6.875" x 48 ring gauge, approx. $8.00I only discovered La Flor Dominicana's cigars about 2 years ago--fairly recently given that they have been on the market for over a decade. When I heard about the "Premium Line" a while I thought, "Cool, Litto's making something new above the regular Ligero and Double Ligero lines!" No, actually that's not the case; instead this is a very old cigar, maybe the first line that LFD offered. It goes all the way back to a time when Litto sold his blends under the Los Libertadores flag before parting ways with the partner who owned that name and founding La Flor Dominicana. The Premium Line natural has been described in several places as mild or mild-to-medium in body; it consists of Dominican filler and binder and a Connecticut shade wrapper.
The clarity and evenness of color of this wrapper would not be out of place on a Davidoff. Only a couple of glaringly large veins in the otherwise fine and delicate vein structure would prevent this being an overpriced super-super-premium stick. The feel is moderately firm from tip to tip. The aroma from the body is sweet hay and tobacco; from the foot there is some cocoa.
Prelight, the draw is just slightly tight, which may or may not translate into problems down the road. The flavor is creamy with notes of honey and caramel and there is every indication that this may be a classic mild cigar. The first few puffs had a dry, woody quality and a little bit of white pepper. The first third ended up being surprisingly nice. I honestly had not expected much from this stick, but what I got was a very well-made and quite flavorful mild cigar. There were the woody notes I mentioned before along with some sweet creaminess and just a touch of grass.
The second third was very nice, too, although not much different from the first. I had seen a review stating that there wasn't much change in flavors throughout this smoke, but if a great flavor is achieved, changing of flavors is not all that crucial, especially on a milder cigar.
In the final third, the Mambises showed a little punch, probably more due to the Churchill size than anything else. It was still creamy for the most part but showed a little edginess as well--just a little rough around the edges. There were some woody, cedary notes again as well as some more grassiness, although the pepper had pretty much disappeared. Construction was excellent--no touch-ups and a perfect burn line. The ask fell off in perfect 3/4 inch segments. In the end, this was a nice mild cigar that surprised me in its flavor. While it won't displace my favorite milder smokes, it definitely ranks in my top 5 mild cigars.
Body: 2/10
Strength: 5/10
Complexity: 5/10
AFP Scale:
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10
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