La Gloria Cubana Classic

Purchased: Single Toro (6 X 52)
Store: Cigars & More, San Carlos, CA
Price: ~$10.00
Buy again? Yes.
Box worthy? Yes.
Experience Rating: 88

I love cigars that fly under the radar or that have been forgotten under the piles and piles of new cigars that bury them into obscurity or irrelevance. It’s not as if the cigars become suddenly bad, but the cigar industry moves in such a way that blenders want to keep things interesting, so they’re constantly tweaking and coming up with new blends and perhaps adjusting to changing demand.

On top of that, most modern day cigar smokers have fairly short attention spans. They want a nice shiny new toy. So their tastes shift towards the latest stuff coming out from the blenders. Unfortunately, what I have found often happens is that they look upon the brands or blends they’ve left behind with a little bit of disdain.

For instance, I was at a wedding last Summer and one of the guests whom I was smoking with asked me what I had given to my son and his friends. I replied that I gave them some Gran Habano sticks.

For instance, the latest obsession with large ring gauge cigars. Those used to be rare. But now they are common and many people love them. I can’t include myself in that group. I prefer much smaller vitolas because I love the intensity of their flavors. He nodded and said, “They used to make good sticks.” I chuckled and said, “The thing is, they still do. They’re just off of everyone’s radar. But their quality hasn’t changed, nor has their flavor profile which is still awesome.”

Which brings me to the LGC Classic. Here is a cigar that has been around a long time. I remember having some almost 20 years ago when a friend of mine gave me a bunch of cigars. I vaguely remember that I really enjoyed it, but not being a regular smoker at the time, I think I only purchased a few at a shop and that was it… Until on a whim I thought I’d try one when I went to Cigars & More this past Thursday.

Talk about a classic smoke. It’s not super complex with a changing lineup of flavors. It’s a solid smoke that is enjoyable from light up to nub. The predominant flavors you get are wood, malt, light spice, nuts, and espresso grinds at the very end of the smoke. There is always a subtle sweetness in the background along with a bit of a Cuban twang.

It’s a lovely smoke and it is not surprising that it was so highly rated when it was first reviewed back in the early ’90s. When I smoked it last week I hearkened back to my original experience with it and that was that it was a comforting experience. I know you must be thinking how do I remember that but I’ve always loved the brand name so it has stuck with me all these years. And it is one of those brands that I kept on telling myself I would buy again but never got around to getting some because I was so busy exploring.

But after last week’s experience I immediately bid on a box on CigarBid. If I win, I can get them for around 2-bucks a cigar. This is the other reason I love getting cigars that fly under the radar. You can get them for insanely cheap prices. Though they fall into the budget or cheap range, there by no means low quality sticks. They’re just ignored enough where the retailers have to sell them at loss leader prices to move the inventory.

Sticks like the Classic completely blow out the notion of a “yard-gar.” My perception of a yard-gar is a Backwoods or Dutch Masters or Swisher Sweets, machine-rolled, mass produced sticks; or, the cheap, single-dimension smokes like the Toraño Dominico that you don’t mind if you only smoke half and chuck it.

Personally, I would feel uncomfortable doing a partial smoke on a Classic. It’s too good to do that. The same goes for the Ave Maria Argentum. I get bundles of those regularly and for a great price. But I nub those bitches! And I’d consider it a damn shame to chuck one after only smoking a bit of it even though I may have only paid a couple of bucks a stick.