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Image courtesy GCC
Vitola: No. 58
- 6.875” x 58 ring gauge
- MSRP $7.79
- Provided by General Cigar Company
Background
Much of the background of this blend will be familiar if you read my review of the La Gloria Serie R Esteli Maduro yesterday, but basically it comes down to this: in order to put a “wall” of some sort between brick-and-mortar and online/catalog retailers, General has been producing specific releases for each side of the retailer business for the last few years. The Esteli Maduro is a cigar that you will only be able to purchase at your local cigar shop, while the La Gloria Cubana Serie R Black Maduro is something you will only find at large cigar sales website and the catalogs you get in the mail.
The blends of the two sticks is undoubtedly similar but there should be enough difference in the two to set them apart at least a little bit. Both have Nicaraguan filler and binder. and both seem to be using Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro wrappers (the press releases says explicitly that for the “Esteli” and other sources say the same about the “Black”).
The Black and Esteli share No. 60 (6 x 60) and No. 64 (6.25 x 64) vitolas. General sent me samples of each blend in the vitola that is unique to both blends. For the Esteli that is the No. 54 (6 x 54), while the Black ships in the No. 58 (6.875 x 58). That is basically a Double Corona and is a very large ring gauge for the smallest available in this blend. I’ve smoked a couple samples of this blend previous to this review and General supplied them all. (I reviewed the Serie R Esteli Maduro yesterday.)
Image courtesy GCC
Prelight
Oddly, the LGC Serie R Black uses less “black” in the band than the Esteli does. The bands have black type on a gray background and virtually no silver foil, except for the secondary band, which is shared with the Esteli. The box for the Black is actually a lot more practical for use in a cigar shop, which is a little maddening, but what are you going to do? Actually, I’ll tell you what they should do…use the same shape (square) boxes for the Esteli!
The wrapper again was a dark chocolate brown color with a good amount of oils under my fingertips and visible veins. It smelled of earth and coffee beans and cocoa powder. The foot of the stick had aromas of cedar and earth and a little bell pepper. Once cut the cold draw had notes of semi-sweet chocolate, dried fruit, and wood.
Flavor
Lighting up the Serie R Black Maduro I got a good amount of strong, black coffee, some cocoa powder and mildly sweetened chocolate, anise, and wood. Somewhat surprisingly, there was little pepper spice on the palate; not as surprising was the fact that the length of the stick caused the smoke to be very cool by the time it got to my mouth. There was some pepper, along with coffee and cedar on the retrohale. There is one advantage to larger ring cigars; I had to step away to bring groceries in from the car after my wife got home from the store. In the almost 10 minutes it took me to lug in several large loads from the trunk to the kitchen, the cigar was still burning, though only just. I applied some extra fire to it to get it back to full burn status and it continued on without changing the flavor. There is no cigar with a diameter smaller than 50 ring that would do that.
In the second third, I got lots of leather, lots of anise, and lots of earth. Espresso bean was a constant undercurrent and there was some sweetness in the mix, but overall the flavor got a little flat. There was no pepper to speak of at this point and the profile had not real change for over half an hour.
The same continued in the final third: leather, anise and earth. The semi-sweet dried fruit note increased a bit in the background and there was a touch of pepper returning.
Construction
I had a good draw, very solid ash and even burn line throughout.
Value
The cigar is built well and has a great price point, but I struggled to say that I would spend my own money on it, so I’m only giving half a point for value.
Conclusions
The La Gloria Cubana Serie R Black Maduro was a decent cigar and I would smoke it again, but I can’t say I would spend my own money on it. It was a good cigar, just out of my wheelhouse with the large ring gauge that tended to deaden and flatten out the flavor profile…which I’ve found to be the rule on larger cigars. I would be interested to try this stick out in something like a 48 or 50 ring gauge, but I doubt that will ever happen. If you like big ring Maduros with a medium body and leathery profile, you should give this one a try. It may seem a little odd that a whole point separates the “Esteli” and the “Black” variants of the two new La Gloria Maduros, but I think ring gauge had more to do with it than anything else for me.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 3/5
Value: .5/1
Total: 7.5/10
