Reserva Especial El Jocko Maduro by La Flor Dominicana

BRAND / CO:  La Flor Dominicana
CIGAR:  Reserva Especial Maduro [El Jocko]
VITOLA:  Perfecto - 4.5" x 54
STRENGTH:  Medium - Full
WRAPPER:  Ecuadorian Connecticut, Maduro
BINDER:  Dominican Republic (La Canela)
FILLER:  Dominican Republic (La Canela)
ORIGIN:  Dominican Republic, Tabacalera La Flor S.A.

APPEARANCE & CONSTRUCTION:   Good
Oh this is an oily bastard!  LFD always seems to do well with their Maduro wrappers in this regard and this El Jocko is no exception.  Pure shine, heavy mottling and a sporadic light tooth  I don't talk about the cold smell of many cigars because most smell similar to me, but I get heavy fruity notes off this one.  There's several thicker veins creating some lumpiness and a hint of edge lift on the seams, but everything is tight and rolled nicely.  I'm finding it's uneven in density, softer at the foot and firmer at the head

DRAW & BURN:   Average / Good
The draw is very tight and slightly improves with some finger rolling on the firmest section of the cigar by the head. The burn starts wavy but stays controlled well enough,  The draw slowly improves as the burn\ moves to the thicker section of the cigar.  The ash is a medium gray with tight banding and a bit of flakiness.  By the midway point the burn teased it might be settling in to even, then it quickly went back to uneven.

FLAVOR PROFILE:   
Earth, earth and more dry earth to start.  Light chocolate, raisiny sweetness, pepper spice and bits of black licorice all find their way through the door.  The sweet is quickly increasing and it sneaks charred oakiness in as well.  Aside from earth everything is a mild to medium strength ideal, but there's that nagging licorice bitterness. 

By the midway point, I'm underwhelmed.  It's a little better than the natural was at this point, but the sweet has disappeared.  It's dry earth heavy and there's still a lot of that black licorice flavor bringing bitterness while the pepper is leaving a harsh aftertaste.  There's really not much creaminess or smoothness here.  

I'm not getting any changes in the final third except the cigar is starting to get bland.  It needs a relight which only temporarily brings back the flavors and the sweetness that has gone missing.  But that didn't last long before bland city again. 

OVERALL EXPERIENCE:   
An interesting tidbit is my fingers started to get stained a dark brown by the cigar.  It washed off easily enough but I've never had that happen before.  This didn't have the negative qualities of the natural, but it never hit the same highs either.  This one kept flirting with blandness and didn't bring enough sweet to cut the heavy earth.  For earth alone, there's better cigars out there.  I'll let this one sit for an extended period like the natural before revisiting if, but a repeat performance will doom it to the same fate of passing on it in the future.

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Reviewed by Sean McCloskey of The Collective