La Flor Dominicana TAA 50 Oro Tercera Edicion Natural

Today we take a look at one of La Flor Dominicana’s two cigars that were a part of the 2021 Tobacconists Association of America (TAA) exclusives, the La Flor Dominicana TAA 50 Oro Tercera Edicion Maduro. When it comes to the TAA, La Flor Dominicana has been one of the more active participants in the TAA’s Exclusive series. Since 2018, La Flor Dominicana’s TAA releases have been based on a cigar known as The Golden Anniversary. Since then, there have been several extensions of that release – one of which is the La Flor Dominicana TAA 50 Oro Tercera Edicion Natural. The Tercera Edition is one of the more unique projects that La Flor Dominicana has released. It is an offering that uses La Flor Dominicana’s signature (and patented) chisel-shaped cap.

La. Flor Dominicana TAA 50 Oro Tercera Edicion Natural-Closed_Box

Closed Box of the La Flor Dominicana TAA 50 Oro Tercera Edicion Natural

The TAA Exclusive Series consists of cigars made by leading manufacturers that are exclusively sold at TAA member retailers. The TAA is a small group of retailers. At press time the number of retailers is approximately 80. The TAA describes itself as:

The Tobacconists’ Association of America, Ltd. is a trade organization established in 1968 by visionary retail tobacconists. By providing education, communication, research, advocacy, and member discount programs, The TAA works with our members and the industry they support to offer the tools and relationship building opportunities needed to maximize professionalism and success.

2021 TAA Exclusive Series

There are 15 cigars released for 2021 as a part of the TAA Exclusive Series:

The following have been the La Flor Dominicana TAA Exclusive Series offerings:

From 2018 through 2022, the La Flor Dominicana TAA releases were based on 2018’s Golden Anniversary blend. The releases that followed The Golden Anniversary included the Segunda Edición, Tercera Edicíon, and The Golden Salomon. While the Golden Anniversary was released in one blend (a Natural), the Segunda, Tercera, and Golden Salomon releases have been offered in both Natural and Maduro wrappers.

Without further ado, let’s break down the La Flor Dominicana TAA 50 Oro Tercera Edicion Maduro and see what this cigar brings to the table.

SPECIFICATIONS

Blend and Origin

The La Flor Dominicana TAA 50th Tercera Edición Natural consists of a Nicaraguan Sun Grown wrapper over Dominican tobacco for the binder and filler. The filler includes Dominican Criollo ’99 tobacco.

Wrapper: Nicaraguan Sun Grown
Binder: Dominican
Filler: Dominican, including Criollo ’98
Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
Factory: Tabacalera La Flor

Vitolas Offered

Both the La Flor Dominicana TAA 50th Tercera Edición Natural and Maduro offerings come in one size – a 6 1/2 x 58 box-pressed vitola featuring La Flor Dominicana’s signature chisel cap. Both cigars are presented in 20-count boxes.

 

Close up of the La Flor Dominicana TAA 50 Oro Tercera Edicion Natural

Appearance

The Nicaraguan Sun Grown wrapper of the La Flor Dominicana TAA 50 Oro Tercera Edicion Natural had a medium brown color with a slight rosado tint to it. There was some oil present on the wrapper’s surface. The surface of the wrapper also had some visible veins. There were also some thin wrapper seams that were visible.

One thing that is consistent when it comes to La Flor Dominicana’s patented chisel-tip is that it looks like the head of chisel tool. It gives the cap a wedge-like shape to it. There is a slight amount of tapering on the cigar to that wedge tip.

PERFORMANCE

Pre-Light Draw

A very thin straight cut was used to remove the cap from the chisel head of the La Flor Dominicana TAA 50 Oro Tercera Edicion Natural. Once the cap was removed, it was on to the pre-light draw ritual. The cold draw delivered notes of natural tobacco and cedar. While normally a natural tobacco and cedar pre-light draw would not have me doing handstands, the sweetness from the natural tobacco came through nicely and made this a satisfactory pre-light draw experience. At this point, it was time to toast up the footer of the Flor Dominicana TAA 50 Oro Tercera Edicion Natural and see what the smoking phase would have in store.

Tasting Notes

The La Flor Dominicana TAA 50 Oro Tercera Edicion Natural opened up with an assortment of flavors including natural tobacco, coffee bean, earth, dried fruit, cedar, and black pepper. Early on the natural tobacco became the primary note. Meanwhile the earth, fruit, cedar, and black pepper notes settled in the background. As for the coffee bean notes, they floated between the forefront and background. Meanwhile, the retro-hale produced an additional layer of black pepper.

The start of the second third of the La Flor Dominicana TAA 50 Oro Tercera Edicion Natural saw the natural tobacco still in the forefront. The coffee bean notes became more present in the forefront and by the second half of the cigar, the coffee bean notes displaced the natural tobacco. The natural tobacco settled in the background with the earth, dried fruit, cedar, and black pepper. During the second third, there was a gradual increase in the pepper notes.

There wasn’t much change in the final third. The coffee bean notes remained primary. This was rounded out by the pepper, natural tobacco, earth, dried fruit, and cedar notes. The pepper was a little more prominent than the other secondary notes. As the cigar experience came to a close, the La Flor Dominicana TAA 50 Oro Tercera Edicion Natural finished with a cool, but slightly soft nub,

Burn

The La Flor Dominicana TAA 50 Oro Tercera Edicion Natural is a cigar that did require frequent touch-ups to maintain a straight burn path and straight burn line. While the touch-ups kept the burn on track, I did find there were more touch-ups required than I preferred. The resulting ash was silvery-gray. This wasn’t an overly firm ash, but it wasn’t a loose or flaky ash either. As for the burn rate and burn temperature, both maintained ideal levels.

Burn of the La Flor Dominicana TAA 50 Oro Tercera Edicion Natural. We apologize for the poor focus on this picture.

Draw

The draw to the La Flor Dominicana TAA 50 Oro Tercera Edicion Natural performed excellently. It had a touch of resistance to it – which is something that I like. This made for a low-maintenance cigar to derive flavor from. These factors unite for an enjoyable smoking experience from start to finish.

Strength and Body

The strength and body of the La Flor Dominicana TAA 50 Oro Tercera Edicion Natural started off at medium to full. Both attributes gradually increased in intensity. By the last third the strength crept into full territory. While the body had more intensity than at the start, it still remained in the medium to full range of the spectrum

In terms of strength versus body, the strength maintained a slight edge throughout the smoking experience.

BANDING AND PACKAGING NOTES

The banding on the La Flor Dominicana TAA 50 Oro Tercera Edicion Natural is something that is very worthy of a TAA cigar. The primary band is the gold LFD band that is seen on La Flor Dominicana’s Oro line. The secondary band is also gold and is unique to the series of La Flor Dominicana 50th cigars. This secondary band features the TAA’s 50th-anniversary logo. These are the same bands that were found on the Tercera Edicion Maduro.

Open Box of the La Flor Dominicana TAA 50 Oro Tercera Edicion Natural

OVERALL ASSESSMENT

Final Thoughts

The obvious question is how the La Flor Dominicana TAA 50 Oro Tercera Edicion Natural compares to its Maduro counterpart. Very simply the natural is a better cigar.  It has better flavor and offers more in the way of complexity. In terms of the 2021 TAA Exclusive Series as a whole, overall it was quite disappointing, but one of the standout cigars of the series was the La Flor Dominicana TAA 50 Oro Tercera Edicion Natural. As I have said, La Flor Dominicana puts a lot of effort into its TAA cigars and this one shows it. This is a cigar I would probably steer to a more seasoned cigar enthusiast. As for myself, while this cigar carries a higher price point at $23.10, it is still I cigar I would buy and smoke again. Coming in at 90 points, the La Flor Dominicana TAA 50 Oro Tercera Edicion Natural earns a Cigar Coop Standard of Excellence designation.

Summary

Key Flavors: Coffee Bean, Natural Tobacco, Earth, Cedar, Dried Fruit Pepper
Burn: Very Good
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: Medium Plus
Strength: Medium to Full (1st Half), Full (2nd Half)
Body: Medium to Full
Finish: Very Good

Rating

Value: Buy One
Score: 90
Cigar Coop Standard of Excellence

REFERENCES

News: n/a
Price: $23.10
Source: Purchased
Brand Reference: La Flor Dominicana

Photo Credits: Cigar Coop