Cigar Review: La Flor Dominicana 1994 (Beer Stein)

• Vitola: Toro
• 6” x 54 ring gauge
• $13.49
• Purchased at Burns Tobacconist

Background

In 2014, La Flor Dominicana announced plans to celebrate their 20th anniversary with a new line of cigars—1994—as well as a limited edition version of that same line—the 1994 in a beer stein. I went to the LFD website to research this last cigar and ran into a bit of a conundrum…the first few words on the Home page says, “La Flor Dominicana was founded in 1996…” Well, I’m not going to read too much into any of it…it’s 2015 when I do this review so I’m splitting the difference between 20th anniversary years of 2014 and 2016.

The 1994 uses Dominican fillers and binder leaves and is available in 4 regular release sizes, all of which use a Mexican San Andres wrapper. The “Beer Stein” version is a limited release, available in a single size and using a Maduro version of the same San Andres wrapper (at least that’s what I can remember of what I was told by our local area rep…if I’m wrong, correct me). As far as “Why a beer stein?” the answer probably varies from “Why not?” to “When I think of Dominican cigars with Mexican wrapper leaf, I automatically think of German beer steins!” I smoked a 1994 or two a couple months before I smoked this one for this review; those were provided to me by the local sales rep and I can’t remember exactly what I smoked at the time; this sample was purchased at Burns Tobacconist.

Prelight

I’ll just say up front, the beer stein is definitely unique and eye-catching in the humidor. It is a bit anachronistic, to be sure, but if it works to get people to notice the cigars, who am I to complain? The band represents a departure from the norm at LFD, too. After years of establishing the new LFD logo as the centerpiece to pretty much every release, they changed it up and went with a more old-style tobacco flower as the centerpiece and the LFD logo off to the sides. It still works stylistically within the confines of the current branding, though, which is something that could never been said for Coronado (an earlier example of branding that was way out of their norm; people had a hard time making the connection to LFD with that one).

The maduro wrapper leaf on this cigar was dark chocolate brown with a richly earthy aroma of an unmistakably Mexican variety. The foot had the rich woodsy, grassy notes that you’ll get off many other La Flor Dominicana offerings. The cold draw was great and had a mix of earth, cedar, and raisin flavors.

Flavor

Prelight, I got aromas and flavors of the Mexican leaf pretty strongly, but once lit, those same flavors got a little lost…which is a good thing to me, since the bitter earthiness of Mexican leaf is something that is often unappealing to me. Instead I got notes of semi-sweet chocolate mixed with some earth, some hay, and a little cedar. There was a touch of pepper spice to the proceedings, but not much really, not even on the retrohale. There were touches of bitterness in the mix, but it was an accent more than an dominant flavor and that made all the difference.

In the second third, I noticed the introduction of a good dose of anise into the mix, while the semi-sweet notes turned to more of a dried fruit or raisin flavor. The woody notes decreased a bit but the pepper spice stayed constant or perhaps even increased a touch.

Winding down through the last third, I got more anise and raisin, along with a resurgence of earthiness and an increase in pepper.

Construction

The draw was slightly tight on this sample, but nothing that caused any real problem. The burn line was very even and the ash was solid.

Value

This is a pricey stick, but doesn’t come close to some of LFD’s other limited production releases. All in all, $13 or so isn’t too much to pay for one of their sticks that tastes this good.

Conclusions

Litto Gomez chose well when selecting the blend for this 20th anniversary celebration of La Flor Dominicana. The 1994 Maduro is full-bodied and full-flavored, making the best of a Mexican San Andres wrapper by carefully blending with other tobaccos that enhanced its better qualities. This was a very good and satisfying smoking experience and hopefully they will be able to keep producing this version of the blend for some time to come.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9.5/10