Purchased: 1 Valiente (6.25 X 60)
Price: $18 (yeah, it was at a shop)
Store: Mac’s Smoke Shop, Palo Alto CA
Buy again: Yes
Box Worthy: Yes – This one reminded me of just how good a smoke it is, I will be buying this by the box in the future.
Experience Rating: 98
I’ve had this one a few times before, but I never thought to write about it because I always have purchased singles at B&Ms I’d visit. But this morning when I was picking out what I’d like to smoke, I saw this cigar sitting by its lonesome next to an unopened box of Curivari P554. I thought to myself, Damn! I keep on forgetting about this one! I had purchased it a while back at a B&M and kept skipping over it. But that was probably a good thing because it had plenty of time to rest; enough time that the wrapper was starting to discolor.
Like all LFDs, the Air Bender is a gorgeous-looking cigar. The smooth Habano wrapper has a subtle, reddish tint that is shiny with oils. The Valiente (6 X 60) is as solid as a baton. There’s a definite heft in it that indicates this cigar is packed to the gills, which made me think I might have to give it a poke or two. But punching the cap, the draw was perfect with just the right amount of resistance revealing wet grass, cedar, and Hershey’s cocoa powder, and dried fruit.
At light up, as with all LFD sticks I’ve smoked, the cigar was deceptively tame. Some cedar notes and burnt wood. No pepper, no coffee. It’s ho-hum. But I know from experience that that’s the game Litto Gomez plays with his cigars. They start off subdued then ramp up. With some, like the Double Ligero, that ramp is steep, and by the end of the first third, I felt like my eyeballs were coming out of their sockets.
But the ramp on the Air Bender is more gradual. None of that Litto-Gomez-slap-in-the-face. I think that with this cigar, he wanted to present a more nuanced approach to the blend that slowly revealed its sophistication over the course of the smoking experience. It was like a lover slowly and gently removing layers of clothing, drawing me in, then finally revealing… You get the point.
Once into the first third, the smoke became luxuriously creamy. What amazed me was that there was no cocoa to be found in the first third, not even a hint. There was a hint of baking spice, but it was in the background. Toasted nuts, toast, butter, a twang of sourdough bread, and a background sweetness. For me at least, I detected no pepper, black or otherwise. The amazing thing was that at least for this vitola, strength ramped up nicely through this section, only getting to medium+ by the end of it.
By the time I got to the second third, I was in a state of bliss. This was the sweet spot of the cigar for me. The cigar ramped up to full, but it was so deceptively smooth that I didn’t even notice the transition. The flavor profile then started to do a dance; something sultry moving in and out of savory vs sweet, woody vs herbaceous, nutty vs bready in gentle waves. Coffee finally made an appearance, but unlike its Nicaraguan counterparts that serve dark Italian espresso, this Dominican beauty’s coffee is a sophisticated Ethiopian Sidamo, replete with subtle citrus notes and a mild astringency.
It took over an hour and a half to get to the final third and the cigar continued its dance, but this is where the cocoa I was searching for finally arrived. But like the coffee, it wasn’t dark. It had the quality of malted milk chocolate – but without the sweetness. When I tasted that, I began to swoon because that combined with the richness and complexity of the smoke up to that point took me over the top. I didn’t want it to end. Yes, I nubbed that shit and have the singed lips to prove it!
The cigar was a slow roller. It took me over two hours to smoke it. I lit it up at 9am and didn’t finish it until well after 11am. Even though this is definitely box-worthy, I’m going to try out a couple of the other vitolas to see which one I prefer. I’ve only ever had it in the Valiente and I’ve always enjoyed it, but I’m curious about the other vitolas.
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