La Duena Petit Lancero

In 2012, My Father Cigars released La Duena, a Spanish name for The Owner. The My Father website tells the story for La Duena  as, “For many years Janny Garcia has worked side by side with her father Don Pepin Garcia and her brother Jaime Garcia in building the family company. After honoring Don Pepin with the My Father Cigar and Jaime with the Jaime Garcia Reserva Especial, the time has come for La Duena (meaning female owner) to receive her own tribute. This cigar, blended by Jaime Garcia and Pete Johnson of Tatuaje Cigars, is the perfect representation of Janny. La Duena has a binder and filler encompassing Connecticut Broadleaf and Nicaraguan tobacco (100% from the Garcias farm in Esteli), and the wrapper is a Connecticut Broadleaf.”

Cigar Review: La Duena
Country of Origin: Nicaragua
Factory: My Father Cigars S.A.
Wrapper: Connecticut Broadleaf
Binder: Connecticut Broadleaf
Filler: Nicaragua & Connecticut Broadleaf
Length: 6″
Ring Gauge: 42
Vitola: Petit Lancero
Strength: Medium

The Look: Packaged in wooden dress boxes of 21 cigars, the box features a large version of the cameo inspired logo. Once inside the cigars packaged in three rows of 7. The lancero features an evenly colored Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, with a slight pigtail at the cap. Seamlessly rolled the cigar has no soft spots and feels like fine sandpaper under the fingers. The red and white band is simple and feminine, but it also looks old and at the risk of sounding sexist I think it hinders the brand slightly. While you can’t smoke the band I think it causes pause when reaching for it on the shelf.

The Notes: Once clipped with my latest toy, the serrated Jaws Cutter from Lotus, the cold draw of the La Duena serves up notes of cookie dough, milk chocolate and the slightest hint of coffee with the latter being evident mostly on the nose from the foot of the Petit Lancero.

Once the cigar is lit, the lack of pepper on the front end was expected as Janny wanted a cigar with a little less strength was wanted. With no “Pepin Spice” to start the cigar the sweetness of the cigar is evident almost right away. There are notes of Cuban Coffee and a subtle dark chocolate that is already well-developed in the first half-inch of the smoke. As the cigar continues down the first third the coffee notes become dominant as a hint of wheat makes it way into the mix on the retrohale.

In the second third of the La Duena the cigar begins to loose some of its sweetness and some pepper starts to develop on through the nose. The coffee notes remain, but they start to lose the battle to notes of leather. As the last third come to a close hints of thyme begin to show up on the background of this cigar with a relatively short finish.

The last third of the Petit Lancero La Duena continues to serve up a mixture of coffee, leather and hints of thyme. The aroma and retrohale has an abundance of pepper on the short finish.

The Burn: A lancero that remains lit throughout is a nice bonus to this cigar that has a razor-sharp thin combustion line that reveals a smooth medium to dark color ash. For a lancero the ash was strong holding for a little more than an inch at a time. The draw was iconic and smoking time was about 85 minutes.

The Finish: The La Duena starts off with some extremely enjoyable and well-defined notes, and the cigar has gotten even better with age. There is a subtle complexity throughout the cigar, and it keeps the smoker engaged throughout. It’s worthy of keeping a few in your humidor, especially if you are a fan of the size.

Score: 89
Price: $7.89 / $146.99