Cigar Review: La Gloria Cubana, Artesanos de Tabaqueros

Churchill, 7" x 50 ring gauge, MSRP $9.00

The Artesanos de Tabaqueros line was introduced early this year and represents the first new offering from La Gloria Cubana since the departure of company head, Ernesto Perez-Carrillo, Jr. The blend is credited to Benji Menendez, Michael Gianni, Yuri Guillen, and Rick Rodriguez (begging the question "how does blending by committee work?"). It uses Dominican and Honduran filler and binder, wrapped in both Connecticut Shade and Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper leaves. Where the two wrappers meet is the unusual location for the band--if you're the type to smoke only to the band, this will be a short smoke!

The Sumatran leaf had the color of milk chocolate with a little mottling and moderate veining. It had an oily touch to it as well. The Connecticut wrapper was fairly dark for a shade leaf and looked stretched and puckered in places. Feeling along the length, it seemed this stick was not particularly well-filled especially as you get below the band (the whole length was fairly soft, though). The darker Sumatran wrapper had barnyard and earth notes while the Connecticut was more grassy. The foot had a rich compost and earth smell, with just a hint of cocoa. Prelight draw was nice and easy; I got a nice natural tobacco flavor along with some spice and just a bit of cocoa.

Lighting up brought a wonderful volume of thick, aromatic smoke. Initially there was a little black pepper along with some notes of cream and hay--very much as you might expect in a milder cigar, although I hesitate to say this was truly mild even at this point. Before I got halfway through the first third construction had taken a bad turn: the Connecticut wrapper was swelling under the band and several cracks had appeared in it. Added to that was the large canoe that began forming. Flavors were fairly typical of mild to medium stick--hay and grass notes with a bit of pepper and a nice creamy smoke. The burn line got crooked enough that before the first third was over, I got a bit of the Sumatran wrapper burning, giving me a sneak preview of the spicy flavors to come.

As the Sumatran wrapper really got going the flavor turned much more earthy with chili pepper spice rather than the black pepper of before. It was a rather mild spice at this point, though--just a slow burn on the tongue. The smoke was still creamy smooth and plentiful in volume. The crooked burn still had not even up well despite my touching it up a couple times. It would require another touch up or two before I retired the stick.

Earthy flavors dominated until about halfway through the last third when the chili pepper spice started to ramp up. There were hints, too, of cocoa and coffee from time-to-time and this made an excellent companion to the French Roast coffee I enjoyed with about half of this stick. Overall, the body was solidly medium although it started off slightly milder. The flavor, while not a knockout, was very good, especially when judged against other offerings in the La Gloria Cubana line. Of the two "dos capas" cigars new on the market this year, I prefer the Cabinetta from Joya de Nicaragua, but this was a perfectly good cigar. At $9 per stick, the price is a little higher than I would prefer for the flavor, but in light of the craftsmanship and skill required to make a cigar of this nature, I ultimately don't find the price out of line.

Body: 5/10

Strength: 6/10

Complexity: 7/10

AFP Scale

Prelight: 1.5/2

Construction: 1.5/2

Flavor: 4/5

Value: 1/1

Total: 8/10

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