La Floridita Robusto
Origin: Costa Rica
Size: 5.00 X 50
Wrapper: Maduro

From Famous-Smoke:
A box-pressed cigar made with a high-quality blend of Dominican and Nicaraguan long filler, top-grade Dominican binder and a spicy, Ecuadoran-grown Connecticut broadleaf maduro wrapper. Priced to move, this is a solid, well-made cigar that has become very popular with Famous customers. If you seek quality and value in a maduro, you will find La Floridita Maduro to be a very satisfying smoke!

Reviewed by: Greg Dennies
Date: October 2003
Notes:

Hey, are there mosquitoes in here? Nope, that's just my cigar biting me. This thing didn't taste good, didn't burn good, and certainly didn't smell good. That familiar flavor of... what is it? A drugstore cigar burned down to an inch long nub. I can't say this was terrible, just not good. Not just because I couldn't establish a decent burn, but the flavor of lawn clippings I could do without.

Unlit stick had a straightforward tobacco taste; a little pruney a la stale chewing tobacco.

My wife objected to the putrid odor of this stick about 30 seconds after light up, and I soon noticed she was right. A very strong, acrid, nostril-numbing stench. She said the aroma was resemblent of fireworks.

Perhaps some more aging would improve this cigar, so maybe I will try again in a few hundred years.

Reviewed by: Bill Potts
Date: September 2003
Notes:

This was one of the cigars sent me by MrChef to review in exchange for sending in my first cigar review. I must say he is a man of his word.

Now to the cigar. I was pleasantly surprised how good this was, especially since it was a freebie. It smelled great when I took off the cellophane wrapper and looked well rolled. The wrapper tasted slightly sweet when I put it in my mouth before lighting. It burned nice and even all the way to my finger tips, even though I didn't light it evenly due to the breeze outside and didn't even burn unevenly when I smoked it in a steady breeze outside. Unfortunately, I am forced to do my smoking outside.

The cigar was smooth and creamy with a hint of spice (nutmeg?)and no burnt paper taste. This surprised me a little since the wrapper did flake and burn a little at the lit end, floating off like tiny little pieces of paper. I guess this was caused by the breeze. In the past, other cigars that did this left a burnt paper taste in my mouth. The smoke left a nice sweet taste in my mouth and took about 50 minutes to finish.

This is a great smoke and I highly recommend it. Thanks, MrChef.

Reviewed by: MrChef
Date: July 2002
Notes:

This was gifted to me by my friend Doug. In hindsight I should have noticed something familiar about the cigar, however when he gave it to me he told me it came in a combo package, humidor & cigars for around 40 bucks. Usually those smokes are lawn smokes or moocher smokes. I normally would have taken a smoke like that and laid it down for a while, maybe using it in a contest or for trade bait, but for some reason I was drawn to this smoke. Again hindsight is 20/20.

The cigar was solid as a rock and almost jet black. It had a great pre-burn aroma and good weight in the hand. I lit it and was amazed, and comforted at the same time, it was like I had come home.

This cigar was full bodied, giving up tons of sweet creamy smoke. Now that I think back I should have known it was made by Tabacalera Tambor & Douglas Pueringer the original makers of Tony Borhani's Bahia cigars, as well as a slew of other great cigars including Hoja Cubana XXO, the original C.A.O. Aniversario Maduro line as well as the original Estavan Cruz. His cigars just have that certain look and feel. I've found over the years that like Perdomo there is very little that comes out of that factory that I don't like. This cigar was no exception.

This was a totally satisfying smoke, and is now high on my "Must Buy" list.

The image is of the "Short Belicoso" not the Robusto.