La Flor Dominicana Cigars
La Flor Dominicana cigars are handcrafted by Litto Gomez in the Dominican Republic. Rich flavors, superb construction and an inventive approach to captivating the most discerning palates are the bedrocks of La Flor Dominicana’s formula for success. From powerful nuances of cedar and spices with a bold finish to profiles that are more approachable and tempered in strength, Litto expresses a nice range of enticing flavors throughout his core offerings.
CIGARS
La Flor Dominicana 1994
Price Per Cigar:$8.37 - $10.209 options availableStrength: FullCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: San Andres5 Reviewsread more
La Flor Dominicana Air Bender
Price Per Cigar:$10.08 - $11.203 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: Habano2 Reviewsread more
La Flor Dominicana Air Bender Maduro
Price Per Cigar:$10.08 - $11.203 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: Ecuador Habano3 Reviewsread more
La Flor Dominicana Andalusian Bull
Price Per Cigar:Only $18.802 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: Ecuador12 Reviewsread more
La Flor Dominicana Capitulo II
Price Per Cigar:$12.60 - $14.002 options availableStrength: FullCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: Nicaraguan11 Reviewsread more
La Flor Dominicana Chapter 1
Price Per Cigar:$12.60 - $14.002 options availableStrength: FullCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: Brazilian7 Reviewsread more
La Flor Dominicana Coronado
Price Per Cigar:$10.17 - $12.809 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: Nicaraguan2 Reviewsread more
La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero
Price Per Cigar:$8.37 - $12.9041 options availableStrength: FullCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: Varies26 Reviewsread more
La Flor Dominicana La Nox
Price Per Cigar:$12.60 - $14.003 options availableStrength: FullCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: Brazilian7 Reviewsread more
La Flor Dominicana La Volcada
Price Per Cigar:$12.87 - $14.302 options availableStrength: FullCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: San Andres2 Reviewsread more
La Flor Dominicana Ligero
Price Per Cigar:$7.56 - $13.1015 options availableStrength: FullCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: Ecuador Sumatra10 Reviewsread more
La Flor Dominicana Reserva Especial
Price Per Cigar:$7.74 - $11.0010 options availableStrength: MediumCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: Ecuador Connecticut, Connecticut Broadleaf5 Reviewsread more
La Flor Dominicana Suave
Price Per Cigar:$6.84 - $10.504 options availableStrength: Mild-MediumCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: Ecuador Connecticut3 Reviewsread more
SAMPLERS
LA FLOR DOMINICANA BRAND HISTORY
La Flor Dominicana is a highly respected boutique brand owned and operated by husband-and-wife team Litto and Ines Gomez. Frequently clad in a striking white Panama hat, Litto’s likeness is synonymous with La Flor Dominicana. Litto is a creative cigar-maker who has earned many accolades for his cigars since the brand’s official debut in 1996, while his wife, Ines, has been instrumental in managing their business. The couple entered the cigar industry in the mid-1990s with a brand called Los Libertadores. Considered “outsiders” by many in the cigar world, they grew at a measured, pragmatic pace, learning and absorbing tremendous insight from the foremost cigar-makers in the business.
Litto’s path into the premium cigar world is unconventional to say the least, and it arose from a jarring event that could easily have turned tragic. Gomez was born in Spain and raised in Uruguay. His father lost an arm in an industrial accident in a paper mill, but his resolve to overcome his circumstance set an inspirational example that resonated with Gomez. In 1973, Litto immigrated with his brother, Jose, to Toronto, Canada in search of opportunity. Initially denied an American visa, Gomez made the most of his experience in Canada, working as a dishwasher, waiter, and in other service-industry roles. It was during this period he learned to speak English. The bitter winter climate eventually prompted the brothers to make their way to Florida after five years in Canada. There, they endeavored to operate a pair of liquor stores and later opened a pawn shop. Gomez’s driven nature encouraged his expertise in the jewelry end of the business. He soon transformed the pawn shop into a jewelry store on Miami’s North Beach. Gomez began dating Ines Lorenzo, whom he would later marry.
Litto’s brush with near-tragedy occurred in the early 1990s. A pair of well-groomed gentlemen entered his jewelry store as he was preparing to close for the day. Believing he may have a decent sale on his hands, Litto was instead presented with a gun to his head. The men bound and gagged Gomez and his jeweler with duct tape and plastic ties in a back room. The two were tied to one another making escape near impossible. Litto believed his life was over. The thieves made off with $400,000 in jewelry and were never caught. Gomez and his jeweler endured an hour’s wait for rescue, as they painstakingly slid across the floor to get near a window.
The next day Gomez listed his business for sale and never again opened the shop. With the encouragement of Ines, Litto partnered with an investor to introduce the Los Libertadores cigar brand. The unrivaled demand for premium cigars was approaching its zenith as the Cigar Boom of the 1990s surged. With no familial lineage in the tobacco business, Gomez immersed himself in the industry. His first cigars reflected his early taste for a milder profile and also the challenge of getting his hands on enough quality tobacco to maintain a consistent production schedule. Litto and Ines introduced La Flor Dominicana in 1996, following a dispute with their investor in the Los Libertadores brand.
In his travels to a host of tobacco-growing regions, Gomez learned all he could from the master cigar-makers and tobacco farmers he encountered. In many ways, his lack of tradition has inspired an innovative approach that infuses his cigar-making process to this day. He is unafraid to do things differently or present cigars with unusual and inventive qualities. He has also moved in a more intense direction, strength-wise. Today, the La Flor Dominicana portfolio is home to some of the most potent Dominican cigars on the market.
From the beginning, Litto and Ines harbored quality control as their chief priority. They’ve had opportunities to grow faster and place their brand in a burgeoning number of retailers, both large and small, who’ve requested to carry it. However, the couple prefers to offer La Flor Dominicana exclusively in premium shops that are well-run and properly maintained, where their cigars are represented in the best light possible. Litto has adamantly refused to compromise the integrity of his cigars simply to sell a greater number. He has long preferred to follow a trajectory of growth that permits his detailed oversight to remain intact at every stage of production and is well-known for creating a number of artisanal, small-batch releases.
Today, Litto’s focus on the quality of his cigars is entertained with a seamless effort, as the family now owns their own factory as well as a handful of farms where they can control the growing process in addition to production. Their 120-acre La Canela farm in the Dominican Republic is a picturesque and impressive landscape to all who visit. Equally remarkable is the brand’s pristine Dominican factory where Litto’s distinctive blends come to life. In 2016, La Flor Dominicana Andalusian Bull received a superb 96-point rating in addition to Cigar Aficionado’s coveted ‘#1 Cigar of the Year’ title, a first for the brand, but not its first appearance in the publication’s ‘Top 10.’ La Flor Dominicana Coronado was ranked as the ‘#2 Cigar of the Year’ with a 93-point rating back in the mid-2000s.
LA FLOR DOMINICANA BRAND OVERVIEW
Although early La Flor Dominicana releases were milder cigars, the brand’s current portfolio is regarded for a number of medium to full-bodied profiles with a focus on Ligero tobaccos. Ligero is a type of tobacco near the top of the plant. It matures more slowly than the lower leaves on the plant, but is preferred in the production of spicy, full-bodied cigars. Ligero is routinely utilized in La Flor Dominicana cigars and is even referenced in a number of the brand’s product line names.
La Flor Dominican Double Ligero enjoys a hearty reputation among fans of stronger cigars. The blend received a 92-point rating in the Chisel format, a unique 6 x 54 shape pioneered by Litto that has gained in popularity. The Chisel is crafted with a wedge-shaped head that delivers a surprisingly easy draw and manages to concentrate an already strong blend with a more intense display of leather and black pepper notes. La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero is also available in a Maduro wrapper.
La Flor Dominicana Air Bender Chisel was awarded a 94-point rating and scored Cigar Aficionado’s ‘#10 Cigar of the Year’ in 2010. A Cuban-seed wrapper from Ecuador encompasses a medium to full-bodied core of Dominican tobaccos that furnish meaty notes of coffee beans, wood, and whiskey with plenty of spices.
Inventive cigar shapes are a hallmark of Litto’s willingness to break with tradition. In 1997, he began experimenting with unconventional formats when he released the El Jocko Perfecto No. 1, a small perfecto with a rounded, but tapering, head and an exaggerated, fattened foot. The shape is still produced in your choice of an Ecuador Connecticut wrapper or a Connecticut Broadleaf.
La Flor Dominican Andalusian Bull is among Litto’s best-known Figurados. Cigar Aficionado awarded it the ‘#1 Cigar of the Year’ title in 2016. The cigar is drafted from an Ecuador Corojo wrapper over a medium to full-bodied interior of select Dominican tobaccos. Notes of caramel, pepper, and leather combine effortlessly. The elegant Perfecto is based on an old cigar mold Litto discovered in Belgium. The shape tapers slightly at the edges of the foot, which maxes out at a 64-ring gauge. Andalusian Bull is an homage to Litto’s birth country of Spain, hence the bullfighter’s silhouette on the band. The name is also rendered in a font based on Pablo Picasso’s handwriting.
If you’re a milder cigar fan who’s just getting introduced to La Flor Dominicana, Suave is fine place to start due to its mild, more approachable profile. An Ecuador Connecticut wrapper leaf delivers notes of nuts and leather over a core of Dominican long-fillers. La Flor Dominicana Reserva Especial is a slightly more medium-bodied incarnation and features a similar recipe, though its Ecuador Connecticut wrapper is a shade darker.
La Flor Dominicana Cameroon Cabinet and La Flor Dominicana Coronado are cigars the brand had re-released in recent years with updated bands and boxes and to reflect the company’s shift towards more full-bodied profiles. Cameroon Cabinet is made from a combination of Dominican and Nicaraguan long-fillers beneath an aged Cameroon wrapper that delivers notes of coffee and nuts with a creamy, leathery texture. La Flor Dominicana Coronado is handcrafted from an oily Nicaraguan sun-grown wrapper over Litto’s signature Dominican binder and filler tobaccos. A 93-point score and the ‘#2 Cigar of the Year’ title from Cigar Aficionado put the original edition on the map for its hearty tapestry of nougat, caramel, leather, and spicy cashews.
La Flor Dominicana also releases a handful of limited edition, small-batch cigars on an annual basis, like Factory Press, a sharply box-pressed cigar that typically delivers a sweet and spicy flavor with a loose draw. La Flor Dominicana Chapter 1 and Capitulo II featured exaggerated, box-pressed renditions of the Chisel format. Exact dimensions on many of Litto’s limited editions tend to vary, as does availability. The brand’s primary retailers usually receive allocated boxes from his limited edition portfolio. Litto even releases a special football-themed cigar, reserved cigar shops in the city that hosts the Super Bowl.
La Flor Dominicana 1994 celebrated Litto’s 20th year as a cigar-maker with a San Andrés wrapper leaf over a zesty profile dried fruit, spices and espresso beans, courtesy of potent Dominican binder and filler tobaccos. A limited run of Toro-sized cigars was packaged in romantically detailed beer steins that are considered collectible by fans of the brand.
Whether you dive into a La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero, or you decide to play it safe with a Suave, the brand serves as a remarkable introduction to Dominican cigars that display a wide range of intensities. Although a number of the brand’s cigars are produced in smaller quantities, the prices consistently occupy the $6-12 spectrum, which is reasonable for any cigar that has been patiently produced under the uncompromising eye of Litto Gomez. Try the revered La Flor Dominicana brand and taste a contemporary take on premium, handcrafted cigars today.
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