I’ve been working a lot lately, and find myself smoking more of my cigars at work. That was the case today. I brought along a La Gloria Cubana, one I picked up in my Powerhouse 16 Sampler. My anticipation built all day until I finally took a pre-dinner smoke, only to be a bit disappointed.
My pre-light inspection revealed nothing but good things about this cigar. The cut was good, no appearant problems with the wrapper, a fine looking cigar it was indeed. I did my normal draw test before lighting, and tasted the sweetness of the cigar.
After I lit up, I noticed that the La Gloria put out a bunch of white smoke. I conducted a “squeeze test” and found no hard spots, however the wrapper cracked on me halfway down. I didn’t use excessive pressure, it just kinda happened. The draw stayed great though and the break didn’t worsen.
As the burn progressed, it was clear that the cigar was burning very unevenly. The ash was very loose and ugly. It looked liked rolled up newspaper clippings rolled up with sawdust. The filler appeared to be of smaller pieces on the side burning faster, and I’m not sure if the small ash was due to the fast burn, or the fast burn was due to the small filler. The cigar burned a bit faster than I hoped, and it burned hot.I was done with it after 45 minutes.
It seemed as though there were humidity issues, but my humidor has been holding steady 70%RH and 70 degrees. My transport bag had a humidifier in it, and wasn’t heated during the day. Could that crack have played a part?
Despite everything that went wrong with this cigar, it was flavorful and I would be willing to give it another try. Until then, I have no choice but to issue a “C-” for this smoke. Definately a smokable cigar, but there’s a lot of better cheapie cigars that out perform this one.
Posted by Sam