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| La Duena No 13 |
The La Duena No 13 is a line extension to the My Father Cigars’ La Duena line. It adds the first box-press shape to this line. This cigar is also a Toro Grande and currently is the largest cigar in terms of ring gauge and length in the line. The La Duena was a cigar that was introduced at the 2012 IPCPR Trade Show by My Father Cigars. This has also been unofficially become known as the “Janny Garcia” cigar. The name La Duena translates to “the owner” and this is case Janny is the daughter of My Father Cigars patriarch Don Pepin Garcia. Recently, I’ve had an opportunity to smoke this the No. 13 vitola and found this to be an outstanding addition to the line.
The La Duena was actually blended by Tatuaje Cigars’ Pete Johnson in collaboration with Janny Garcia her brother Jaime Garcia. The La Duena is sort of a reverse twist in how Johnson has worked with the Garcias. For many years, Don Pepin Garcia and Jaime have been doing much of the blending for Tatuaje’s line (in collaboration with Johnson).
Let’s dive deeper into the La Duena No 13 and see what this cigar brings to the table.
Blend Profile
The La Duena No. 13 is consistent with the rest of the line as it consists of Connecticut Broadleaf and Nicaraguan tobaccos:
Wrapper: Connecticut Broadleaf
Binder: Connecticut Broadleaf and Nicaraguan
Filler: Connecticut Broadleaf and Nicaraguan
Vitolas Available
The No. 13 is a 6 x 56 box-press and adds a sixth vitola to the La Duena line.
Toro Grande No. 13: 6 x 56 (box-press)
Belicoso No. 2: 5 1/2 x 54
Robusto No. 5: 5 x 50
Petit Lancero No. 7: 6 x 42
Petit Belicoso No. 9: 4 3/4 x 48
Petit Robusto No. 11: 4 1/2 x 52
Appearance
The La Duena No. 13 has a milk chocolate wrapper with some darker marbling on it. The wrapper itself had a slightly oily complexion. There are also some visible wrapper seams and a couple of visible veins. For a large box press, the La Duena No. 13 is well-packed.
The color scheme to the band of the La Duena is red and white. It is highlighted by a “cameo styled silhouette” . To the left and right of the cameo is the text “LA DUENA” in a white font on a red background.
Preparation for the Cigar Experience
As I normally do for most cigars I assess, I went with a straight cut to remove the cap. I then moved on to the pre-light draw. The dry draw notes provided a combination of pepper, chocolate, and some floral notes. Of all the pre-light draws I’ve had on this line, the La Duena No 13 seemed to provide the best thus far. At this point, I was ready to light up my No. 13 and see what the overall cigar smoking experience would deliver.
Flavor Profile
Overall I found some parallels to the notes of the La Duena No 13 to the
rounded vitolas, yet the No. 13 still has its own story to tell.
The start to the La Duena No 13 provided a shot of pepper to start. After the pepper subsided it was joined by some notes of chocolate. By about the five percent mark, some citrus notes emerged. As the smoke moved through the first half; the chocolate, pepper, and citrus alternated as to what was a primary note. If one note had a slight edge during this alternating cycle, I would give it to the chocolate note. As for the retro-hale, it produced a pepper spice.
In the second half, some leather notes emerged and slowly replaced the chocolate notes in the forefront. Later in the second third, the leather notes became primary. The chocolate notes still were present as they were in the background with the pepper and citrus notes.
The last third saw the citrus notes significantly diminish. The pepper spice did ramp up somewhat. For the most part the leather and pepper were the key flavors – with still some hints of chocolate in the background. The end of the cigar had some spice, but was not harsh. The resulting nub was cool in temperature, but soft to the touch.
Burn and Draw
Like the rest of the La Duena line, the No 13 scores nicely when it comes to burn and draw. The burn line to the La Duena No 13 was relatively straight throughout the smoking experience – requiring little in the way of touch-ups. The resulting ash was mostly firm and did not have any significant flaking or flowering. I found the No. 13 had more of a salt and pepper colored ash to it as opposed to the more white color I got on the rounded vitolas. The burn rate and burn temperature were both ideal.
I found the draw to the La Duena No 13 to be outstanding. For a large box-press this was as good a draw as I’ve had. It wasn’t too tight and wasn’t too loose. It made for a low maintenance cigar to puff on from start to finish.
Strength and Body
From a strength perspective, I found the La Duena No 13 to be a little more dialed back than its rounded siblings. Overall, I found the No. 13 to be a medium strength smoke (I had found the rounded Robusto to be medium to full). As for the depth of the flavors, they were consistent with the rounded vitolas as I assessed the No. 13 to be a medium to full-bodied smoke. Overall, I gave the the body a slight edge over the strength on this cigar.
Final Thoughts
There was something about the No. 13’s flavor profile that really seemed to resonate with me. While there were parallels to the notes that the rounded vitals did, there was something about the way this smoked in the larger box-press that really was good. It could be the slightly dialed back strength of this cigar that was the difference. I also felt the No. 13 did offer more in the way of flavor transitions than the rounded vitolas.
Overall, this is a great cigar for either the novice or experienced cigar enthusiast to enjoy. I think the larger ring gauge in the box-press works well. Plus I do believe the larger ring gauge will make La Duena a more likely option to those cigar enthusiasts who did not like the smaller ring gauges on the rounded cigars. As for myself, this is a cigar I’d definitely smoke again.
Summary
Burn: Excellent
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: Medium
Strength: Medium
Body: Medium to Full
Finish: Good
Assessment: Nice to Have
Score: 91
Source: The cigars for this assessment were purchased from Corona Cigar Company in Orlando, Florida.
