On November 19th, 2010, the La Sirena A, which means the mermaid in Spanish, was officially launched at an event at Casa de Montecristo in Chicago. Like the Nestor Miranda collection, La Sirena is a Miami Cigar & Co. brand made at Jaime García’s My Father Cigars S.A. factory in Estelí, Nicaragua.

There are six different vitolas in the La Sirena lineup so far:

  • La Sirena Prince — 5 x 50
  • La Sirena Divine — 5 1/2 x 52
  • La Sirena Trident — 7 x 50
  • La Sirena Sea Sprite — 5 1/2 x 42
  • La Sirena King Poseidon — 6 x 60
  • La Sirena A — 9 1/4 x 48

While five vitolas are regular production, the A was a limited edition made for brand ambassador Arielle Ditkowich’s 25th birthday and her father Danny Ditkowich’s 50th. The A is actually in honor of her name, Arielle, as well as being the common name for the Cuban Gran Corona (9 1/4 x 47) vitola. Only 1,000 boxes of 10 cigars were made and they debuted on May 13, 2011 at a birthday celebration.

La Sirena A Box 1

La Sirena A Box 4

La Sirena A Box 2

La Sirena A Box 5

La Sirena A Box 3

La Sirena A 1

  • Cigar Reviewed: La Sirena A
  • Country of Origin: Nicaragua
  • Factory: My Father Cigars S.A.
  • Wrapper: Habano
  • Binder: Nicaraguan Criollo 98 & Corojo 96
  • Filler: Nicaragua
  • Size: 9 1/4 Inches
  • Ring Gauge: 48
  • Vitola: Gran Corona
  • MSRP: $12.00 (Boxes of 10, $120.00)
  • Date Released: May 13, 2011
  • Number of Cigars Released: 1,000 Boxes of 10 Cigars (10,000 Total Cigars)
  • Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 2

The La Sirena A is huge. It has a wonderful cinnamon brown wrapper that is rough to the touch with quite a few bumps and veins present. However, when squeezed the gigantic cigar is a bit soft. It has an immaculate triple cap and the wrapper smells strongly of chocolate, barnyard, leather, nuts and pepper. The band on every La Sirena is stupid large, albeit very nice looking, but actually looks fine on this large of a cigar.

The first third of the La Sirena A starts out with an extremely strong black pepper note both on the tongue and retrohale along with a tiny amount of spice. After 15 puffs, the pepper note settles in and other flavors of coca, leather, wood and a sour fruit note emerge. There is a nice sweetness underneath that seems to be gaining strength as the first third progresses. Construction is perfect, both in burn and draw, although the ash does not stay on long — no more than half inch before falling off. Strength starts out a solid medium and ends the first third that way, but is getting stronger.

La Sirena A 2

There’s quite a bit less pepper as the La Sirena enters the second third. It’s now only on the retrohale and quite a bit more sweetness comes the forefront. Major notes are still pretty much the same: dark chocolate, leather, cedar. I still can’t identify the fruit I am tasting, but it is still sweet and sour at different points. Construction is still extremely good on all fronts and the strength continues to increase, to just under the full mark by the end of the second third.

La Sirena A 3

The final third of the A changes yet again, at least in the dominant note. While the other flavors are still around to varying degrees particularly the leather, the main profile is a hearty meaty note that really combines well with the sweet fruit and continues until the end of the cigar. Construction ends the way it began, perfect. In addition, the strength continues to increase for the entire cigar and easily makes it in the full category by the time I put the nub down.

La Sirena A 4

Final Notes

  • Interestingly, there is now a secondary band underneath the regular large band on all vitolas, which was first added to the cigars when the A vitola was released. The reason they added a secondary band is simple: people kept saying that the main band was too large and had to be taken off fairly quickly after lighting the cigar. The secondary band gives smokers a way of identifying the cigar after taking the main band off. La Sirena A 5
  • The father of brand ambassador Arielle Ditkowich is Danny Ditkowich, who just happens to be a partner at Tobacco Plaza, which is where the latest Tatuaje single store release is being sold, the Tatuaje Tobacco Plaza DD.
  • The La Sirena A actually uses a different wrapper than the rest of the line, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to do this review. The A uses a Habano wrapper, while the rest of the vitolas use a Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro wrapper. The reason a different wrapper is used is because they could not find enough Broadleaf in a large enough size to fill the orders for the A vitola.
  • As mentioned above, the A size in the La Sirena line was unofficially released at a party celebrating Arielle Ditkowich’s 25th birthday and her father Danny’s 50th birthday on May 13, 2011 at Oheka Castle. There were only 100 of the cigars produced for that event.
  • The A is actually in honor of her name, Arielle. In fact, the boxes of the A size are actually labeled Arielle instead of A.
  • I absolutely adore the bands on the La Sirena cigars, but honestly, they look obscenely large and ridiculously ostentatious on every vitola except the A size. I measured it at exactly 2 7/8 inches long, which means that on the shortest cigar in the La Sirena lineup, Prince at 5 inches, the band covers up just shy of 60% of the cigar. Having said that, that same band looks perfectly normal on the A size, a 9 1/4 inch cigar.
  • This is a one of those cigars where the strength sneaks up on you. Yes, it starts out medium, but slowly rises into the solid full category by the end of the smoke.
  • The A vitola is the only La Sirena size sold in boxes of 10, instead of boxes of 20 like the rest of the line.
  • Construction on this cigar is astoundingly good in all aspects on both samples I smoked.
  • The boxes are made to look sort of like treasure boxes to go along with the Mermaid theme, with a slightly domed top. Miami Cigar & Co. distributes La Aurora cigars, who made a samler called a treasure box, although it looked like a normal box.
  • The ash is an almost stark white and almost totally seamless. Very well formed, but it stayed on the end for no more than a half inch before falling.
  • The final smoking time for both A samples was right at two hours and 10 minutes.
  • If you would like to purchase some of the La Sirena A cigars, our site sponsors Atlantic Cigar and Casa de Montecristo are both La Sirena dealers.
91 Overall Score

There is no mistaking this is a Pepín blend from the initial blast of black pepper to the considerable strength of the smoke. Usually with cigars of this size, I am concerned about the profile getting monotonous and stale, but that just did not happen with the La Sirena A. It was extremely flavorful, fairly complex, had a building strength, performed perfectly construction wise on all samples and honestly, was just a joy to smoke. And at $12, this is not a bad deal either. I am not usually one to smoke cigars this large, but if I am in need of a two hour smoke now that the weather is getting warmer, I will definitely have some of these around, not only to smoke, but to share as well.

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Brooks Whittington

I have been smoking cigars for over eight years. A documentary wedding photographer by trade, I spent seven years as a photojournalist for the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star Telegram. I started the cigar blog SmokingStogie in 2008 after realizing that there was a need for a cigar blog with better photographs and more in-depth information about each release. SmokingStogie quickly became one of the more influential cigar blogs on the internet, known for reviewing preproduction, prerelease, rare, extremely hard-to-find and expensive cigars. I am a co-founder of halfwheel and now serve as an editor for halfwheel.