If you smoked cigars in the early 1990s, buying a La Gloria Cubana was a challenge. The brand was the original hard-to-find smoke in the early days of the cigar boom. When La Gloria production was greatly expanded with the opening of cigar factories in the Dominican Republic, supply caught up with demand. La Glorias were born on Calle Ocho, in Miami’s Little Havana, and cigarmaker Ernesto Perez-Carrillo has maintained that small cigar factory even while the vast majority of La Glorias are now rolled in the D.R. He recently created a new cigar in Miami to be rolled only in that factory, the La Gloria Cubana Artesanos de Miami. It’s the best La Gloria in years. Perez- Carrillo changed wrappers, moving from Ecuador Sumatra leaf to spicy Nicaraguan wrapper, and tipped the balance of filler, boosting the Nicaraguan quotient while dimming that of the Dominican tobacco inside. The result is a bolder, richer smoke. The best cigar in the five-size line is the Elegante. The Churchill-sized smoke is finished with a triple-seam cap, and brims with flavors of rich coffee and a nutty sweetness.

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