LFD La Nox

[Don Fernando]

Now here I will talk about my previous employer and job again as mentioned in so many of my recent reviews and that’s because I met a lot of great industry people and learned a lot in my 5 years at The Longfiller Company. One of the people I met are the ultimate gentleman Litto Gomez and his son Tony. First time I met Litto was when he came to The Netherlands when The Longfiller Company was distributing La Flor Dominicana and on my yearly vacation to Florida I always went for lunch with Litto, who made time in his weekends just for me & my friends even though his weekends are sacred family time, something I am grateful for. On one of those lunches he brought his sons Litto Jr and Anthony. Tony just started working for his father at the factory in the Dominican and wasn’t involved in the blending process when we met. We had a great lunch at the rooftop of a nice restaurant somewhere in Miami, it was a memorable lunch.

Now for some reason the La Flor Dominicana sales came to a stop, it was like hitting a brick wall and both me and my boss didn’t have a clue why. The quality of the cigars was good as always, the price didn’t change so why the sales came to a stop was a huge mystery and my employer decided not to order anymore, the last new release of La Flor Dominicana we ordered was the Chapter one. The whole sales stop killed the professional relationship, that was so good before that Litto even made a limited Meaner Digger for The Netherlands. Now on a personal level, the relationship stayed intact and I always have a great time with Tony and Litto at Intertabac. As a cigar geek I was bummed that I didn’t get to try all the new releases, and that’s why my former employer is a better professional as me because the geek in me would have ordered anyway and would end up with a warehouse full of cigars just so I could try them myself. Now truth be said, the last few months I worked for The Longfiller Company I did sell all our remaining La Flor Dominicana stock and the demand was definitely up from the consumer and therefore also from the shopowners. Time for La Flor Dominicana to get back on the Dutch market.

Since I read about the La Flor Dominicana La Nox, and seeing the mouthwatering pictures of this stunning cigar, I wanted to try it and at the Cigar Journal Cigar Trophy event at Intertabac, where the cigar won the award for best Dominican cigar of 2016, I had the chance to grab one. Instead of smoking it on the spot I restrained myself and kept it to review it. Today is the day of the review. The cigar looks amazing, the super dark and oily Brazilian wrapper is flawless and the double ring, black with light blue “La Nox” lettering on the bottom ring and the white moon and LFD lettering on the light blue clouds on the top ring are a perfect match to that dark and oily wrapper. The combination is just a 10 out of 10, if I only judged the cigars on their appearance this would be the cigar of the year for many years to come. The rest of the blend consists of a Mexican San Andres wrapper and Dominican filler from their own fields. The construction feels good, no complaints here either. The cigar has a salty aroma to it with some wood, not too strong and not the barnyard aroma that I smell so often in cigars.

I punched the thick wrapper and tested the cold draw, which gave me quite some resistance and a peppery oatmeal with a mild minty freshness. I lit the cigar with a soft flame. I taste a medium strong coffee flavor with sweetness you can expect from Brazilian tobacco and some oatmeal. After a few puffs I also taste some herbs and spices. After a centimeter I also taste a mild chocolate for just a second with herbs and some pepper. I also taste a little sweetness from the Brazilian wrapper. The flavors are thick, meaty and sticky just like I expected just from the looks.
After little more than an inch I taste the sweetness with oak and some citrus and some spicy herbs. Every now and then I also taste some cocoa. The backdrop of the flavors are earthy. After a third I get a flavor that reminds me of slightly salted peanuts with some citrus. The sweetness is gone, I still taste some pepper in the aftertaste. The pepper grows stronger. The cocoa shows up every now and then, just for a puff or two. After two thirds I also taste a mild nutty flavor on that still earthy undertone with some citrus. After two thirds the nutty flavor grows in strength.

The smoke starts out thin but plenty in volume but after a few puffs the smoke gets to a medium plus thickness. The draw is a little on the tough side, probably would be better if i had cut the cigar from the start as it improved greatly after I cut it with my Xikar xi2 cutter. The ash is white and firm. This cigar is full bodied, full of nicotine and full flavored. The burn is good, but I needed to touch up once to correct a little. The body to flavor ratio is great and there is plenty of evolution. The smoke time is two hours and fifteen minutes.

Would I buy this cigar again? If they become available on the Dutch market I’m definitely picking up a few and I want an empty box just as a piece of art for my man cave.

Score: 92

Pictures: https://cigarguideorg.wordpress.com/...nicana-la-nox/