Vitola: Toro- 6” x 50 ring gauge
- MSRP $12.99
- Samples provided by Forged Cigar Company
Background
On today’s episode of “Is it General or is it Forged?” I bring to you the new La Gloria Cubana Spirit of the Lady. La Gloria Cubana is touted as “the original boutique brand” although they have been mass-producing cigars in the General factory in the Dominican Republic for nearly two decades. This latest creation is a limited edition release with only 600 boxes each of two different sizes being released. Spirit of the Lady was made to celebrate the talented men and women whose artistry and passion has made the brand iconic for decades.
Spirit of the Lady uses a 5-country blend of tobaccos, including fillers from Mexico, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic; a Cameroon binder; and an Olancha San Agustin wrapper from Honduras. The cigars are box-pressed and come in boxes of 20 sticks.
If your local brick and mortar isn’t carrying La Gloria Cubana, our sponsoring retailer, Small Batch Cigar, had some left at the time of this writing. This is the fourth or fifth time I have smoked this blend; I received my samples from Forged Cigar Company (and that answers the question I asked at the beginning).
Prelight
The boxes on this release don’t seem like anything special. I haven’t seen them in real life, but in photos they just don’t look “special” for a limited edition. Nothing wrong with them, per se…just not so much “right” with them, either. The bands are cool, though, with a closeup of the eponymous “Lady” taking center stage and plenty of gold foil and brown and red accents to give a rich appearance with a neo-retro-deco vibe.
The box press on this reminds me of one of the last releases from La Gloria Cubana under the General banner, the Spanish Press. It had softly rounded corners with the cigar shaped more like a square than the rectangle most box-presses end up being. The wrapper was a dark chocolate brown with a decent amount of red showing up in some lighting. It had an aroma of earth and leather. The foot had notes of earth, semisweet chocolate, vegetal matter, and copper.
After clipping, the cold draw was very good and I got flavors of mocha, earth, and a little cedar.
Flavor
Despite being on a 50 ring gauge, the LGC Spirit of the Lady took a bit of effort to get fired up fully and evenly. Once I got it there I got semi-sweet notes of dark fruit and chocolate, some dark roast coffee bean, and earth, with notes of cedar and black pepper coming in behind that. There were minor vegetal and mineral notes on the finish. As I got deep into the first third, the pepper notes started to come on stronger, playing nearly evenly with the chocolate and coffee flavors.
The second third had the flavors flattening out a bit. There was still plenty of earth and some coffee bean, but less of the sweetness and pepper. I did get a little more of a mineral note than had come through before.
The last third had some skunky flavors that weren’t pleasant at all, but they were mercifully brief. Besides that there was more earth and coffee bean and pepper while the sweetness died off almost completely.
Construction
I had a good draw and solid ash, while the burn line was wavy and needed to be touched up several times. Nothing major, but worth mentioning.
Value
The price on this was higher than normal for a La Gloria, but it didn’t deliver a level “above” what their normal cigars provide, so I’m only giving it .5 point for value.
Conclusions
Spirit of the Lady seems like a misfire in the La Gloria Cubana catalog. It started off pretty good, but soon seemed to lose the thread, meandering through the second and last thirds without providing much to be interested in. It wasn’t terrible, but it just struggled to be all that good.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 3/5
Value: .5/1
Total: 7.5/10
