In April 2015, My Father Cigars, Inc. released a special maduro version of the Flor de las Antillas blend for Federal Cigar’s 94th anniversary. A little over a year later for the 95th anniversary, we saw a second size released. At this point there was plenty of speculation that the Flor de las Antillas Maduro would soon be a regular, nationwide release, though My Father wouldn’t confirm this was the case. It was only a few short months later that it showed it off at the 2016 IPCPR Convention and Trade Show.

Coming in five sizes—of which the Petit Robusto and Torpedo previously having been released at Federal Cigar—the regular production Flor de las Antillas Maduro now sported a second band differentiating the original blend from the new blend.

  • Cigar Reviewed: Flor de las Antillas Maduro Toro
  • Country of Origin: Nicaragua
  • Factory: My Father Cigars S.A.
  • Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano
  • Binder: Nicaragua
  • Filler: Nicaragua
  • Length: 6 Inches
  • Ring Gauge: 52
  • Vitola: Toro
  • MSRP: $8.50 (Boxes of 20, $170)
  • Release Date: November 2016
  • Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production
  • Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

The Flor de las Antillas Maduro has a slightly rough, oily feeling wrapper. It has some give – not too much, but not completely consistent either with a few spots that are a little softer than others. There’s a strong barnyard aroma coming off the wrapper, with lots of earth, leather and a sweet, musty hay topping it all off. The cold draw is quite sweet, with lots of cocoa, spice, a touch of hazelnut and finished off with a pinch of black pepper.

Starting into the first third there is some carryover from the cold draw, with a sweet spice—specifically cinnamon and rosemary—along with a reasonable amount of black pepper in the background. The ash isn’t very dense with cracks in it that make it appear to be ready to fall off at any moment, though surprisingly it does hold to just under an inch. Though the burn isn’t perfect, it was mostly good up until the inch mark, at which point it does have a jagged section that’s lagging behind and needs touched up. The specific spices from before have meshed into more of a generic sweet spice, while oak, leather and a touch of cocoa have joined the mix. Black pepper is still present, though it’s fading slightly and becoming more of a background note.

Moving into the second third there is still a good amount of sweetness with spice still leading the pack and oak, leather, cocoa and pepper continuing on in the background. The burn has done better since the initial touch up, but around the halfway mark another side starts falling behind significantly and needs another touch up. A light bitterness is creeping into the profile, seemingly with the oak note, but there is still enough sweet spice to balance it out, keeping the profile still fairly even and enjoyable.

Almost as if on queue, as I shift into the final third the sweetness dies down significantly, while simultaneously the bitter oak note grows, turning the profile somewhat harsh and unpleasant. Another touch up is needed to keep things on track, though at this point that’s about the only thing left on the proverbial rails. The profile has completely unraveled, with hardly anything reminiscent of the previous flavors except a bit of harsh pepper and some ragged, bitter spice.

Final Notes

  • One sample performed significantly better than the other two, with the final third not needing any touch-ups and zero harshness in the final third. It continued with the spice, oak, cocoa and pepper from the second third, and also developed a nice nutty note, finishing smooth and flavorful to the very end.
  • Not that this affected the cigar at all since they were cut off, but the caps on all three samples seemed to be coming off like they weren’t glued down very well.
  • Along those same lines, most of the bands seemed to be very tenuously glued on as well.
  • While we’re on the topic of the bands, they are the same bands used on the original blend, with the only change being the addition of the secondary band that says Maduro on it.
  • The art used for the bands is quite beautiful – certainly one of the more beautiful bands out there.
  • Cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.
  • Final smoking time averaged just under two hours.
85 Overall Score

With the exception of the one Flor de las Antillas Maduro Toro that performed really well from start to finish, the other two samples almost seemed like I was smoking two different cigars between the first two thirds and the final third. The first two thirds were flavorful, smooth, had a nice balance of sweet and spice, and despite a couple of touch ups, performed quite well. The final third unfortunately sees this fall apart, turning into something that I would have stopped smoking if it hadn’t have been for a review. I’m hoping those two samples were outliers, and the one that performed better is the norm, but for now I can only tentatively suggest trying these out for yourself. If you get a good one, it certainly is enjoyable, but otherwise it might leave you with a literal bitter taste in your mouth.

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Brian Burt

I have been smoking cigars since 2005 and reviewing them as a hobby since 2010. Initially, I started out small with a 50-count humidor and only smoking one or two cigars a month. Not knowing anybody else that smoked cigars, it was only an occasional hobby that I took part in. In March of 2010, I joined Nublive and Cigar Asylum, connecting me with many people who also shared an interest in cigars. Reading what they had to say about brands I had never heard of, I quickly immersed myself in the boutique brands of the industry and it was then that cigars transformed from a hobby into a passion.