La Flor Dominicana Colorado Oscuro No. 5 Vitola – My Sample

In the world of cigars, all cigars are works of art to me.  I love to look at a cigar’s appearance from wrapper, to foot, to cap.   If these handmade gems are not works of art, then I don’t know what is.  At the 2011 IPCPR , there were plenty of works of art on display, but no cigar visually stood out as much as the La Flor Dominicana Colorado Oscuro. Of course leave it to me – the amateur photographer to botch a picture of one of the most visually stunning cigars I’ve seen.  Take my word, this cigar is much prettier than in the picture I took. Obviously in my mind when a cigar looks as good as the LFD Colorado Oscuro, it is one that I am going to be anxious to sample.  The end result is I got a nice cigar, that was good, but one I might have wanted to try in a different vitola.   From my initial impressions of a Gordo-sized vitola, I think this falls short of some of the more memorable smokes I’ve have in what has been the most competitive cigar year I’ve experienced in my lifetime.

The La Flor Dominicana will be a limited production cigar that will produced twice annually.   Currently these cigars are shipping in boxes of 50.

The cigar above is the sample I smoked.  As I mentioned, I botched the photo (I had too much light with the flash).  The wrapper is much darker and more oily than that picture shows.  The picture below of the LFD Colorado Oscuro was taken at the La Flor Dominicana booth at the 2011 IPCPR.  While the flash got int he way  in this picture as well, you can see the darker wrapper below.

La Flor Dominicana Colorado Oscuro – IPCPR 2011 Display

Let’s take a closer look and see the what this cigar brings to the table.

Blend Profile

The blend is interesting in that it uses Sumatra on both the wrapper and binder.  The wrapper comes from Ecuador and the binder from the Dominican Republic.

Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sumatra
Binder: Dominican Sumatra
Filler: Dominican, Nicaraguan

Vitolas Available

The La Flor Dominicana Colorado Ocuro is available in four vitolas.

No 2: 4 1/4 x 48
No 3: 5 x 50
No 4: 5 1/4 x 54
No 5: 5 3/4 x 60

Preparation for the Cigar Experience

Normally I gravitate toward big ring gauges, but in the case of the LFD Colorado Oscuro, the only size I’ve currently gotten my hands on his the No. 5 – which is a Gordo-sized cigar.   Given that this was a big ring gauge cigar, I defaulted to a straight cut through the cap.  On the pre-light draw, I detected notes of chocolate and leather, with a hint of cedar.  I was satisfied with the dry draw on this cigar and prepared to enjoy the smoking experience by lighting up the LFD Colorado Oscuro.

Flavor Profile

I use the term “Pepin Pepper Blast” to refer to a blast of pepper I get after lighting a Don Pepin Garcia (or Garcia family) blended cigar that subsides quickly.  This is Litto Gomez’s cigar, not Don Pepin Garcia’s, so I want to give Litto the proper respect here.  However I did get a pepper blast similar to what I get on a lot of Pepin cigars.   While I felt the pepper on the tongue, I really felt it on the nose.  This pepper blast, like a “Pepin Pepper Blast” subsided quickly.   I was then treated to chocolate, leather, and cinnamon notes.  The pepper spice moved into the background.

The flavors from the LFD Colorado Oscuro were very good, but I did not find this to be the most complex cigar in terms of a lot of flavor transitions.. The chocolate flavors did morph to more of a espresso syrup flavor by the midway point.   The spices did re-emerge in the second half as it took on more of a baker’s spice profile.  The baker’s spice never got overwhelming as it complemented the leather and cinnamon notes nicely.  The cigar did have nice flavors right until the nub.  Each time I had this cigar, I didn’t get a small nub.  The cigar finished soft and lukewarm each time it finished.

Burn and Draw

The burn on this cigar was not one of the better ones.  It tended to burn unevenly quite a bit and required more touch-ups than it should have.   I know this is an example where people will lecture me for going for the big ring gauge cigars, but there are plenty of 60 ring gauge cigars that do not have these burn issues. As far as the burn rate and burn temperature, this was not as much of an issue.   The draw was fine as it drew very well for a big ring gauge cigar.

Strength and Body

This cigar definitely had some bite to it as far as nicotine goes.  It easily qualified in my book as a full strength cigar.  As for the body, the notes did have some nice depth to it.  It does fall a little short of being full-bodied, and I assess the body as medium to full here.  Although the strength was fuller than the body, I still thought there was balance -i.e. while the strength was strong, it never sacrificed the flavor notes.

Final Thoughts

This is one of those cigars where it just might not work in the big ring gauge.   There is no doubt I want to give the other vitolas a sample.  My gut tells me with a little more age (these were new arrivals I purchased) and a smaller ring gauge, the burn issues might not be there.   I was also expecting more complexity here and perhaps the smaller ring gauges could do a little more in terms of balancing the flavors from the wrapper with the other tobaccos.  Still, I liked the flavors of this cigar and did not find this a bad cigar.   It’s definitely not a cigar for the novice and one for the more experienced cigar enthusiast who appreciates a full strength cigar.   For now this is a “Nice to Have” for the No 5 vitola.   Stay tuned for a follow-up assessment when I try the smaller ring gauges.

Summary

Burn: Fair
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: Low
Strength: Full
Body: Medium to Full
Assessment: Nice to Have

Source: The cigars for this assessment were purchased from W.Curtis Draper in Bethesda, Maryland.