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| La Flor Dominican TCFKA M Collector’s Edition 2014 |
La Flor Dominicana’s TCFKA M Collector’s Edition 2014 is the latest installment in La Flor Dominican’s TCFKA M line. TCFKA M stands for the “The Cigar Formerly Known as Mysterio / Mysterioso”. In 2014, both the Mysterio / Mysterioso lines were rebranded to this name due to trademark issues. The Collector’s 2014 is the follow-up to the Collector’s Edition 2013. The Collector’s Edition 2014 is the same sized 7 x 55 barber-pole perfecto with one major difference – the Connecticut Broadleaf and Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade wrappers are inverted. Like the 2013 edition, the Collector’s Edition 2014 is a limited production cigar. Recently I’ve had an opportunity to smoke the TCFKA M Collector’s Edition 2014. Overall I found this to be an excellent cigar. I also found this to be a very different La Flor Dominicana than one might be used to.
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| What was called the La Flor Dominican Mysterioso Collector’s Edition 2013 (Top); La Flor Dominican TCFKA M Collector’s Edition 2014 (Bottom) |
In addition to the Collector’s Edition cigars, the TCFKA M line has two other cigars: The TCFKA M Natural is a Nicaraguan Natural that features an oscuro wrapper at each end of the perfecto. The TCFKA M Oscuro has an Ecuadorian Oscuro wrapper with natural wrapper at each end of the perfecto. While the Collector’s Edition cigars are barber poles, they are not La Flor Domincana’s first ones. Late in 2012, the company released the La Flor Dominicana Doomsday 2012 Meaner Digger – a monstrous 10 x 60, but yet more traditional barberpole. This was an retail exclusive done for Tobacco Haven in New Hampshire.
Without further ado, let’s take a closer look at the TCFKA M Collector’s Edition 2014 and see what this cigar brings to the table.
Blend Profile
The TCFKA M Collector’s Edition 2014 consists of tobaccos from four countries:
Wrapper: Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro / Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade (Barber pole)
Binder: Dominican
Filler: Dominican, Nicaraguan
Country of Origin: Dominican Republic (Tabacalera La Flor)
Vitolas Available
The La Flor Dominicana TCFKA M Collector’s 2014 is a perfecto measuring 7 x 55. This is slightly wider than the 7 x 54 TCFKA M Natural and TCFKA M Oscuro. The cigar will be packaged in boxes of five.
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| Box of the La Flor Dominican TCFKA M Collector’s Edition 2014 |
Appearance
The underlying wrapper of the TCFKA M Collector’s Edition 2014 is the Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade wrapper. It has a light brown color with a moderate amount of oil on that. Draped over the Connecticut Shade s a thin dark brown Broadleaf wrapper. The way this barber-pole is arranged similar to the Collector’s Edition 2013. By the cap it is a very tight spiral wind. As it reaches the wider parts of the perfecto, it is arranged more more like a winding pinstripe. The foot of the perfecto is all Broadleaf and looks almost like a pencil point, but with an open foot (this part is consistent with the other TCFKA M cigars). The cap is also unique as it has almost a “ball-like” shape.
The cigar has a single band on it. It is a classic LFD gold script logo with the burnt red and black background. It also has the standard LFD gold adornment for trim. On the left and right side of th band there is both a gold leaf and a gold medallion.
Preparation for the Cigar Experience
Prior to lighting up the TCFKA M Collector’s Edition 2014, I went with a straight cut. I cut a little past the ball cap to get a little more diameter on the draw. Once the cap was removed, I moved on to the pre-light draw. The dry draw gave me mostly coffee and cream notes. Overall I considered this to be a satisfactory pre-light draw. At this point, I was ready to light up my La Flor Dominicana TCFKA M Collector’s Edition 2014 and see what the smoking phase would bring to the table.
Flavor Profile
The start to the TCFKA M Collector’s Edition 2014 picked up where the pre-light draw left off with notes of coffee and cream. The coffee notes went primary very early. The cream moved to the background and was joined by notes of white pepper. Both the coffee and the cream seemed to each have an subtle underlying sweetness. Meanwhile on the retro-hale, I picked up a grassy, herbal spice.
As the TCFKA M Collector’s Edition 2014 moved through the first third, I found the coffee and cream notes alternated as a primary flavor. The white pepper remained in the background and was joined by grass notes.
By the midway point of the TCFKA M Collector’s Edition 2014, the cream notes remained in the forefront with the grass notes now joining them. The coffee notes receded into the background joining the pepper notes. Toward the later part of the second third, the cream notes soon receded, while the coffee notes were more distant. At the same time, the pepper and grass notes were now in the forefront.
The last third of the TCFKA M Collector’s Edition 2014 saw the grass and pepper dominate. Toward the last third, the pepper was the main flavor, but it was not overpowering. This is the way the cigar experience came to an end. The resulting nub was slight soft to the touch, but cool in temperature.
Burn and Draw
From a burn standpoint, I found the TCFKA M Collector’s Edition 2014 to burn in a straight path. I did find the burn line itself to be a little jagged, and it did need frequent touch-ups. I didn’t find the burn was ever in danger of tunneling or canoeing and most of these touch-ups were cosmetic in nature. The resulting ash was on the firm side and was not prone to any significant flaking. The burn rate and burn temperature were both ideal.
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| Burn of the La Flor Dominican TCFKA M Collector’s Edition 2014 |
I did find the draw to have a slight resistance to it – which is something I like. Given I still had a thin ring gauge where I was drawing from this cigar, this was something I expected. Overall I still found this to be an excellent draw for start to finish.
Strength and Body
A big differentiator with the TCFKA M Collector’s Edition 2014 is going to be how dialed back this cigar is to start. This is something I would not expect from many La Flor Dominicana cigars, yet given this is primarily a Connecticut Shade wrapper, this shouldnt be a total surprise. I found this cigar to start out both mild to medium in strength and mild to medium in body. The strength and body slowly increase and by the second third both attributes move to medium While the strength and body continued to gradually build throughout the smoke, both never moved out of the medium range. When looking at strength versus body, both attributes balanced each other nicely.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I found the TCFKA M Collector’s Edition 2014 to be very different cigar from the Collector’s Edition 2013 version. I found the dialed-back strength and body of this cigar really worked in favor of its flavor profile. While there aren’t any radical flavors present in this flavor profile, the TCFKA M Collector’s Edition 2014 is a cigar with plenty of flavor nuances and flavor transitions. While this cigar carries a higher price tag (approximately $19.00), the cigar itself takes “hand made” to a different level with its intricate and artesian design. The nice thing is how the flavor and complexity delivered with this cigar. This is a cigar I’d recommend to a novice or experienced cigar enthusiast. While this is only a 5 count box, I’d still consider this worthy of a box split – even if the box counts were bigger. It’s a little pricier, but worth having a few of these cigars around.
Summary
Burn: Good
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: High
Strength: Mild to Medium (1st Third), Medium (Remainder)
Body: Mild to Medium (1st Third), Medium (Remainder)
Finish: Good
Assessment: 3.5 – Box Split
Score: 91
References
News: La Flor Dominicana TCFKA M Collector’s Edition 2014
Price: ~$19.00
Source: Purchased
Stogie Geeks Podcast: n/a
Stogie Feed: n/a
La Flor Dominicana is a powerful smoke. It’s also a complex, balanced cigar. I really love to smoke it.
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