La Flor Dominicana 25th Anniversary

Litto and Ines Gomez entered the cigar industry and founded a company called Los Libertadores – which would eventually be rebranded La Flor Dominicana. 2019 marks the 25th anniversary of that milestone, and this year La Flor Dominicana has a special release, the La Flor Dominicana 25th Anniversary. It’s not the first time La Flor Dominicana has done a milestone cigar. Back in 2014 when the company celebrated 20 years of the Gomez family being in the cigar business, the company released the La Flor Dominicana 1994 line. With the exception of the limited Beer Stein release, the La Flor Dominicana 1994 is an ongoing brand in the LFD portfolio. As for the La Flor Dominicana 25th Anniversary, it is a limited edition cigar. It’s the cigar we will be breaking down in this assessment.

In terms of what is special about the La Flor Dominicana 25th Anniversary, one would probably point to the Ecuadorian-grown Corojo wrapper. While Ecuador is known for its Habano, Shade-Grown, and Sumatra wrappers, there is Corojo that is grown in Ecuador. In the case of the La Flor Dominicana 25th Anniversary, this also happens to be the varietal that is used on the La Flor Dominicana Andalusian Bull – the cigar that captured the 2016 Cigar of the Year by Cigar Aficionado.

The La Flor Dominicana 25th Anniversary was announced on the eve of the 2019 IPCPR Trade Show, where it was subsequently showcased. The cigars shipped to retailers late in 2019.

Without further ado, let’s break down the La Flor Dominicana 25th Anniversary and see what this cigar brings to the table.

SPECIFICATIONS

Blend and Origin

In addition to the Ecuadorian Corojo wrapper, the La Flor Dominicana 25th Anniversary features all Dominican tobaccos for the other components of the blend. The La Flor Dominicana 25th Anniversary is produced at the company’s factor in Tamboril, Dominican Republic.

Wrapper: Ecuadorian Corojo
Binder: Dominican
Filler: Dominican
Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
Factory: Tabacalera La Flor S.A.

Vitolas Offered

The cigar is offered in one size – a 7 x 52 Double Corona. The cigar is presented in 25-count boxes. While production is limited, the amount of cigars produced has not been disclosed.

Appearance

The Ecuadorian Corojo wrapper of the La Flor Dominicana 25th Anniversary had a medium brown color. There was some mottling that could be seen on the surface. The wrapper did not have much in the way of oil on it. While there were some thin visible veins and thin visible wrapper seams, this was an elegant looking wrapper.

The La Flor Dominicana 25th Anniversary band has a gold foil background with red metallic font. On the center of the band is the “LFD” logo. Above the logo is the text “25th” and below the logo is the text “ANNIVERSARY.” To the left and right of the logo are leaf adornments and a coat of arms. The remainder of the band consists of gold foil and red metallic embellishments.

PERFORMANCE

Pre-Light Draw

Prior to lighting up the La Flor Dominicana 25th Anniversary, a straight cut was used to remove the cap. Once the cap was removed, it was on to the pre-light draw experience. The cold draw delivered a mix of cedar, fruit sweetness, and a slight amount of black pepper. This was a satisfactory pre-light draw. At this point, it was time to light up the La Flor Dominicana 25th Anniversary and see what this cigar can do.

Tasting Notes

The La Flor Dominicana 25th Anniversary opened up with quite an assortment of flavors. This included notes of natural tobacco, fruit, cedar, black pepper, baker’s spice, and a savory note. Early on the natural tobacco took over as the primary note. There was a honey graham cracker quality to the natural tobacco flavors. The other notes settled into the background. On the retro-hale were additional layers of fruit sweetness and black pepper.

As the La Flor Dominicana 25th Anniversary moved through the second third, there was a gradual increase in the pepper. Toward the midway point, the natural tobacco shed the honey graham cracker qualities and take on some more bitterness. The bitterness was not aggressive and actually helped balance out the flavor profile. There were still notes of fruit and cedar present. Both the baker’s spice and savory notes began to diminish.

There wasn’t much change in the final third. There was still natural tobacco in the forefront. The pepper increased leveled off and was in the background with the fruit and cedar notes. The baker’s spice and savory notes were no longer present. This is the way the La Flor Dominicana 25th Anniversary came to a close. The resulting nub was slightly warm to the touch and cool in temperature.

Burn

There was a slight amount of meandering from time to time on the burn path of La Flor Domincana 25th Anniversary. This meandering was easily corrected with some lighter touch-ups – and an excessive amount of touch-ups was not required. The resulting ash had a salt and pepper color scheme. This was an ash that was skewed toward the firmer side. The burn rate was ideal. The burn temperature remained ideal until the closing moments when the resulting nub did get slightly warm to the nub.

Burn of the La Flor Dominicana 25th Anniversary

Draw

For a large Double Corona-sized viola, the La Flor Dominicana 25th Anniversary performed extremely well. It has a touch of resistance – which although I like can sometimes be a deterrent on the bigger vitolas. No such problems here. The La Flor Dominicana 25th was a low maintenance cigar to derive flavor from.

Strength and Body

In terms of strength and body, the La Flor Dominicana 25th Anniversary comes in at a solid medium. There is a slight increase in the intensity levels along the way, but in the end, the La Flor Dominicana 25th Anniversary remained in the medium range for both attributes. Both the strength and body had good balance with neither attribute overshadowing the other.

OVERALL ASSESSMENT

Final Thoughts

In terms of the La Flor Dominicana 25th Anniversary, this is a cigar that is worthy for such a significant milestone. I find the Double Corona to be one of the more difficult vitolas to make representative of a blend, but in the case of the La Flor Dominicana 25th Anniversary, it comes through with flying colors. Sometimes a blend can “run out of steam” with a longer format and larger ring gauge. This wasn’t the case with this cigar, however the potpourri of flavors that came out of the gate does settle down. In the end, I found this to work in favor of the La Flor Dominicana 25th Anniversary.

The graham cracker and savory notes were reminiscent of the Andalusian Bull, but in my opinion, the La Flor Dominicana 25th Anniversary is a better cigar. At $18.00, this is certainly not an inexpensive cigar, but it’s one worthy of the price tag. It’s one I’d recommend to any cigar enthusiast, and it’s one that I would not only smoke again, but buy multiples to keep in the humidor.

Summary

Key Flavors: Natural Tobacco, Fruit, Cedar, Black Pepper, Honey Graham Cracker, Bakers Spice, Savory Notes
Burn: Very Good
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: Medium to High
Strength: Medium
Body: Medium
Finish: Very Good