Flor de Selva Maduro Robusto

[Don Fernando]

When I started working for my previous employer in 2011, my first real job in the cigar industry after blogging about cigars for years, we had a a good number of brands in our portfolio including Flor de Selva, but our portfolio grew and grew with more brands like Alec Bradley, Joya de Nicaragua, My Father, Tatuaje, PDR, Perdomo, A.J. Fernandez and thats when you have too many brands to focus on all of them and some will just be forgotten about. Flor de Selva was one of the brands that didn’t get any focus anymore and of course, if you don’t focus and pay attention to a brand it will die. That’s what happened with Flor de Selva for us. Then all of a sudden, after we already decided to discontinue, one of our small competitors started distributing Flor de Selva and I must admit, they did a good job since they revived the brand and it’s now seen in a lot of humidors in The Netherlands.

We never carried the Flor de Selva maduro, but the other distributer does so I got my hands on this Honduran made 4 3/4×50 robusto, made with a Honduran maduro wrapper, Brazilian Mata Fina binder and filler tobacco from Jamastran and Azacualpa that according to the Maya Selva website pairs well with Japanese whiskey. The cigar has a beautiful, dark and oily wrapper with a few minor veins and a beautiful constructed cap. The ring is actually a double ring, one where you usually find a ring and one on the foot. Now the one on the foot is different than the one displayed on the Maya Selva website, that one is white and fits the regular band, the one I got had a burgundy footboard with white letters saying Maya Selva Cigars in handwriting. The regular band is simple, white with green/gray lines, a picture of a goddess in the same color and Flor de Selva written on it. Its a thick quality paper so it doesn’t look cheap. The construction feels good.

Maybe it’s me, maybe i’m getting a head cold but I don’t smell much, only a little wood and a little soapy aroma. I straight cut the cigar and I taste a soapy but peppery flavor with a perfect draw. As usual I’m using a soft flame to light the cigar. Right from the get go I taste a full wooden flavor with a little bit of coffee. After a few puffs I also taste some sweetness as you can expect from Maduro leaf and the Brazilian binder. Soon the flavors are mildly bitter with some lime, the aftertaste is floral. Now I read the term floral often and never fully understood it in a cigar but now it does.

After a centimeter I taste soap like in the cold draw and with a bitter and mild peppery sensation in the back of my throat. The soap disappears and replaced by a little milk chocolate and the bitterness is now a sanding sensation on the back of my throat with a light licorice flavor. Halfway the cigar has a burnt wood flavor with cilantro, and I think that that’s where the soapy flavor comes from too, too much cilantro gives a soapy taste. There is also a little hint of vanilla. After two thirds I taste sweetness again and soon after some freshness too, on a bed of spicy green herbs and cedar. Near the end I also taste nuts, with sweetness, some pepper and a little bit of chocolate.

The smoke is thick and plentiful. The draw is perfect. The burn is frayed. The ash is gray with dark lines, the ash isn’t dense but still firm. This cigar is medium bodied and medium flavored. The smoke time is and hour and forty minutes.

Would I buy this cigar again? No, even though there were some nice flavors in there and the finish was strong, the soapy flavor is not my cup of tea.

Score: 89
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