra use of ligero tobacco. The construction feels good but the predraw is too easy. I taste raisin and a pepper.



First flavors I get after lighting the cigar is espresso with pepper and on the background some fruit which I can describe best as wild berries or blueberries. The espresso disappears and now I taste wood with that blueberry flavor, strange but very nice.



The wood turns into a specific cedar flavor that reminds me of the specific Opus X and Liga Privada cedar flavor but with that nice blueberry flavor and eventually also some white pepper. The flavors are intense and deep. The pepper slowly becomes the dominant flavor with the cedar and the blueberries on the background.



The smoke time of this 6⅛x52 torpedo is about ninety minutes. The draw of this cigar was on the loose side, but as mentioned before, I smoked one earlier this week and the draw on that cigar was good. The smoke is fantastic, thick and white, it surprised me that my neighbors didn't call the fire department. The ash is light gray and firm. I did have some burn issues though, but they were easy to correct. This cigar is full flavored and full bodied. It burns clean, I only got a minor flame when I purged. I nubbed this cigar until my nose almost burned.



Would I buy this cigar again? Yes, I like them a lot

Appearance: 8 / 10
Construction: 8 / 10
Draw: 7 / 10
Burn: 7 / 10
Smoke & ash: 9 / 10
Aroma first part: 8 / 10
Aroma second part: 8 / 10
Aroma third part: 8 / 10

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