Meaning 'Flower of the Antilles', the Flor de las Antillas cigar represents Cuba, the largest island in the Greater Antilles islands, which is home to the Garcia family's rich cigar creating heritage. The natural, non-maduro FDLA (Flor De Las Antillas) was 2012's cigar of the year, awarded by Cigar Aficionado Magazine. The newest version features a maduro wrapper in place of the Nicaraguan sun grown wrapper. The award winning standard FDLA is a solid and consistent cigar, as are most My Father Cigars, I am excited to finally smoke the Maduro.Â
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano Sun Grown Oscuro
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Vitola: 6 x 52 (toro)
Price: $8
The Flor De Las Antillas is a beautiful cigar, sporting an artistic and ornate band, secondary band, and matching ribbon, wrapped in a dark brown maduro leaf, all in a lovely box pressed 6 x 52 size. It has a slight oily sheen, is smooth to the touch, and is quite spongy when squeezed.
The FDLA, jokingly called "the booby cigar" in many online groups, exudes a cocoa and graham cracker aroma, and a cold draw releases essentially the same.Â
The Flavor profile starts off with forefront nuances of cocoa, vanilla, burnt graham cracker, and bitter espresso, the finish is cedar and white pepper. The less than smooth retro-hale, of course heightens these notes. I am doing by best to discern all the FDLA has to offer, however I am fighting off a slight cold so my palette is not functioning at 100%, but I still have some taste buds that are not out of commission.
I am not thrilled with the burn line of the Flor de Las Antillas Maduro, but then again, every FDLA I have smoked in the past, natural and maduro, had the same wonky burn issue. It's not a huge deal, I think they lightly pack the cigar when rolling, and then there is the box press, which normally loosens up tobacco, causes even more of an uneven burn. The same happens with the Fuente Anejo Shark (you can see the review here), some touch up's are in order.
Around the midway point, the Flor De Las adds a dark meatiness to it, as well as a sweet raisin, and the cedar becomes more pronounced. Cedar is not my favorite flavor nuance, but there is worse, such as a zesty mint (usually un-aged tobacco), or a soapy flavor, which is a wanna-be lovely and light rose petal nuance gone wrong. By the way, if you want a cigar with a great floral note, try a Fuente Don Carlos, they are one of my top 3 cigars of all time, and one I have yet to review.
I have noticed throughout the cigar, the smoke is very thick, very cloudy and chewy... What I mean is it isn't crisp clean cloudy smoke, it has some denseness to it, a lingering aspect that coats the palette. Even though the nicotine strength is medium, the body is full flavored and this would be suited well as an after dinner cigar.
Oops, no need to add a paper nuance to the flavor profile.
😜
Cheers Steemians!
Final thoughts:
The Flor De Las Antillas Maduro is a cigar I had been looking forward too. Much like it's sister cigar, the FDLA natural, the maduro was just as satisfying as I thought it would be. The Maduro brings a hefty meaty, and dark flavor profile to an otherwise mild-medium blend. Both have a home in my humidor, and will be selected depending on what the palette is craving, and perhaps the time of day. I recommend giving one a try, especially if you are a fan of the original award winning Flor De Las Antillas.Â
Smoke time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Cigar paired with: Â Seagrams 7 whiskey and cola, then Rebecca Creek Texas whiskey (straight up).
Price opinion: Spot on
Recommend? Yes
My overall grade: A--
   (A+ to F-)Â
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-Greg Â