La Flor Dominicana Ligero Oscuro L400 (5.75×54)

The number is the ring gauge. The L400 is the 54, and if you have smoked the L500 you already know what changes when you step down from a 60. The Oscuro wrapper does not change. The La Canela Dominican binder and filler do not change. What changes is the geometry of the smoke, and in a full-bodied cigar built around Litto Gomez’s proprietary Oscuro leaf that geometry matters more than people give it credit for. The 5.75×54 is a more focused delivery system for a profile that at 60 ring gauge has room to sprawl. Here it tightens.

The white pepper that defines the first third hits with more immediacy. The leather and dark earth in the middle are more concentrated. The Oscuro sweetness, that distinctive raisin and dark fruit note that only naturally darkened sun grown leaf produces, comes through in sharper relief against the ligero-heavy Dominican filler underneath. An hour of full-body smoking, beautifully constructed at Tabacalera La Flor in Santiago. If the L500 is your regular smoke and you have never tried the L400, you owe yourself the comparison.