There were six cigars on hand for The Humidor Cigars and Lounge’s fifth anniversary celebration on Nov. 1. Three are new exclusives to the shop, one is a returning exclusive, one cigar debuted nationally and the other likely did too, as La Flor Dominicana brought a special version of the company’s event-only Mystery cigar.

Word around the event was that the cigar on display could become the company’s event-only offering next month, but only time will tell.

Together the six cigars were placed in a sampler called The Heist, which was packaged in a black velvet bag made to mimic a gem pouch. The theme comes from Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, a movie made about a failed diamond heist.

The Humidor  West The Heist Sampler 5

Gorden Crippen of the Humidor explained the inspiration:

“We are kinda sorta movie freaks,” said Gorden Crippen of The Humidor, “so much so that one night we were watching Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs and were struck with the idea that we should do an entire set of cigars based on the movie.” The idea gained traction among the group and they proceeded to build cigars around the main characters, and the fact that there were five main characters corresponded with the store’s anniversary. But as fans of the movie know a sixth character is killed off right after the credits, so Crippen and his crew decided that a sixth cigar would be “one to grown on.”

The Humidor  West The Heist Sampler 1 The Humidor  West The Heist Sampler 2 The Humidor  West The Heist Sampler 3 The Humidor  West The Heist Sampler 4

The Humidor sold 100 samplers and also had each of the six cigars available for purchase individually.

This is the third release of the La Flor Dominicana Mystery, a cigar that has been primarily seen at bigger events around the country.

LFD Mystery

 

La Flor Dominicana Mr Blonde 1

  • Cigar Reviewed: La Flor Dominicana Mr. Blonde
  • Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
  • Factory: Tabacalera La Flor S.A.
  • Wrapper: n/a
  • Binder: n/a
  • Filler: n/a
  • Size: 6 Inches
  • Ring Gauge: 54
  • Vitola: Toro Extra
  • MSRP: $8.55 (Boxes of 20, $171)
  • Release Date: Nov. 1, 2014
  • Number of Cigars Released: 40 Boxes of 20 Cigars (800 Total Cigars)
  • Number of Cigars Smoked for Review: 2

The Mr. Blonde has the same shape as this year’s Mystery cigar, but the wrappers are fairly easy to tell apart, not just in color. The aroma from this wrapper is sweet fruits, leather, a bit of grassiness and some saltiness, while the foot provides a great combination of peanuts and walnuts with touches of cocoa and burnt peaches. From the cold draw, I pick up cocoa, the familiar peachiness and a blast of red pepper.

The Mr. Blonde starts with earthiness, burnt coffee, chocolate and an emerging pepper. There are a few subtle changes, but at an inch and a half in the La Flor Dominicana still has most of the same flavors as when it started. Earthiness dominates with coffee on both the tongue and nose. A generic berry note provides a decent bit of sweetness particularly towards the second half of the first third, but it’s definitely a secondary note. Both samples I smoked burn incredibly slow, although construction is great.

La Flor Dominicana Mr Blonde 2

Into the second third, the black pepper is now dominating the earthiness. The burnt coffee note remains a big part of things, as does the earth, but there are a myriad of other changes that oftentimes lead me to forget about the earth. The berry note disappears, with a peachy flavor emerging at the halfway mark, a bit brighter than it had been during the cold draw. In addition, there’s now a semisweet cocoa and cedar through the nose adding to the complexity. The burn wavers a bit and I make a few touch-ups to the La Flor, which is still burning very slow. Strength is medium-plus, slowly building, but it doesn’t seem like it will hit full without a dramatic ramp-up.

La Flor Dominicana Mr Blonde 3

At some point in the final third, the peach note becomes charred, mimicking what I found on the cold draw. There’s also an added nuttiness, not the complex mixture of walnuts and peanuts that I found earlier, but it does help make things more diverse. At times there’s a somewhat off-putting aged leather note; fortunately it’s a minor part of the profile and leaves the palate quickly, but it’s present in both cigars’ final third. Strength never hits the full mark, finishing off pretty much where things left off in the second third.

 

La Flor Dominicana Mr Blonde 4

Final Notes

  • Michael Madsen played the character of Mr. Blonde.
  • If you had to pick Mr. Blonde out of the sampler on appearance alone, the Reinado seems like the obvious choice.
  • Comparing this to the 2014 Mystery cigar, I would say this was much sweeter.
  • The Mystery vitola is box-pressed, but only slightly. If you have some round Mystery cigars in your humidor, it’s probably because your cigars came from a bundle and not a box.
  • I am somewhat skeptical this will be the 2015 Mystery cigar.
  • Once again, there’s no secondary band or any other marker that will help you tell the Mystery and Mystery Mr Blonde apart; yet another reason we suggest having some blank bands or other method to help tell these apart in the humidor.
  • There are actually two stores in Wichita known as The Humidor Cigars and Lounge, one is on the east side of town and the other on the west. It’s only the fifth anniversary of The Humidor (West) and the cigars are only available through that store. That store is also referred to “Westside Humidor, including on its Twitter account.
  • Strength is medium-full. I have not smoked the Paul Stulac yet, but this is the strongest cigar amongst the other four offerings in the sampler.
  • Cigars for this review were provided to halfwheel by The Humidor.
  • Final smoking time was a lengthy two hours and ten minutes.
  • The only place to get the La Flor Dominicana Mr. Blonde is at The Humidor (West). They can be reached at 316.440.4890.
87 Overall Score

If I was forced to smoke nothing but La Flor Dominicanas for the rest of my life, this would be in my weekly rotation. While it has a lot of familiarity to many other La Flor Dominicanas, it avoids being the strength bomb, pepper bomb or earth-centric profile that I find in many other of the company’s offerings. Smoking slow is the way to go with the Mr. Blonde, which means you should budget out about two hours in order to fully enjoy the cigar.

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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.