Works of Art From La Flor Dominicana
One of the most attention-grabbing cigars to recently reach stores is a figurado called La Flor Dominicana Salomon Único. The $30 cigars, each of them rolled by one man, utilize a mix of various wrapper leaves to make striking designs on top of a shaped cigar.
The smokes, which were on display at the recent International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers trade show, begin as curved and ornate Salomones, seven-inch-long cigars with a bulb toward the bottom and a tapered tip, measuring 64 ring gauge at their fattest point. The filler and binder are Dominican. The cigarmaker finishes the cigar by using a mix of wrapper leaves—candela for green, maduro for dark brown and near black and Connecticut-seed for a lighter tan—cut into shapes to make intriguing designs. Some have the images of skulls or flames, others are barber poles, some are done in a camouflage style. A few have extremely long braids of skinny tobacco emerging from the head of the cigar that are draped down the body of the smoke. The idea is that no two boxes are alike.
Litto Gomez, who runs La Flor Dominicana, gave his cigarmaker simple instructions on this project.
"I said, ‘just have fun,'" he said. "It has to be unique and artistic, but it has to be good tobacco."
The cigars come packed 10 to the box, and the inside lid is decorated with a silhouette of Gomez, wearing his trademark hat, smoking a cigar.
