Cigar Review: Fleur de la Reine from United Cigar

• Vitola: Cinq
• 5.5” x 54 ring gauge
• SRP $6.29
• Samples provided by United Cigar

Background

“Another month and more cigars for your consideration…” is how the letter started. It’s getting to be a fairly regular occurrence lately that my old friend, Barry Stein…once a cigar blogger and formerly an industry insider…sends me cigars from his new gig…as a cigar retailer..and blogger…and industry insider. Actually, it seems that rather than just changing jobs, he’s frequently just adding job descriptions to his title. I guess I should hope to do so well in the coming years!

That brings us to Fleur de la Reine…another blend sold in the U.S. by United Cigar, which is joined at the hip with Two Guys Smoke Shop in New Hampshire, both being owned by Dave Garofalo, and both serving as employers of Mr. Stein (and he writes for Cigar Authority, also owned by Mr. G). Fleur de la Reine is available in natural (Ecuadorian Sumatran) or Maduro (Connecticut Broadleaf) versions, and use Honduran and Nicaraguan fillers, along with a Dominican binder leaf.

I was sent a few samples of the Maduro and I smoked a couple of them before this review sample got burned down. The cigar is available in 4 sizes, all of which retail for less than $8 per stick, so that does represent a bit of a departure from other United lines that start around that price point and soar to well over $30.

Prelight

So the name of the cigar translates to “Flower Queen” in French (at least as detected and translated by Google Translate). The band features a woman with a hibiscus flower in her hair and a light-weight dress that she seems to be having trouble keeping on (the strap is off the shoulder). Another blogger remarked on how this basic artwork is similar to La Gloria Cubana’s art and now I can’t unsee it. From the shape of the die-cut, to the colors to the position of the face…none of it’s the same, but taken as a whole, it’s highly reminiscent of that old brand. Probably not enough for a lawsuit, but enough to be fairly obvious about intent. Print it all on fairly low quality, glossy paper and you end up with something that looks pretty cheap on the surface.

Get beyond the band, though, and you get a rich, oily wrapper leaf that smells sweet and earthy, with just a touch of leather. The foot of the cigar had a little more earth, along with some grassy hay notes. The prelight draw was easy and tasted of hay, earth and mild sweet cocoa.

Flavor

I lit up Fleur de la Reine with my favorite single-flame torch and it got to burning quickly and easily. Initially, I got flavors of medium-roast coffee, earth, cedar and hay on the palate, with an addition of pepper spice on the finish and on the retrohale. The sweeter notes that I come to expect in a Connecticut Broadleaf-wrapped stick were very subtle at first, although definitely there. As I continued on into the first third, I got a little more semi-sweet cocoa and stronger coffee notes. Most of the Broadleaf cigars I enjoy trend more toward full-bodied, but this started out as a mellow medium-bodied smoke.

As I moved into the second third, I noticed the sweetness picking up some more as the Broadleaf started to having a greater impact on overall flavor. The pepper spice still hung around on the back of the palate and there were still notes of earth and coffee.

Getting into the last third, I noted that the body was starting to pick up into the medium-to-full range. There was a slight increase in pepper and a bit of cedar started to come back into the mix after fading in the second third.

Construction

Build quality on Fleur de la Reine was uniformly very good: I had a solid ash, great draw and very even burn line on all samples.

Value

The price on these is great and the smoking experience is quite good, so I’d say it’s good value.

Conclusions

Although it doesn’t make the best of impressions on first glance, the Fleur de la Reine is actually a very good smoke with a decent amount of complexity and a price that is very friendly. I would definitely smoke this one again and might even consider it as a semi-regular smoke. It’s not a blockbuster, but it is a good solid smoke.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 1.5/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8.5/10