La Gloria Cubana – A Mellow Afternoon

There are times when you don’t want to think about your cigar.  You just want to enjoy it and not really have to work at, sort of like an old beat-up leather jacket that you’ve had for years.  That’s exactly how I felt smoking this La Gloria.  I spent an enjoyable afternoon with a good friend and never once thought of my stick, but enjoyed it the whole time.

When you first look at this cigar it looks like, well, a cigar.  Nothing fancy, just nice with a modest but traditional band.  My stick was not veiny, lit easily and drew well.  The first few puffs cleared the sharp taste and then it settled down.  The cigar is fairly well constructed but did burn a little bit unevenly.  It held a nice ash.

Once the tobacco had melded together, the smoke was redolent of leather and earthiness, but never overpowering.  I think of this as a mild, medium bodied cigar or a ‘lunch’ stick.  As the cigar smoked the flavors changed little until the very end which got a hint of pepper.

At $5.75 this is a fair value, not overprice and not aggressively priced.  On the whole, because this cigar was so unobtrusively nice I think it’s a good value.

One thing to note about the La Gloria line.  This cigar is produced in both a natural and maduro wrapper, in over twenty different sizes, from small cigars to very large cigars.  if you like this blend you will surely find a size that suits every occasion and many smokers gravitate toward a blend that they know when looking.  If that is your pleasure, this is certainly your cigar.