Vitola: Robusto- 5” x 52 ring gauge
- ~$9.00
- Purchased from Burns Tobacconist
Background
PDR Cigars celebrated the 10th Anniversary of it’s factory opening with this 2014 release, the Flores y Rodriguez 10th Anniversary. 2004 was the year that Abe Flores first started working with the Rodriguez brothers on the Pinar del Rio brand, which has been fruitful and multiplied, producing the solid and affordable PDR 1878 and Small Batch Reserve brands, as well as the higher end Flores y Rodriguez and AFR lines. Although not long on history, the factory has achieved a solid reputation in the industry and has become one that other companies look to for production, with companies such as Primer Mundo, Gurkha, La Palina, and Ortega coming to the PDR for blends.
The company’s website states, “Our goal for this blend was to create something different to salute all the hard work that everyone at PDR Cigars has put forward.” To that end, they used Jalapa (Nicaraguan) and 7-year aged Piloto Cubano (Dominican) fillers, a Dominican Olor binder, and an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper leaf for the FyR 10th Anniversary.
Although it was released two years ago, the cigars just made their way to the Burns humidor recently. Someone noted that they were very good, so I made a point to pick one up for review purposes. This review is based on my first tasting of this blend and I bought the cigar at Burns. Credit is also due to Cigar-Coop as a source for the original news story on this cigar’s release.
Prelight
The box of the FyR 10th Anniversary is pretty basic wood…basic, but nice, and nothing really more to say about it. The band has green printing on a white background with blind embossing in the white to render shapes of the coat of arms and other decorations used on the band. A secondary band reads “Reserva Limitada” in a black and gold motif. Not the most striking band…you need bright directional light for the embossing to really stand out.
The wrapper leaf had a peanut butter brown color with a little darker mottling and a moderately oily feel. The wrapper smelled faintly of wood, earth and something barely sweet; the foot had a richer earthiness, with additional floral and bready notes. The cold draw was good, but the pre-light flavor was oddly chemical…almost a modeling glue note. Hopefully that wouldn’t translate to the burning cigar.
Flavor
Once burning, the Flores y Rodriguez 10th Anniversary had much more of a cedar flavor up front, followed up by earthy and floral notes, along with a pepper burn that came in quickly and left just as fast on each puff. The retrohale was a mix of roasted peanuts and red pepper. Continued puffs brought through notes of graham cracker and a slight citrus.
During the second third, the citrus notes came up in the profile while the pepper notes decreased. There was still a good bit of earthiness and graham in the mix, providing a decently complex mix.
The last third had more bread notes with the earth subsiding a bit and the pepper becoming almost non-existent. In the end it tasted more like a Dominican cigar than a mix containing Nicaraguan leaf.
Construction
The draw was very good throughout. The burn line needed practically constant touching up as it progressed with inconsistent waviness. The ash was a little more flaky than I tend to like.
Value
This was a good smoke for a reasonable price tag, but really just at the limit of what it should cost. I judge it good value, but only barely.
Conclusions
I found the Flores y Rodriguez 10th Anniversary to be a good cigar, though not as good as I expected given the hype around it. It had a decent amount of complexity for the first two thirds, before dying off a bit in the final third. I would call it medium in body and it should appeal to those who like a good Dominican smoke with a little extra zing in it from time to time.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 1.5/2
Flavor: 3.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8/10
