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Cigar Review: La Gloria Cubana Serie R Black Maduro No. 58

3 Apr 2017

Serie R Black Maduro

I still recall the first La Gloria Cubana Serie R I smoked, lighting it up years ago at the now-shuttered Bethesda Tobacco just outside Washington, D.C. It was undoubtedly the strongest cigar I’d smoked up to that time, and it knocked me for a loop.

Serie R Black MaduroBack then, the natural Serie R, with filler from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic, was among the more powerful sticks on the market, as well as a progenitor of the large ring gauge craze.

Ernesto Perez-Carrillo introduced the Serie R in 1999, the same year he sold his El Credito operation to General Cigar.

I suspect the extraordinary success of that original Serie R line is what led General Cigar to introduce numerous variations. The Serie R Black Maduro is one of two that debuted last year. It’s for sale online, with the sibling Serie R Estelí Maduro sold as a brick-and-mortar exclusive.

The Black Maduro comes in three sizes, with the name of each reflecting the ring gauge: No. 60 (6 x 60), No. 64 (6.25 x 64), and No. 58 (6.9 x 58). You’ll find them all online for about $5 apiece by the five-pack—even cheaper by the 18-count box.

No. 58 has a dark Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper with the same Nicaraguan blend of binder and filler found in the original Serie R Estelí line. The colorful band features the familiar updated La Gloria Cubana female image with a secondary red band demoting “Maduro” in silver, as well as a foot covering.

The pre-light aroma of the wrapper is typical of many maduros: rich, warm, and a little sweet. And, after firing the cigar up, the flavors also include those we often associate with a maduro cigar. There’s chocolate and coffee, of course, and a bit of raisin. Mixed in as the cigar progresses is some pepper that tends to remain in the background.

From the start, the burn and draw are excellent, with smoke production first-rate. The burn is fairly slow, and this big vitola lasts a long time.

Coming in at such a low price, this cigar is easy to recommend for smokers who enjoy maduros, or those who haven’t tried them and want to expand their palate. I give the La Gloria Cubana Serie R Black Maduro No. 58 three and a half stogies out of five.

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

–George E

photo credit: General Cigar Co. / Stogie Guys

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