Cigar Preview: La Flor Dominicana Salomon Especial

Vitola: Salomon
Size: 7″ x 64 ring gauge
Price $25.80 MSRP
IPCPR sample given to me by SmallBatchCigar.com

Background

I was definitely excited when Drew handed me this cigar from the samples he brought back from the show.  The LFD Salomon is one of my all time favorite cigars of theirs.  I was looking forward to seeing what this release was going to be like.  From what I can tell it is basically the same blend as the original 2008 release, Dominican binder and filler with a Nicaraguan habano wrapper, with the exception on the Ecuadorian Connecticut shade tobacco wrapped around the head and the foot a la Mysterio.  These come packed in the same style of 10 count boxes that the other releases have.  There aren’t any numbers on the amount of cigars released, but it is a limited edition cigar.

Prelight

The wrapper on this cigar is a nice ruddy brown in color with some scattered medium veins.  The noticeable difference in the thin bands of Connecticut shade tobacco wrapped around the foot and head.  The wrapper also showed a good amount of tooth and some oils.  When I gave it a squeeze it was fairly firm with no soft spots.  When I put my nose to the wrapper I got a light barnyard aroma with the same from the mostly enclosed foot.  After clipping it and taking a cold draw I noted the flavor of cinnamon with a slightly tight draw.

Flavor

The flavor at the very beginning is very thin, but that is something I’ve usually experience with the taper footed cigars.  Once it got over the shoulder of the foot the flavor started ramping up.  At that point I could get some wood, sweetness, and some cinnamon with a good amount of spice on the tongue and retrohale.  Towards the end of the first third I started to get some creaminess on the finish with the spice dying down.  The cigar started off at medium full strength.  As I got into the second third the flavors were of wood, cinnamon, and earth with a sweet finish and the spice still present.  The cigar crept into the bottom end of full strength during this third.  The final third was very similar to the second third with the exception of the spice building and the cigar definitely going full strength by the end.

Construction

Once I got pas the shoulder of the foot the cigar had a perfect draw.  The burn was slightly uneven but I’m going to blame that on my inability to get this shape of cigar lit evenly.

Value

With the price on this cigar climbing even higher than the original, I still want to say that it is worth it for a very special occasion with the caveat below.

Conclusions

Overall I definitely enjoyed the cigar.  But not as much as the original release.  This one seemed to have somewhat similar flavors from what I remember from the original, only they seemed a bit muted.  I don’t know if this was due to it being a show sample or because the different year tobacco used in this cigar doesn’t have the punch of the original cigar.  Because I like this original release so much I will give this a try if I find a single, but it will have to wow me like the original for me to buy more.