Cigar Review: Mr. Sam by La Palina

Vitola: Robusto
Size: 4.75” x 54 ring gauge
MSRP $12.50
Samples provided by La Palina

Background

Last year, La Palina introduced a new limited edition to the La Palina Collection: Mr. Sam. The first release was a single size, Robusto, and apparently the reception to it was good enough that they decided to add two more sizes and make it a regular production item.

The naming of this line is another take on Paley family tradition:

Samuel Paley founded La Palina cigars in 1896, and Mr. Sam was the moniker bestowed upon him by the workers in his factory…Samuel Paley and his wife, Goldie, have been once again united, within the La Palina Collection.

The last remark has two meanings that I can see. The lady portrayed on the band is Goldie Paley, so this cigar has her picture on the primary band and his name on the secondary band. Also, both cigars are made at the Titan de Bronze factory in Miami (with most of their other cigars made elsewhere) so they are united in that way, too.

The Mr. Sam is made of Nicaraguan fillers and binder, along with an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper. Along with the Robusto, they are producing Toros (6 x 50, $13.50) and Coronas (5.5 x 42, $11). The company sent me two samples of the Robusto for this review; this review is based on the second one

Prelight

I’m pretty sure I’ve spoken to the La Palina “cameo” band before. It’s classy, antique-looking and I like it. If you didn’t like the look previously, this is not going to get you to change your mind. “Mr. Sam” is rendered on a secondary band in gold, ivory, and white that is a perfect match for the colors used on the primary. The wrapper was a milk chocolate brown and left plentiful oils on my fingers. Like other products from El Titan, the construction appeared to be excellent. Giving the cigar a sniff, I picked up mostly cedar with a touch of earth on the wrapper, while earth and grassy notes dominated the foot.

I used my typical Xikar Xi straight cutter and the cold draw was good. Flavors prelight were fairly mild, featuring slight notes of hay and earth, although there was a peppery tingle on my lips after I took a few cold drags.

Flavor

Mr. Sam was fairly easy to light up evenly with a single flame torch. It started off with mostly hay and cedar notes, along with a slight tinge of sour citrus on the finish and a red pepper burn on the retrohale. As the first third went on, the smoke got creamier and thicker and the cedar flavors toned down a bit, allowing more earth and coffee to come through.

In the second third, earthiness was the dominant flavor, but there were plenty of cedar and coffee notes as well.

The final third was mostly earth and hay and natural tobacco, although it seemed like the flavors died down and muted overall, making the last few minutes not nearly as good as most of the rest of the cigar.

Construction

Draw was excellent. The burn line was wavy, but not unreasonably so. The ash was solid except I tried to burn it too long and it fell off in my lap…my fault.

Value

I find the Mr. Sam to be a bit too expensive for the experience it delivered. Most of that can probably be put down to having been made in Florida, which does increase the price.

Conclusions

After getting through the first few minutes and the overly cedary flavor I found there, Mr. Sam was a good cigar until I got down to the very end, where it kind of just died in terms of flavor. If the whole thing was closer to what I got near the end of the first third and throughout the second, it definitely would have rated higher, but I found it hard to justify the price when there were portions that just didn’t appeal to me. I’ve had the Corona and it was better overall.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 3.5/5
Value: .5/1
Total: 8/10