Vitola: Robusto- 5” x 50 ring gauge
- ~$8
- Purchased at Burns Tobacconist
Background
It’s not every year that My Father Cigars produces a new blend as part of the flagship My Father-branded lines. The first line with that name was blended by Jaime Garcia in honor of his father, Don Pepin Garcia, in 2008. It was followed up with Le Bijou 1922, which Don Pepin blended in honor of his own father, with later installments like Connecticut, La Opulancia, and The Judge before La Gran Oferta was produced on the 10th anniversary of the first My Father line.
La Gran Oferta (“the grand offering”) uses a brand name from the early 20th century. It uses Nicaraguan filler and binder, along with an Ecuadorian Habano Rosado wrapper leaf. They have made it available in 5 sizes to begin with, including a Lancero, which is a little unusual for a new brand.
One thing I found of note about La Gran Oferta was it’s MSRP, which runs from about $8 to about $11. That is notably lower in price than anything else with the “My Father” band on it. The Connecticut starts out just a bit higher, but most of the other cigars with this branding start around $11 and work their way upward from there.
My Father La Gran Oferta is available to order online from site sponsors, Small Batch Cigar and Cigar and Pipes.
Prelight
The main band is the commonly-seen My Father band, without any changes that I can readily detect. The secondary band follows in the tradition of other My Father secondary bands…it follows the die-cut of the primary band, making it seem like it was imagined at the same time. for this application, it says “La Gran Oferta,” of course, in a font that seems very old-fashioned. I’m sure that is meant to be a call-back to the original brand, even if the artwork on it never looked anything like this one…basically the feeling that “it could have looked like this” is enough. The foot of the cigar has a teal ribbon on it.
The wrapper leaf was a milk chocolate brown color with a fuzzy, oily feel to it. It smelled earthy and woody, while the foot had a mixture of earth, chocolate and coffee notes.
The cap cracked a little when I cut it, but that gave me the chance to try out for the first time a product that I recently got for the first time…PerfecRepair cigar glue. If it proves to be a valuable product, I’ll share all the details with everyone. The draw was excellent and had a berry sweetness, overlaying notes of hay, coffee and earth.
Flavor
La Gran Oferta opened up with a solid mix of cedar and earth, backed with touches of sweetness and black pepper on the palate. On subsequent puffs, the cedar flavors definitely have an edge and there is a searing, but short-lived, red pepper spice on the nose. So far, the recently glued cap leaf was staying put, as well. Before the first third was over, the sweetness resolved into more of a chocolate brownie note, while the cedar faded into a secondary note.
As I got into the second third, the chocolate note went toward more of a dark chocolate with a high cacao content, which mixed very well with the pepper. I also started picking up on some baking spice. Earth and coffee notes were in the background.
In the last third, the earth and coffee notes came to the fore, swapping places with the chocolate flavor which faded to the background. Pepper stayed fairly consistent on the palate and nose.
Construction
I had an almost perfect burn line, a solid ash and a perfect draw. The cigar glue that I used to repair the cap held up extraordinarily well and added no flavor that I could detect (I’ve smoked this blend quite a few times in the past month).
Value
The price point for these is fantastic considering the experience it delivers and the fact that most “My Father” banded cigars are several dollars a stick more.
Conclusions
What we have in La Gran Oferta is a cigar that is not only the cheapest My Father-branded stick, but possibly the best…or at least, possibly my favorite. I found it to be sweet and spicy, earthy and chocolatey…very complex from beginning to end. What more could you ask for in a $8 to $11 cigar? Honestly, this stick is great in the Robusto size I reviewed here…and it could be even better in the Lancero.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9.5/10
