Top 10 La Flor Dominicana Cigars
La Flor Dominicana brand founder Litto Gomez has been blending distinctive small-batch cigars in the Dominican Republic since the mid-1990s. Gomez was born in Spain and raised in Uruguay. His path into the premium cigar industry is unconventional to say the least. Gomez met his wife, Ines Lorenzo-Gomez, while operating a jewelry store in Miami. Gomez and an employee were forced into the back of the shop at gunpoint one evening as they were closing, and the store was robbed of over $400K in merchandise. Gomez put his shop up for sale the next day, and the thieves were never caught. The drama altered the course of Gomez’s life as he and Ines pivoted to come out with a cigar brand in 1994, which they later named La Flor Dominicana. They’ve come a long way as outsiders in an industry where many of the most successful families hail from a deep lineage of Cuban cigar-makers.
Today, the La Flor Dominicana cigars portfolio is full of powerful and balanced Dominican cigars adored by critics and consumers. Some are rare; others are innovative. All are well made and complex. Here are the top La Flor Dominicana cigars you can smoke today.
1. La Flor Dominicana Andalusian Bull
In 2016, the critics in Cigar Aficionado awarded La Flor Dominicana Andalusian Bull 96 points and their coveted ‘#1 Cigar of the Year’ title, immediately elevating the cigar’s demand. This unusual Figurado is Litto’s homage to his birth country, Spain, with a bullfighter on the band and its Spanish name rendered the same font as Picasso’s writing. This attractive smoke lives up to its appearance with a luscious and tangy profile of hickory, leather, and baking spices. A Cuban Corojo-seed wrapper grown in Ecuador slopes over a balanced recipe of vintage Dominican tobaccos Gomez grows on his own farms. Andalusian Bull is not easy to find, but it’s easily the most requested La Flor Dominicana you’ll encounter.
2. La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero
La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero put Litto Gomez on the map as a maker of strong cigars. Ligero is one of the primary tobacco leaves used in cigar-making. Because it grows near the top of the plant, unimpeded sunlight causes the veins to grow thick, resulting in intense flavor. Beneath the cigar’s oily Ecuador wrapper, a potent blend of Ligero tobaccos fills out a range of signature La Flor sizes, from the wedge-like Chisel, that Gomez invented, to the oversized Digger. Both pulse with a pronounced spice in a leathery profile of wood and pepper with a hint of molasses. Only smoke Double Ligero cigars on a full stomach.
3. La Flor Dominicana Coronado
Nutty notes of graham cracker and black pepper converge in a chewy profile drawn from an oily Sun Grown Nicaraguan wrapper over a substantial blend of Dominican binder and filler tobaccos. The 93-rated cigar originally cracked the ‘Top 5’ in Cigar Aficionado in 2006, but production was sporadic for a few years until Gomez revamped the bands and boxes in 2015.
4. La Flor Dominicana Ligero
Tasting notes of cedar, leather, wheat, and spices harmonize in savory proportions. An Ecuador Sumatra wrapper encompasses well-aged Dominican long-fillers in a collection of traditional sizes. An Oscuro version is finished in an especially lustrous wrapper leaf that resonates with the oily intensity and spice of other full-bodied La Flor Dominicana blends.
5. La Flor Dominicana Capitulo II
La Flor Dominicana Capitula II, or “Chapter 2,” is a bigger boxier incarnation of Litto’s popular Chisel shape created from a small-batch blend. An oily Nicaraguan wrapper conceals an earthy binder from Ecuador and long-filler Dominican tobaccos. Sweet and salty notes of hickory and leather precede a finish of pepper and coffee bean.
6. La Flor Dominicana
The original La Flor Dominicana delivers a creamy and zesty profile of white pepper, cumin, and cardamom with a consistent foundation of cedar and nuts. Noticeable notes of pepper layer the palate in a finish which serves as a precursor to stronger La Flor Dominicana smokes. The popular El Jocko size is handcrafted from a luscious blend of Dominican long-fillers beneath your choice of two wrappers, a golden-blond Ecuador Connecticut in the No. 1, and an extra-dark Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro in the No. 2. La Flor Dominicana Reserva Especial is drawn from the same blend of tobaccos in other sizes, but the El Jocko is the most requested shape.
Strength: Medium
Country: Dominican Republic
Wrapper: Ecuador Connecticut, Connecticut Broadleaf
7. La Flor Dominicana 1994
A toothy San Andrés wrapper leaf harbors a beefy and nutty blend of long-fillers grown on Gomez’s Dominican farm, La Canela, which is known for its stronger tobaccos due to the region’s hotter, drier climate. Hints of vanilla and raisin punctuate a premium profile of black pepper, almond, and leather.
8. La Flor Dominicana Chapter 1
A blocky, soft box-pressed Chisel swells to a 58 ring gauge in an attractive cigar blended from an oily Brazilian wrapper over a Connecticut Broadleaf binder that houses vintage Dominican long-fillers. Bittersweet cocoa, earth, and black pepper converge before a long and pepper finish.
9. La Flor Dominicana La Volcada
A small-batch Churchill is blended from a robust marriage of long-fillers from the Dominican Republic and Ecuador gently tucked under a dark and succulent San Andrés wrapper finished in a pigtail cap. A firm profile of leather, pepper, and wood opens up with hints of licorice and raisin.
10. La Flor Dominicana La Nox
La Flor Dominicana La Nox stands out for its packaging as well as its taste. The cigars come in a black circular box, intended to mirror the moon on the cigars’ bands, and the magnetic lid slides open without the aid of hinges. La Nox is Latin for The Night, and the design on the bands and boxes is inspired by the artwork of Vincent van Gogh. The blend consists of a dark Brazilian wrapper leaf over binder tobaccos from San Andrés and Dominican long-fillers. Notes of cocoa powder, wheat, leather, and earth reveal plenty of pepper with hints of licorice.
