Cigar Czars

 

Review of La Gloria Cubana
Spirit of the Lady Cigar

By: Gary Manelski

La Gloria Cubana Spirit of the Lady cigars are a limited edition release of only 600 boxes of each of two sizes, a Toro (6 x 60) priced at $12.99 per cigar, and a Churchill (7 x 50) priced at $14.99 per cigar. These cigars became available exclusively at brick and mortar cigar shops during March 2021, and are being distributed by the new Forged Cigar Company.

LGC Spirit of the Lady are box pressed cigars made in Dominican Republic with aged Honduran wrappers, Cameroon binders, and blend of filler tobaccos from Mexico, Nicaragua, and Dominican Republic. For more information about these cigars, please check out the press release.

The sample LGC Spirit of the Lady Toro cigar began with a delightfully pleasant and naturally sweet tobacco flavor. The cigar smoked beautifully during the first 20 minutes, as flavors of caramel, wood and toast were perfectly balanced, along with other more subtle tastes in the background. No one flavor was dominant, as they all worked together and complimented each other. The cigar was medium-to-full bodied, and also perfectly balanced with the cigar's flavor and strength components.

There were not any big flavor transformations after the first 20 minutes, but it was at this point where some burn issues arose, requiring a series of relights and/or major touch-ups about every 15 minutes. The cigar had a decent draw and held a medium-to-long ash, but the uneven burn was somewhat reminiscent of (but not quite as pronounced as) the original La Gloria Cubana cigars of the past, which tasted great but did not burn very evenly. Anyway, it took me a total of 75 minutes to smoke the cigar down to 2½ inches remaining, when the butane in my lighter finally ran out. A second sample yielded similar results, requiring numerous touch-ups but only one relight. I smoked the second sample a bit faster, taking only 65 minutes to reach the 2½ inch mark, when the flavor started to head south.

Despite the burn issues, I am still rating the La Gloria Cubana Spirit of the Lady Toro cigar with a superior 4.25 points on a 5-point scale. The taste was close to excellent, which would have earned this cigar a higher rating if there were less burn problems. At least the first 20 minutes provided a most enjoyable and very pleasant smoking experience, and the remainder still provided enjoyable flavors, but also required a little effort to keep the cigar burning evenly. Speaking of effort, the time is now to pick up some of these limited edition cigars (available exclusively at brick & mortar retailers) before the limited supply is all gone.


Disclosure: Review samples were provided by the manufacturer.

La Gloria Cubana Spirit of the Lady Cigar
LGC Spirit of the Lady Cigar Cigar

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