Brand: General Cigar
Line: La Gloria Cubana Serie R Maduro
Vitola: No. 5 5.5 x 54
Origin: Miami, FL
Wrapper: Connecticut Broadleaf
Filler: Dominican, Nicaraguan
Binder: Nicaraguan
Strength: Medium
Flavor: Full
Price: $93.95 (Box of 24) Buy It Now
After my review of the La Gloria Cubana Wavell Natural, Jerry from Stogie Review commented that he couldn’t wait for my take on the Serie R. So after work on Friday, I stopped as usual at my local cigar store and decided that I might as well pick one up. After all, it’s never too early in my cigar reviewing career to start taking requests, right?
Construction:
The cigar had a nice, dark wrapper, with no spots that I can see. Upon taking it out of the box, I could already smell some nice, sweet tobacco notes–and that in a walk-in humidor. The draw was easy, but not too free.
Burn:
The cigar burned nice and slow. It was a little uneven most of the way through, which was annoying on the one hand, but on the other forced me to smoke more slowly and truly savor the unique flavors of this cigar. The ash was a lovely grey on the side I wasn‘t constantly touching up, and was a little flaky. The cigar produced lots of lovely grey smoke.
Flavor:
Lighting the cigar immediately hit me with what I can best describe as the flavor of a well-aged port with some hints of spice. As the first third burned, the spiced undertones were complemented by some notes of leather, as well. After about the first third, the flavor of the cigar changed away from the port taste to some nice hints of brown sugar and pepper. The flavor then changed again about mid-way through to mocha and cognac notes, and the pepper faded away a little bit. As I took off the band to beat the burn, the flavor changed again to more of a coffee flavor with some hints of cinnamon and brown sugar. The cigar turned once more at the finish, where the dominant flavors were simply bold and spicy. I only reluctantly put it down.
Verdict:
The Serie R Maduro is definitely a great, full bodied cigar. The sweet, spicy and coffee flavor combinations made this a cigar worth paying attention to. Great for relaxation, but I wouldn’t recommend smoking it when you have to focus on something else–this cigar demands your attention. I’ll definitely be picking up more, and I hope that the burn issues I noticed were unique to this one.
Popularity: 18% [?]
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Great review Alex, this is one of my favorite cigars although the burn issues you speak of are common with this line.
“I wouldn’t recommend smoking it when you have to focus on something else–this cigar demands your attention…”
Uh oh, I just lit this up while I’m working. Clearly, I’ll never get anything done this afternoon. (So what else is new? LOL) Crossing my fingers and hoping for that well aged port flavor!
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