La Gloria Cubana Obelisco Review

6/3/2014

Cigar: La Gloria Cubana Artesanos de Obelisco
Size: Piramide, 5.0”x57 (box-pressed)
MSRP: $9.80
Strength: Medium-Full
Wrapper: Sumatra
Origin: Dominican Republic

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Prelight: This is a very neat and unique looking cigar. It is a box-pressed piramide giving it the look of the Washington Monument (hence its name). The Sumatra wrapper is a little rugged with a couple wrinkled veins on the backside. The wrapper has a floral, wood scent while the foot smells of wood with a dash of powdered cocoa. The cold draw is nice and tastes like sweetened wood.

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1/3: The Obelisco kicks off like a champ; there is a lot of wood initially, which is joined by sweet cream, then a few puffs later, I’m getting grass and pepper as well. It doesn’t end there – nuts also make an appearance all in the first third. I even think I am getting a bit of chocolate as well. Soon, though, everything seems to mellow out and I am mostly picking up pepper, cream and cedar.

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2/3: Just look at that ash! It actually lasts for half of the cigar, and the burn is perfect. The second third has taken a step back from the complexity I got in the first third, and there is mostly only wood and cream, but there is a hint of pepper and chocolate as well, as I get ready to transition to the last third, the pepper fades completely, and the grassiness is coming back.

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3/3: The final third again mellows. The cedar is getting stronger, but the other flavors (cream, hay, chocolate) are fading to compensate. The smoke does get a little hot towards the nub, but the burn remains gosh-darn perfect.

Overall: This is a great cigar, rolled with skill and blended to match. The first third was amazing, but it was nice that it mellowed out so that I wasn’t continuously furrowing my brow trying to figure out the copious amounts of flavors. My only qualm about this cigar is its size. It’s just too short of a smoke! And the price is a little high for the size, but when you find out there are only two people who can bunch and one who can roll this work of art, it makes sense.