La Flor Dominicana La Nox

Lots of people have raved about this cigar. Lots. I’m not one of them. I liked it and am not going to bash it. It was super-flavorful. What a cocoa bomb! And while the cocoa component was the predominant flavor I detected, by no means was this a one-dimensional stick. Other flavors were present as well including espresso, candied fruit, hints of cedar, cinnamon, spice, red pepper, and at one point, I tasted a bit of black licorice.

So why am I not raving about it? Simply because it’s a cigar that is following the current industry trend of big, bold, in-your-face cigars that grab you from the get-go and don’t let go throughout the smoke. For lot of folks, that’s their jam. They want to be completely inundated.

Me? I prefer nuance, which is why I tend to gravitate towards mild- to medium-body sticks that may gradually work their way up to robust that give a little time for my senses to explore what a cigar has on offer. Powerful sticks like the LFD La Nox pound me with flavor from the get-go. Admittedly, sometimes I’m in the mood for that. But not very often and not at all on a casual basis.

But that’s just me. If the situation was right, I could see myself raving about this cigar. And even though it’s incredibly robust, it’s balanced, presenting a plethora of changing flavors against a backdrop of dark cocoa. There’s just a lot of it, and I must be in the mood for that. I could see where this could be a great foil against a spicy meal.

So, I will be giving this stick another chance and not dismissing it out of hand. But I’m going to wait for the right time to smoke it.

Update: I went back to West Coast cigars last night where I bought the La Nox. Almost pulled the trigger on another one to smoke for later but decided to try some other cigars. While searching, I chatted it up with Mike who worked there, and he suggested the La Nox, but I shared with him my previous experience and said that I really need to be in the. mood for that. He said that he got it. In his words, he called it relentless. Relentless is the perfect word for this cigar! It does not let up!

With respect to construction, this was a solid stick with no soft or hard spots. The oily wrapper was smooth with no visible seams. But here’s the rub: It burned incredibly uneven. Frustratingly so. I had to do a few touch-ups to straighten the burn line. And in the final third (yes, I smoked it down to about an inch), the cap came off completely! I don’t chew my cigars, and I use a punch cut on the cigar, so that was completely unexpected.

BUT that said, that was one cigar. And it very well could have been a little “ship sick.” When I buy another, I will rest it for a while.