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| My Father Lounge Exclusive |
The My Father Lounge Exclusive is exactly what the name indicates. It is a special cigar made by My Father Cigars that is sold in cigar lounges sponsored by My Father Cigars. Over the past few years, with increasing smoking restrictions, cigar lounges have become a haven where cigar enthusiasts have sought out to enjoy a cigar. Manufacturers have now been working with cigar lounge owners to “sponsor” a lounge. We have seen this with Rocky Patel, Diamond Crown, and Avo Cigars. While there are others, the three examples provided all have introduced the concept of a “lounge exclusive” cigar as one of the benefits to sponsoring the lounge. Last year, My Father Cigars has joined the list of lounge sponsors with a lounge exclusive cigar. I recently had an opportunity to sample the My Father Lounge Exclusive. Overall, I found it a good cigar, but one that is up against steep competition in the My Father Cigars’ portfolio.
Without further adieu, let’s look at the cigar’s architecture and examine the smoking experience. I will disclaim up-front that this cigar assessment is based on a single smoking experience.
Blend Profile
The My Father Lounge exclusive features a Habano wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and filler.
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Habano
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Vitolas Available
The My Father Lounge Exclusive is pretty much a toro-sized vitola of 5 3/4 x 50. This is the only size of this blend that is available.
Appearance
The My Father Lounge Exclusive is a visually striking cigar. The Habano wrapper has a nice milk chocolate color to it. There are minimal veins that are visible (I really only noticed one) and there are very few wrapper seams.
The top band features the classic peach/pink, green, gold, and white My Father Cigars band. There is also a secondary band with a peach/pink, red, green, and gold color scheme. The text “LOUNGE” is prominently centered on the secondary band in gold font. Below that text it says “Exclusive” in a cursive gold font.
Preparation for the Cigar Experience
As I usually do, I opted to use a straight cut to clip the cap of my My Father Lounge Exclusive. It was then on to start the pre-light draw. The dry draw notes provided a combination of cocoa and leather. There was also a touch of cedar that was present. Overall, I considered this to be a satisfactory pre-light draw. At this point, I started the process of toasting the foot of the My Father Lounge Exclusive and prepared to see what the smoking experience would bring to the table.
Flavor Profile
The Garcia Family is known for what has become a signature pepper blast at the start of their cigars in their My Father Cigars. With the My Father Lounge Exclusive, it actually starts out a little slower, but a pepper blast does surface. When the pepper hits, I did feel it through the nasal passages. I also detected notes of cocoa, leather, and a hint of citrus. Once the pepper settled down, the cocoa notes became primary while the citrus and pepper notes were in the background. Meanwhile the leather notes dissipated.
Around the ten percent mark, the citrus and pepper notes dissipated and were replaced by nut flavors. The nut flavors soon increased and eventually would share the forefront with the cocoa flavors. The pepper notes remained in the background. This would be the flavor profile of the first half.
In the second half, I detected a mint-like after-taste from time to time from the My Father Lounge Exclusive. Toward the end of the second third, the nut flavors displaced the cocoa flavors as the primary flavor. It was in the last third where the pepper spice then surfaced. I found the pepper to have a harsh, but not overwhelmingly spicy quality to it. The resulting nub was firm to the touch and cool in temperature.
Burn and Draw
For the attributes of burn and draw, the My Father Lounge Exclusive could have been better. Given that this was based off a single cigar experience, it is possible that this can improve with subsequent smokes and we will certainly look at an assessment update in the future.
Overall, the burn of the My Father Lounge Exclusive did require multiple touch-ups with my lighter to keep the burn line straight. Overall, I felt there were more touch-ups required than I would have liked to see, so that kept the burn from getting an “excellent” score. As for the draw, while I like a little resistance on the draw, this draw was still tighter than I preferred.
Strength and Body
From a strength perspective, I found that the My Father Lounge cigar did not overpower me. I assessed this cigar to be a classic medium strength cigar. As for the depth of the flavor notes, these were not very deep, but still deep enough to make this a medium-bodied cigar. Most lounge exclusive cigars tend to be in the medium strength/medium-bodied category as it will help appeal the cigar to larger segment of the market. At the same time, the balance between the strength and body in the My Father Lounge Exclusive is excellent with neither attribute overshadowing the other. While this balance did exist, I think if the flavors had a little more body, it actually would have helped this cigar.
Final Thoughts
The My Father Lounge Exclusive is a good cigar. My Father Cigars has been building a large arsenal of quality cigars. In the case of the My Father Lounge Exclusive, it falls a little short when I compare it to many of these offerings. The less than perfect draw could have been because this assessment was based on a single smoke. However, the larger shortcoming of this cigar was that the flavors could have used some more depth. I do think core My Father Cigar fans will still get enough out of this cigar to enjoy it. It also is not a bad cigar for a newer enthusiast as it provides a nice introduction to the My Father line. As for myself, this cigar still offered enough to be worthy of smoking again.
Summary
Burn: Good
Draw: Good
Complexity: Low
Strength: Medium
Body: Medium
Finish: Good
Assessment: Nice to Have
Score: 88
Source: The cigar for this assessment was gifted to me by a friend.
