Smoked: Luciano Foreign Affair

Smoked at: West Chester, Ohio

Luciano Foreign Affair Rothschild features filler from Nicaraguan, Costa Rican and the Dominican Republic, an Ecuadoran and Nicaraguan binder and a slightly oil, smooth, tannish brown Sumatran wrapper with no seams and a few visible veins. Tobacco from 4 countries qualifies it as a Foreign Affair, I presume. The cigar sports a single band – red Foreign Affair on a background of black and gold – art deco-looking.

The cigar was supposedly created as a tribute to the globalization of the cigar industry – sounds a bit too Davos to me. Do those hot-shot world political-industrial complex economists smoke cigars?

I am rarely able to identify specific spices beyond pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg. All are in this cigar’s flavor wheelhouse but I’m also tasting ginger – like ginger snap cookies - along with honey nut cereal, graham crackers and mixed nuts – mostly almonds. Oak and cedar comingle with damp mossy earthiness, butterscotch and fruit. There are occasional puffs of leather, licorice, orange citrus and an array of spices that pop in and out. The mixed nuts reveal themselves as almonds, peanuts and cashews by the final third.

Excellent draw with just the right amount of resistance, an even burn line, good smoke output, and ash that’s a bit flaky, but did hold well to almost an inch.

Luciano Foreign Affair is well balanced with subtle transitions and nice complexity. It’s medium- bodied and medium strength. This is a good cigar. It didn’t wow me, but it came close. I’m impressed. Do I give a 5? How about a 4.8?