La Flor Dominicana Mystery Cigar

The La Flor Dominicana Mystery Cigar is an event only cigar that was launched in 2013.  As the name indicates, the cigar is a “mystery” as La Flor Dominicana is not disclosing a lot of information about this cigar.  La Flor Dominicana (LFD) is providing the Mystery Cigar to retailers who hold an LFD event.  According to the press release announcing the cigar, consumers can be eligible to get a 5 pack of the Mystery Cigar when purchasing a box of La Flor Dominicana cigars.  There also are a limited amount of Mystery Cigars that will be provided for event-only purchase.  Recently, I’ve had an opportunity to smoke the La Flor Dominicana Mystery Cigar.  Overall, this is a very good cigar and one that you should try to obtain if you have the opportunity to do so.

While the La Flor Dominicana Mystery Cigar has been positioned as event only cigar for 2013, La Flor Dominicana addressed the possibility of the cigar coming back in 2014:

“Depending on the success of our new Mystery Cigar event it will also be coming again in 2014. Of course the natural question about this event is ‘will this years Mystery cigar go into production?’ And of course the answer is ‘that depends on feedback from the smokers.’ We love the new cigar a lot, but we would love to get consumer feedback as we test this new blend across the nation.”

As for now, let’s take a closer look at the La Flor Dominicana Mystery Cigar and see what this cigar brings to the table.  As a disclaimer this cigar assessment is based on a single cigar smoking experience.

Blend Profile

La Flor Dominicana has not disclosed much about the Mystery Cigar.  They have disclosed this does have a maduro wrapper.  They also mentioned that there is a “bit of Dominican ligero (in the blend) from La Canela” (the Gomez family farm).

Wrapper: Maduro (Not disclosed)
Binder: Not disclosed
Filler: Not disclosed

Vitolas Available

The Mystery Cigar is only available in one size – a 6 x 44 lonsdale in a box-press.

Appearance

The La Flor Dominicana Mystery Cigar’s maduro wrapper has a classic coffee bean color with some dark marbled spots to it.  The wrapper itself has an oily sheen.  There are visible veins and visible wrapper seams that give the wrapper a rugged look.  There is a small pig-tail on the cap. The box-press is more of a soft box-press (some rounding) and the box-press itself is well-packed.

The band is the classic red, black, gold, and white LFD band to it.  It is highlighted by “LFD” in a large gold-colored cursive font on a red background.
Preparation for the Cigar Experience
While the La Flor Dominicana Mystery Cigar had a slight pig-tail, I opted to still go with a straight cut to remove the cap.  While many will choose to remove the pigtail, I typically use a straight cut with a pig-tail capped cigar.  Once the cap was clipped, I proceeded with the pre-light draw.  The cold draw was not overly complex, but it was very flavorful.  I detected notes of rich coffee and cedar.  With a very satisfactory pre-light draw, it was now time to light up the La Flor Dominicana Mystery Cigar and see what the cigar would bring to the table.
Flavor Profile
The start to the La Flor Dominicana Mystery Cigar provided a start of red pepper and coffee.  The red pepper notes took a slight edge early on.  The coffee notes became secondary.  As the smoking experience moved through the first third, notes of cream, earth, and citrus emerged.
In the second third, the pepper notes remained primary.  The coffee flavors took on some chocolate qualities and were still secondary flavors.  The citrus notes were also secondary.  Meanwhile the earth notes were still present, but were much more distant.
In the last third, the Mystery Cigar took on more of a mixture of earth and pepper as primary notes.  The citrus notes were also still present in the background.  The coffee notes had significantly diminished.  The end of the cigar was spicy – consistent with much of the cigar experience.  The resulting nub was soft to the touch, yet cool in temperature.

Burn and Draw

From a burn perspective, the La Flor Dominicana Mystery Cigar performed very well.  The burn line remained relatively straight and did not require a lot of touch-ups to keep it burning straight.  The resulting ash was a salt and pepper color.  It did flower from time to time, but there was no major flaking.  The burn rate was ideal.  The burn temperature was a little on the cool side and did require a couple of re-lights.

As for the draw, I did find this to be tighter than I prefer.  While normally I like a little resistance on the draw, the Mystery Cigar was on the tighter side.  I believe this caused the burn temperature to be cooler.

Strength and Body

For both the strength and body, the Mystery Cigar had a lot of power.  While they said there is a “a bit of Dominican ligero”, one has to wonder how much.  I found this cigar to be one that packs a large nicotine punch – definitely qualifying as a full strength cigar.  The flavors are deep and robust.  I assessed the Mystery Cigar to be a full-bodied smoke.  While both the strength and body pack a punch, neither attribute overshadows the other – thus creating a good balance between the two attributes.

Final Thoughts

For those who like a La Flor Dominicana cigar that packs a punch, the Mystery Cigar is going to be a satisfying smoke.  While the draw was a little tight, I still found this to be a very enjoyable smoke.  This is another case where the blend seems ideal to the vitola (in this case the lonsdale).  It will be interesting to see if this cigar mellows a bit over time.   This is a cigar I would gear toward the more experienced cigar enthusiast as I think it is too full in strength for a novice.  As for myself, this is a cigar I would definitely smoke again – and its enough reason to check out some LFD events.

Summary

Burn: Excellent
Draw: Good
Complexity: Medium
Strength: Full
Body: Full
Finish: Good
Assessment: Nice to Have
Score: 91

Source: The cigar for this assessment was gifted to me by a friend.