La Flor Dominicana La Nox

La Flor Dominicana’s Tony Gomez has had a successful run over the last few years.

After training in both the U.S. and the Dominican Republic, Litto Gomez let the younger Gomez begin to take charge of certain projects for the company. It started with the highly successful Chapter 1, which was followed up last year with Capitulo II, two limited cigars in the company’s iconic chisel shape. This year, the cigar is neither a limited edition, nor a chisel.

It’s called La Nox, Latin for the night.

The release is probably best known for its packaging: a round, black circular box that uses magnets instead of hinges. As for the cigar itself, it’s a 6 1/2 x 50 toro extra with a dark Brazilian wrapper, Mexican San Andrés binder and Dominican fillers from the company’s La Canela farm.

La Nox was first shown off at the 2015 IPCPR Convention & Trade Show in July and began shipping last month.

• Cigar Reviewed: La Flor Dominicana La Nox
• Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
• Factory: Tabacalera La Flor S.A.
• Wrapper: Brazil
• Binder: Mexican San Andrés
• Filler: Dominican Republic
• Size: 6 1/2 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 50
• Vitola: Toro Extra
• MSRP: $11 (Boxes of 10, $110)
• Date Released: Sept. 21, 2015
• Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

La Flor Dominicana claims that it is using its darkest Brazilian wrapper and I’m led to believe they are telling the truth. La Nox has a dark and oily cover leaf, something that I think is accented quite nicely with the light blue in the band. The Brazilian wrapper smells of salty nuts and not much else. There’s a much more diverse mixture from the foot which is dominated by oak over some paprika and sweet cocoa. A candied floral flavor dominates the cold draw with apple cider and some nuttiness behind it. While it’s a bit beefier at a heavy medium-full, there’s definitely a bit of a Cuban profile going on before the cigar is lit.

Things start with a great pork barbecue aroma. There’s sweet cocoa, some roasted almonds and a bit of floral flavor, although it’s not the primary flavor of the La Nox. It only takes a few puffs and the profile has exploded, in a good way. It’s sweet, salty, sour and savory with oddly the only major flavor missing being spicy. There’s some sourness via a tart lemon note, hay, a sharp apple cider over some meatiness, nuts, floral flavor and toastiness. There’s pie crust on the finish with a mild spice and a building nuttiness. The flavor is medium-full while body and strength is medium-plus. Construction is great with a slightly open draw, but plenty of smoke production.

The strength picks up in the second third of the La Flor Dominicana and the flavor sees some changes. An interesting coffee and root beer mixture take over as the core flavors in front of salty cedar, leather and some earthiness. The sharp apple cider is still prevalent through the nose as well as some heavy and aggressive creaminess.

There’s a lot less sweetness in the final third with a rich cedar taking over. In many ways it’s an earthier extension of the second third with some added pepper. That comes from a very spicy nuttiness, akin to eating roasted cashews coated in black pepper. In addition, there’s some added paprika in the nose, but it’s limited to just the finish.

Final Notes

• The night scene on the band and box is inspired by Vincent van Gogh. The font used is actually a take on his signature.
• There’s a pretty radical difference between the packaging between Chapter 1 and Capitulo II compared to La Nox.
• On that note, La Flor Dominicana is not a company I’d say is known for its packaging, but, there are a few projects that really stand out with this being one of them.
• In case you are wondering, if you try to put the lid on upside down it doesn’t work.
• It’s not a limited edition, but it is limited in production. That being said, I’ve already picked up a handful of the first run of La Nox and I’d recommend you do the same. Every production run will be slightly different and I think this one is a fantastic one.
• Construction was great on all three samples.
• Strength starts medium-full, but it hits full by the middle point.
• Cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel. La Flor Dominicana sent samples which were not used for this review.
• Site sponsors Emersons Cigars, Lone Star State Cigar Co. (972.424.7272) and STOGIES World Class Cigars (713.783.5100), while Cigar Hustler and Serious Cigars are out of stock.