Cigar Review | La Gloria Cubana Serie R

I decided today to take a trip down memory lane. You see over time I feel I have evolved as a cigar smoker, and while there were brands I smoked on a regular basis in my early years of cigar enjoyment, I have strayed away from them over time. Some of those reasons include the giant corporation wanting to destroy the little guy by not protecting brick & mortar pricing and realizing cigars that are mass-produced just don’t cut it in terms of consistency. Yes, La Gloria Cubana Serie R was one of those brands but today, I was curious to how the cigar compares from 12-15 years ago.

Cigar: La Gloria Cubana Serie R
Size: 5.875 x 60 (No. 6)
Wrapper: Connecticut Broadleaf
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Dominican, Nicaragua
Strength: Medium-Full
Source: Two Guys Smoke Shop

The Look: I’m not sure when it happened, but LGC has added a secondary foot band that is gold on gold denoting the brands name with the initials EPC in the middle for the original man behind the brand, Ernesto Perez Carrillo. The wrapper of the cigar has a look to it that isn’t natural and it seamlessly rolled with a minimal amount of veins and a lot of tooth. In the hand the cigar is hefty with a couple of soft spots and a spongy foot.

The Notes: The cold draw of the La Gloria Cubana Serie R Maduro has little to know flavor outside a very faint cedar while the foot has a nose of earth that is very faint as well.

Once the cigar is lit there is only one note that sounds out and that is coffee. There is also a lingering note in the background that develops into cloves as we get ready to enter the second third.

In the second third the clove continues as the dominant note with some black pepper. The coffee note that was dominant in the first third fails to exist as the cigar progresses.

The last third of the LGC Serie R sees the coffee develop again with some leather notes with not much else going on.

The Burn: At times the cigar has a razor-sharp burn line and other times it was as jagged as Bart Simpson’s haircut. The draw was a tad loose, and the cigar needed to be relit twice.

The Finish: This cigar had a wow factor, in the sense of “wow, this is a cigar that is just a shell of what it once was”. To be honest, it is a cigar that is surviving on its name only, not on what it actually is.

Score: 80
Price: $8.49 / $178.99