Earlier this year, Isaias Santana Diaz of D’Crossier began teasing a new line with interesting packaging.

The line is Flor de D’Crossier Selection No. 512 and it’s sold in cardboard tubes. It uses an Ecuadorian habano wrapper, Costa Rican sumatra binder and filler tobaccos from Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. There are six core sizes, along with a limited lancero that uses the same name, but has a different blend and packaging.

Flor de D'Crossier Selection No. 512 Vitolas-2

  • Flor de D’Crossier Selection No. 512 Coloniales (5 1/8 x 44) — $6 (Jars of 20, $120) — Regular Production
  • Flor de D’Crossier Selection No. 512 Corona Gorda (5 1/2 x 46) — $6.20 (Jars of 20, $124) — Regular Production
  • Flor de D’Crossier Selection No. 512 Hermosos #2 (5 7/8 x 48)— $6.40 (Jars of 20, $128) — Regular Production
  • Flor de D’Crossier Selection No. 512 Magnificos (5 7/8 x 52) — $7.20 (Jars of 15, $108) — Regular Production
  • Flor de D’Crossier Selection No. 512 Campana (6 x 54) — $7.20 (Jars of 15, $114) — Regular Production
  • Flor de D’Crossier Selection No. 512 Geniales (6 1/2 x 54) — $7.40 (Jars of 15, $120) — Regular Production
  • Flor de D’Crossier Selection No. 512 Lancero (7 1/2 x 38) — $13 (Boxes of 20, $260) — 1,200 Boxes of 20 Cigars (24,000 Total Cigars)

The jars are even more unique in that they feature a soda-can style lid for sealing.

Flor de D'Crossier Selection No. 512 Corona Gorda Jar 1 copy

Flor de D'Crossier Selection No. 512 Corona Gorda Jar 2

Flor de D'Crossier Selection No. 512 Corona Gorda Jar 3

The core sizes began shipping June 4, while the Lancero isn’t due out until December.

Flor de D'Crossier Selection No. 512 Corona Gorda 1

  • Cigar Reviewed: Flor de D’Crossier Selection No. 512 Corona Gorda
  • Country of Origin: Costa Rica
  • Factory: Pure Aroma Cigars S.A.
  • Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano
  • Binder: Costa Rican Sumatra
  • Filler: Costa Rica & Dominican Republic
  • Size: 5 1/2 Inches
  • Ring Gauge: 46
  • Vitola: Corona Gorda
  • MSRP: $6.20 (Jars of 20, $124)
  • Date Released: June 4, 2015
  • Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production
  • Number of Cigars Smoked for Review: 4

It looks like a nice cigar. With the triple caps and the gold on red bands, it’s somewhat reminiscent of a Romeo y Julieta, but there’s no white on the band, so those comparison stop a bit abruptly. Aroma off the Ecuadorian wrapper is very sweet and centered around a lot of leather. From the foot, I get sweet cinnamon, woodiness and leather. The sweet cinnamon continues onto the cold draw, which tastes something in between Mexican hot chocolate and a fireball.

The Selection No. 512 starts with some sweet and salty cedar followed by a five spice mixture and a touch of pepper on top. It’s medium-full and really lengthy on the nutty and salty finish. An inch in and there’s sweet cotton candy, Gruyère cheese reminiscent of a French onion soup, creaminess and bready. It’s detailed, but it’s somewhat harsh and obviously not the most cohesive profile. The draw is a bit tight, but other than that construction is wonderful. I’d peg strength around medium.

Flor de D'Crossier Selection No. 512 Corona Gorda 2

While the finish of the D’Crossier still has some herbal flavors to it, there’s big changes up front: cedar, coffee and apple cider vinegar. The finish takes on a very similar flavor the upfront of flavor from the first third with a combination of sweet, salty and spicy. There’s a noticeable increase in the intensity of the flavor with things now around the medium-full mark. Construction remains much the same, which is a good thing.

Flor de D'Crossier Selection No. 512 Corona Gorda 3

The apple cider vinegar continues into the final third along with a big woodiness, creaminess and a bit of harshness. There’s a blast of paprika down the throat, which produces a lot of salivation. The uptick in flavor continues with the 512 Corona Gorda now hitting the full mark. In the last two inches, I’m forced to use my lighter a bit more, but none of the samples I smoked ever went out.

Flor de D'Crossier Selection No. 512 Corona Gorda 4

Final Notes

  • The Ferrer part of the name on the Band refers to Jose Timoteo Gonzales Ferrer, Diaz’s business partner.
  • D’Crossier recently signed a distribution agreement with Espinosa Premium Cigars, so there’s a good chance you’ll be seeing the cigars with a lot more frequency.
  • Brooks Whittington visited the company’s booth at the 2015 IPCPR Convention & Trade Show.
  • The blend for the 512 Lancero uses an Ecuadorian habano 2000 wrapper, an undisclosed binder and fillers from Nicaragua.
  • I’m not entire sure I understand the reason behind making the Lancero part of this line. I suppose you could try to capture some of the popularity of the regular line, but the completely different packaging and blend just seem unnecessarily confusing to me.
  • I think it also limits the possibility of adding a lancero that uses this blend, as that would be incredibly confusing.
  • While there are most certainly benefits of putting cigars in jar-style packaging like this, I think we have already reached peak jar. For manufacturers, the jars can sometimes lead to better positioning within a humidor because retailers don’t want to put them on shelves. While I think that’s fine for a limited edition product, trying to have a full regular production like that is problematic as consumers want to see the cigars. A product that is limited and many consumers have a lot of interest and knowledge about the cigar before walking into a humidor, i.e. the Tatuaje Black Label Corona Gorda, fine. Something like this? Not so much.
  • Case and point is MBombay who quickly constructed retail trays for its new can sizes. Furthermore, now a retailer could have as many as 10 jars, meaning the novelty has completely worn off.
  • One last note, I’m not sure if “jar” is the best way to describe these given they are made of cardboard. Tube sounds odd and is potentially misleading.
  • Strength starts out medium-plus and ends medium-full, that being said, there’s a much greater increase in both flavor and body from start to finish.
  • Cigars for this review were provided to halfwheel by D’Crossier.
  • Final smoking time was two hours on average.
  • Site sponsor Atlantic Cigar has the Flor de D’Crossier Selection No. 512 Corona Gorda in stock.

Update (Nov. 16, 2015) — This post has been updated to remove text regarding the recommendation of Diaz to open the can and let the cigars rest before smoking. Diaz now claims he no longer specifically recommends this.

88 Overall Score

I was originally under the impression that opening the can and letting it sit in a humidor for a few days would be helpful, as the cigars were a bit wet. While that was definitely a start, there was noticeable difference between cigars smoked after seven days and those smoked closer to two weeks after opening. The cigars smoked earlier were definitely wet and showed issues both flavor and burn-wise after the midway points. That being said, once the D’Crossier  512 had a bit of rest, it proved this wasn’t just a cigar about packaging. It’s a unique cigar, most certainly not for everyone, but one that I found enjoyable once it dried out.

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Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.