Agile Cigar Reviews are cigar assessments where we use a lightweight, shorter format. These will never take the place of our comprehensive reviews. They are only used on blends we have previously assessed. This might be a blend we are re-scoring or giving a score for the first time. It might be a blend we are looking at in a different size. Today we look at the A. Flores 1975 Serie Privada Maduro SP 52 by PDR Cigars This is a cigar previously assessed back in January 2016 when it was called the A. Flores 1975 Serie Privada Capa Maduro SP52.

Wrapper: Habano Ecuador Maduro
Binder: Nicaraguan Habano
Filler: Nicaraguan Habano and Dominican Corojo
Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
Factory: PDR Cigars
SP52: 5 x 52

At the 2012 IPCPR Trade Show in Orlando, Florida, PDR Cigars launched a new line of cigars known as the A. Flores 1975 Serie Privada. The line gets its name from PDR Cigars owner Abraham Flores, with 1975 representing the year he was born. The A. Flores 1975 Serie Privada is an all-box-pressed offering that was launched in two blends – Capa Habano (Habano Ecuador wrapper blend) and Capa Maduro (Habano Ecuador Maduro blend). Over the past few years, PDR Cigars has been revamping its portfolio in terms of packaging and blends, and back in 2019, it was the A. Flores 1975 Serie Privada’s turn. As a part of that, the two blends were renamed A. Flores 1975 Serie Privada Maduro and A. Flores 1975 Serie Privada Rosado (Capa Habano). Today we revisit the A. Flores 1975 Serie Privada Maduro in the SP52 (Robusto) size with the revamped blend.

In addition to a Habano Ecuador Maduro wrapper, the remainder of the blend of the A. Flores 1975 Serie Privada Maduro incorporates Nicaraguan and Dominican tobaccos. While the revamped blend components look similar to those of 2012, the difference is the revamped 2019 features more in the way of Dominican tobacco. According to Flores, the revamped blends are incorporating more Dominican Republic tobacco. This is an effort for Flores to better support the Dominican cigar industry. As for production, it is handled at Flores’ PDR Cigars factory in Tamboril, Dominican Republic. The SP52 is a 5 x 52 box-pressed cigar.

The A. Flores 1975 Serie Privada Maduro SP52 begins with earth, cedar, and what I term “maduro sweetness” – a fusion of coffee and dried fruit. The retro-hale delivered some white pepper notes and a touch of fruit sweetness. As the cigar moved through the first third the maduro sweetness split into coffee and fruit notes. The coffee notes remained in the forefront. As the cigar moved into the second third, the cedar notes became more prominent and shortly would join the coffee notes in the forefront. By the midway point, the cedar notes were the dominant ones. The coffee, earth, and fruit notes were in the background. There also now was some white pepper in the background. The cigar finished with a soft, cool nub.

The flavors delivered were medium strength and medium bodied. Both the strength and body balanced each other nicely. For a box press, I liked the fact this draw had a touch of resistance. The burn was high maintenance in terms of touch-ups and was prone to meandering.

OVERALL ASSESSMENT

Final Thoughts

My previous experiences with the A. Flores 1975 Serie Privada Capa Maduro had been quite enjoyable, therefore I came into the smoking experience of the revamped version with higher expectations. The early part of the A. Flores 1975 Serie Privada Maduro SP52 was quite enjoyable, but then the cigar became what I would term “average.” While it wasn’t the best burning cigar, it wasn’t a great burning cigar either – and there were some points lost. In this case, my recommendation is to try a sample first before deciding whether to invest in any.