La Flor Dominicana “Air Bender”
May 2, 2010 Cigar
Tonight’s review is the La Flor Dominicana Air Bender.
Lfd Air Bender cigars are Litto Gomez’s most ambitious full-bodied creations. An Ecuadoran Habano wrapper encases the Dominican longfillers & binders grown on their La Canela farm in the Dominican Republic. “The result is a very smooth, flavorful cigar with lots of body,” says Litto. Starting with molasses on the cold draw, once lit you’ll enjoy a spicy smoke that builds to a rich, woody base with some semi-sweet notes in the mix. Another “must smoke” from this highly-respected maker of boutique cigars. Each vitola in the line gets its name from the classic Kung Foo movies and the warriors. It is known that these ancient warriors could “bend the air”, thus the name behind them.
Now, on to the review.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Size: 5.5×52 (Toro) “Maestro”
Origin: Dominican Republic
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano
Binder: Dominican Republic
Filler: Dominican Republic
APPEARANCE and CONSTRUCTION – (18 of 20 pts.)
The wrapper on the Air Bender is beautiful. It was smooth, oily with no blemishes at all. It is a medium chocolate brown and very pretty. The cigar was firmly packed all the way through. I could clearly see the ligero leaves bunched in the foot of the stick. All in all a very well constructed cigar as I would expect for a Lito Gomez product.
SMOKING CHARACTERISTICS – (22 of 25 pts.)
The wrapper had a light cinnamon aroma as well as some toast. The foot had a strong scent of cedar and dark coffee. I used my Palio cutter on the Air Bender and it provided a clean opening. The cold draw was a little tight, but not awful. Right away I picked up notes of spice with some nice nuttiness. The draw remained a little tight throughout the smoke, but nothing I would complain too much about. Burn line was thin and there were no burn problems whatsoever. Nice firm white ash throughout.
FLAVOR – (26 of 30 pts.)
The initial flavors were a disctint spiciness followed by a walnut nuttiness. The spice was very prominent, and honestly a little overwhelming to my palate. The second third of the cigar introduced a mild sweetness in the background, but the spice was still prominent. Final third lost some of the spiciness but kept the nutty flavor as well as introducing a pleasant earthiness.
OVERALL IMPRESSION – (22 of 25 pts.)
The Air Bender is a beautifully made cigar that delivers all of the power you would expect from a LFD smoke. The spice in the first two thirds of the cigar were a little more spice than I enjoy, but they weren’t a turnoff. If you like the full bodied and spicy LFD profile, this cigar is a winner. If you don’t enjoy that spice component as much, you may find this stick too much for your palate.
TOTAL SCORE – 88
Tags: Air Bender, La Flor Dominicana, Lito Gomez
