The Smoking Syndicate

The Smoking Syndicate – Dapper Cigar Company La Madrina Toro

Dapper Cigars is a cigar company I’ve been hearing about for years, but never got a chance to try one of their cigars. They are a brand that is mostly on the West Coast with almost no availability to the east. I was pretty excited to see that they would be at the 2021 PCA Trade Show in Las Vegas, which is where we were able to meet up with the owner, Ian Reith. (Check out Ian’s interview on the Prime Time show here). Ian graciously hosted us and his passion for the cigar industry showed. He explained he was trying to branch out more eastward. Luckily, after moving from Dallas, TX to Asheville, NC in January, I discovered one of my local shops, B & B Tobacconists, carries the Dapper line. One of the first cigars I grabbed to sample was the La Madrina, which means “godmother” in Spanish. Coop has a little background on this in his review:

The theme of La Madrina is the Mexican Day of the Dead celebrations. La Madrina translates to “godmother” and it was a name given to a woman named Yolanda Garfias Woo. Based in San Francisco, Garfias Woo is credited with educating many people in the California about the Day of the Dead celebrations. While Reith wanted to do a Day of the Dead themed cigar, there were a couple of other releases that came out with this theme – most notably Crowned Heads’ Las Calaveras line and Black Label Trading Company’s Santa Muerte line. Reith wanted to make sure his release had its own unique spin, so he worked with his artist in coming up with the brand’s design which features a skeleton hand holding a rose. The idea here was to create an imagery theme that highlighted both life and death.

There is a little confusion on the sizes listed for this line. From what I’ve been told, the robusto and toro were mixed up when they were registered so the size information everywhere is inconsistent. So with this review, I’m going on the most accurate information.

Wrapper: Ecuador Cuban Seed Habano from Oliva Tobacco Co La Luchita farm
Binder: Mexican San Andrés de los Perros S.A. de C.V.
Filler: Esteli Nicaragua Oliva Tobacco Co. Guadalupe farm, Jalapa Nicaragua Oliva Tobacco Co Cofradía Relleno farm, Dominican Republic Habano ‘92 Oliva Tobacco Co. undisclosed farm, U.S. Pennsylvania Broadleaf Lancaster Leaf Tobacco Co.
Factory: Nicaragua America Cigars SA (NACSA)
MSRP: $11.20