Cigar Review: Serie R Esteli by La Gloria Cubana

Originally published on Tiki Bar Online

No. 54 (Toro), 6” x 54 ring gauge, SRP $6.49

I had just about given up. Years ago, soon after I started smoking cigars, I tried and enjoyed La Gloria Cubana blends, including the original and the Serie R. As time went on, either they changed or I changed and I just didn’t find most LGC blends all that interesting anymore. I will say that from my own perspective, I definitely have moved away from favoring Dominican blends much of the time, to spending most of my “non-review” smoking time with Nicaraguan-heavy blends. As such, I had just about given up on La Gloria Cubana producing anything that would really make me take notice. The Artesanos series had some interesting entries, and certainly none were “bad,” but very the Retro Especial is still my favorite from a flavor perspective and it was the mildest of the bunch, something that LGC isn’t particularly known for. This year LGC produced two new entries under the Serie R sub-brand: Estelí and Black. Where it gets really interesting is who can sell these: Estelí is only offered through brick and mortar retailers, while Black is only offered through internet and catalog retailers. Both are Nicaraguan puros–something completely new for La Gloria–both use a Jalapa wrapper (described as “Sol” for Estelí and “Ligero” for Black). Both are available in No. 60 and No. 64 sizes, but Estelí is available also in the No. 54 that General sent me for review purposes (thank you for not sending the larger sizes!) and Black is available in a No. 58. Pricing is very close between both lines. How are the blends similar and how are they different? It’s very difficult to say since I’ve only had the Estelí, but I will say this at the outset…I did enjoy it. This review sample is my third.

image courtesy General Cigar

Traditionally La Gloria Cubana’s banding has used more gold foil, but for the Serie R Estelí, silver foil is “in.” So much so, in fact, that taking a decent picture can be difficult (I am using the image General Cigar, LGC’s parent company, provided). It looks great in person, though: both immediately identifiable as to what brand it belongs to, but completely differentiated from other cigars in their catalog. The wrapper is an oily leaf with medium sized veins and a medium-brown coloration with just a touch of red under certain lighting. Giving the wrapper a good sniff, I picked up light notes of earth and leather and wood; the foot had earth and wood notes, but not so much on the leather. I gave the cigar a straight cut with my trusty Xikar Xi, and found the resulting draw to be excellent. The flavors were very good, too, if somewhat unexpected for a Nicaraguan puro; I got hay and vegetal notes up front, along with just a bit of pepper spice and some dried fruit sweetness underneath.

Despite a somewhat large ring gauge (hard to believe but 54 ring gauge used to be considered huge), the Serie R Estelí fired up easily and quickly and quickly started delivering a nice mellow flavor of black coffee and earth, mixed with strong wood and vegetation notes. There was very little pepper spice on the palate, but there was a good dash of red pepper spice on the nose. It starts off on the lower end of the medium-bodied range, which is fairly unusual for a Nicaraguan cigar, and I will admit that the first time I smoked one, I wasn’t immediately wowed by it during the first third. I wasn’t bowled over by it this time right at the beginning, either, but I had an idea of where it was going to go. Before the first third was over, the body bumped into the high range of medium and the flavors of earth and coffee intensified. I also picked up a distinct cedar note along with some sweetness to balance all that out.

During the second third, the LGC Serie R Estelí grew darker in flavor with an increased earthiness, while the retrohale had a nice cedary note. The body increased as well, with the smoke getting thicker and oilier as it burned along. The construction was excellent, with a very even burn line needing just a couple minor touch ups so far, a fantastic draw and a very solid ash.

By the time I was well into the final third, I would deem the Serie R Estlí as a full bodied cigar, sitting in the bottom end of that range. The nicotine strength was medium-to-full as well. Flavor-wise, the cigar was very earthy still with adequate sweetness to balance it well. I can say that this is a total departure from La Gloria Cubanas of the past. While the Nicaraguan flavor was slow to develop at first, it did become fully realized by the end. There were only two minor drawbacks. First, it did take a while to develop; while this is not a big problem in and of itself, many people make their determination of a cigar within the first 10 minutes and that’s just not long enough with this stick. Second, because of the large ring gauge, the smoke tended to get pretty hot as it burned closer to my lips. I would love to see how this blend performs in a small size; a Corona or Corona Gorda would be great, but even a Robusto would be nice. All in all, I call this cigar a major win for La Gloria Cubana.

image courtesy General Cigar

Body: 8/10
Strength: 7/10
Complexity: 7/10

AFP Scale

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10