La Gloria Cubana Society Cigar

Over the years, La Gloria Cubana has been known for innovative limited-edition cigars. In 2022, La Gloria Cubana announced a limited edition cigar called the La Gloria Cubana Society Cigar. The La Gloria Cubana Society Cigar gets its name from the La Gloria Cubana Society, a social community started by Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) for the La Gloria Cubana brand. For the La Gloria Cubana Society Cigar, members of the La Gloria Cubana Society were consulted on the profile, packaging, and size of the cigar in a collaborative process that spanned almost a year. Today, we will take a deeper dive into the La Gloria Cuban Society Cigar and see what this cigar brings to the table.

The La Gloria Cubana Society is not the only social club in the STG umbrella. There have been various online social groups set up by STG over the years. Besides the La Gloria Cubana Society, perhaps the best one is the Punch Brotherhood. Like La Gloria Cubana Society, Punch Brotherhood also created a cigar with input from the community, this one named Punch The People’s Champ.

Since 2021, La Gloria Cubana has been a brand sold by STG’s Forged Cigar Company division.

Without further ado, let’s break down the La Gloria Cubana Society Cigar and see what this cigar brings to the table.

SPECIFICATIONS

Blend and Origin

The blend of the La Gloria Cubana Society Cigar consists of 100% Honduran-grown tobaccos – which I believe makes this the first La Gloria Cubana that is a Honduran puro. The cigar is highlighted by the Olancho San Agustin wrapper (sometimes called the OSA wrapper – named for the region of Honduras it is grown in). The Olancho San Agustin wrapper is something we have seen on many STG releases over the years. While the cigar is a Honduran puro, production for the La Gloria Cubana Society Cigar was done at El Credito, which is the factory within a factory located within General Cigar Dominicana.

Wrapper: Olancho San Agustin
Binder: Jamastran
Filler: Jamastran, La Entrada
Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
Factory: General Cigar Dominicana (El Credito)

Vitolas Offered

The La Gloria Cubana Society Cigar is offered in one size – a Box Pressed Toro measuring 6 1/4 x 54. A total of 2,500 20-count boxes were produced.

Appearance

The Olancho San Agustin wrapper of the La Gloria Cubana Society Cigar had a dark cinnamon color to it. There was a light coating of oil on the surface. Upon closer examination, there was some mottling that was present on the surface. The surface also had some visible veins. Any wrapper seams were minimally visible. The box-press has a slight soft-press (i.e., slightly rounded effect).

PERFORMANCE

Pre-Light Draw

A straight cut was used to remove the cap of the La Gloria Cubana Society Cigar. Once the cap was removed, it was on to the pre-light draw. The pre-light draw delivered primarily notes of wood and cedar. Overall, this wasn’t the most exciting pre-light draw. Since the pre-light draw is not factored into the numeric score or value rating, there was no loss of points here. At this point, it was time to toast up the foot of the La Gloria Cubana Society Cigar and await what the smoking phase would deliver.

Tasting Notes

The La Gloria Cubana Society Cigar opened up with more classic wood and cedar notes. In addition, there were also notes of fruit and earth that were present. As the La Gloria Cubana Society Cigar moved through the first third, the wood and earth notes moved into the forefront, with the cedar and fruit notes settling in the background. The retro-hale delivered a layer of black pepper. Later in the first third, the black pepper notes emerged in the background on the tongue.

The earth and wood notes remained in the forefront during the second third of the La Gloria Cubana Society Cigar. During this phase, there was an increase in the pepper spice and a decrease in the fruit notes. At the same time, there was also a layer of cedar in the background that remained at a constant level.

There wasn’t much change in the final third. The primary notes were still the earth and classic wood notes. The pepper was the most prominent of the background notes. Rounding out things were the cedar notes and some residual fruit sweetness. This is how the La Gloria Cubana Society Cigar came to a close. The resulting nub was soft to the touch and cool in temperature.

Burn

Regarding its burn, the La Gloria Cubana Society Cigar needed frequent touch-ups to maintain a straight burn path and keep a straight burn line. While the touch-ups did the trick, there were a lot more touch-ups needed than I preferred. The resulting ash was silver-gray with a slightly loose ash. As for the burn rate and burn temperature, both had ideal levels.

Burn of the La Gloria Cubana Society Cigar

Draw

The draw to the La Gloria Cubana Society Cigar was open but not loose. Normally, I prefer a little more in the way of resistance on a draw. The cigar produced ample layers of smoke throughout the smoking experience. In the end, the open draw didn’t have any adverse effects.

Strength and Body

The La Gloria Cubana Society Cigar opened up with mild to medium strength and medium-bodied flavors. The strength rather quickly moved into medium territory. Both the strength and body had a nominal increase throughout the smoking phase, but neither attribute progressed outside the medium range of the spectrum.

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

BANDING AND PACKAGING NOTES

The La Gloria Cubana Society Cigar uses the larger female portrait seen on several other La Gloria releases. The rest of the band is heavy on the blue background. I’m not the biggest fan of the bands, but I really like the design of the wooden boxes.

Packaging of the La Gloria Cubana Society Cigar

OVERALL ASSESSMENT

Final Thoughts

While I realize the La Gloria Cubana Society Cigar had a crowdsourcing component, this was a disappointing cigar. This cigar fell short in the category that mattered most – flavor. Over the years, I’ve seen STG brands such as Partagas, Cohiba, and Toraño use the Olancho San Agustin wrapper – and in most of these cases, the wrapper has disappointed me. The La Gloria Cubana Society Cigar was no exception here. Areas such as burn and complexity certainly didn’t help this score either. In the end, while the $8.99 price point is attractive, there are easily other cigars in the Forged portfolio I would reach for at that price point. This is a cigar I would pass on.

Summary

Key Flavors: Classic Wood, Earth, Fruit, Cedar, Pepper
Burn: Good
Draw: Very Good
Complexity: Medium Minus
Strength: Mild to Medium (Start), Medium (Remainder)
Body: Medium
Finish: Very Good