Originally published at Tiki Bar Online
Laguito No. 5, 5.625” x 54 ring gauge / MSRP ~$18, Purchased at Burns Tobacconist
2012 saw the initial release of the “Goldie” cigars by La Palina, part of the “La Palina Collection.” It was, no doubt, an excellent cigar with fantastic flavors, but I have to say the very narrow “traditional” lancero ring gauge of 38 led to me smoking two of them that had tight draws…out of a total of two that I had altogether. Obviously not unsmokably tight, as I did get through them both, but tighter than they should have been, in my opinion. Maybe dry-boxing would have been a good idea before smoking, but…since they are out of production, how will I ever know? This May, La Palina released the second vitola in the Goldie cigars, a No. 5. Most of the important specs are the same as the No. 2: these will be rolled in the El Titan de Bronza factory in Little Havana, Miami, Florida. The entire run is being rolled by Maria Sierra, a master roller who was trained by Eduardo Rivera Irizarri (Fidel Castro’s personal roller) and Avelina Lara (creator of the Cohiba blend). She is a 95-rated, category 9 roller. Each stogie is finished with a fan cap, exclusively taught to rollers at Cuba’s Villa El Laguito. And the Goldie series is meant to celebrate the “history, contributions and accomplishments of women in the cigar industry.” It features Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers, an Ecuadorian binder, and an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper. Also of note is that “The Goldie is blended with the prized Medio Tiempo leaf, found on only 10% of tobacco plants.” A total of 2,500 boxes, all signed by Maria Sierra, are being produced; 1,000 were released in May, with the remaining 1,500 slated for release in August. I bought my single sample I smoked for this review.
As always, I am impressed by the way the Goldie looks at the outset. The band is elegant and nostalgic; the wrapper is flawless and beautiful. It had an aroma of sweet hay and molasses, while the foot had a smell of freshly tilled earth, hay and cedar. Feeling along the length of the cigar, there was one possible soft spot right around the position of the band and everything else felt sufficiently filled, if not slightly firm. I’ve found it can be really hard to tell exactly how firm a fill is just by squeezing it though. Some very firm cigars actually have a great draw and less firmly packs sticks are impossible to smoke. With the level of roller were are talking about here as well as the ring gauge of the cigar, I expect no issues. And after clipping off the head, I found none. The draw was wonderfully easy and the cold flavors were sweet and grassy, with just a touch of pepper spice lingering on my lips.
I found the La Palina Goldie No. 5 to be fairly easy to get lit. It took a bit of patience to get the entirety of the foot going evenly with a soft flame lighter, but it was definitely possible. From the outset, I got a sweet, light fruit taste on the palate, along with more subtle notes of wood and hay, while the retrohale was nutty and had a chili pepper blast. And the draw was simply perfect. By midway through the first third, the cigar was providing to have a good deal of pepper on both palate and nose, as well as a fair amount of body. Already this vitola was proving more interesting to me than the No. 2…could this be the rare instance of a larger ring gauge being a better overall experience than the smaller one?
In the second third, sweeter flavors moved back into the lead with fruit and hay most noticeable. There was still plenty of pepper spice, though, on the palate and the nose. So far I found this to be a very interesting and enjoyable cigar. The construction was top notch; I had a perfect draw, very solid ash and very even burn line that only needed one minor touch up so far.
As I smoked through the final third, I was struck that this Goldie No. 5 did not have the flavor complexity of the No. 2, BUT it was a more enjoyable smoking experience in terms of draw and overall construction. Simply put, I hate having to babysit a cigar’s burn line and have a hard time justifying a tighter-than-optimal draw on a cigar that runs over $10 per stick. The flavors on this continued to be spicy and somewhat sweet, but there was also an increase in earthiness, but it just didn’t have the subtle flavor notes of the smaller ring gauge. My solution? Let’s try this blend in a Corona Gorda vitola. That being said, this was definitely a very, very good cigar; I will buy a few more of these to keep long term, although not a whole box.
Body: 7/10
Strength: 6/10
Complexity: 6/10
AFP Scale
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9.5/10
