Cigar Review: Flor de las Antillas MAM-13

A little over a month ago, My Father Cigars began shipping a limited size of it’s Flor de las Antillas blend to select retailers. The cigar (6 x 48) will be offered in a round format, unlike the standard Flor de las Antillas slightly box-pressed vitolas. (You can see the difference in shapes in this photo.)

Dubbed the MAM-13, the cigar is limited to 500 boxes of 20, all exclusive to five retailers located in Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama. I received three samples from Emerson’s Cigars (one of the five retailers) which sells five-packs for $36 and boxes of 20 for $130.

Except for the shape and size, there’s no difference between the MAM-13 and the rest of the Flor de las Antillas Sun Grown line, which features a Nicaraguan sun-grown wrapper around Nicaraguan binder and filler tobaccos. (It’s the second Flor de las Antillas size that isn’t a box-press.)

The wrapper is dark brown and a bit rustic. It’s framed by the classic, old-school Flor de las Antillas band and burgundy-colored foot ribbon. Pre-light the foot features a pungent earthy aroma.

Once lit, the MAM-13 reveals wood, leather, baking spices, and a little dryness on the roof of the mouth. It starts out a little rough around the edges but smooths out after the first third. There’s also a bit of pepper spice that really shows up on the retrohale.

It’s very well-constructed, which is hardly a surprise for a Pepin-made cigar. Each of the three samples I smoked burned perfectly and drew flawlessly.

The change in size and shape didn’t alter the flavor very much so, if you’re fan of Flor de las Antillas, you’ll like the MAM-13. Personally, MAM-13 is more my size than the box-pressed Toro, which has a ring gauge of 52, but that’s more a function of ring gauge than box-press.

More fundamentally, the three samples I smoked confirmed my thoughts about Flor de las Antillas, which received plenty of attention after being named Cigar Aficionado’s Cigar of the Year for 2012. It’s a solid, enjoyable smoke, but not extraordinary. In fact, there are at least a half-dozen blends made by My Father Cigars that I enjoy more.

You may, as I do, slightly prefer the MAM-13 to the rest of the line because you prefer smaller ring gauges. But it’s not a significant change from the original line, which is medium- to full-bodied, well-made, flavorful, but not particularly complex. That earns the Flor de las Antillas MAM-13 a rating of three and a half stogies out of five.

[To read more StogieGuys.com cigar reviews, please click here.]

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys