Well, yet another friend, Simon, has done a nice review for his “House of Cuban Cigars” blog with LCDH Montreal, on the La Flor De Cano “Siboney”, the Regional Edicion for 2014 for Canada.

I had the chance to take part in a pre-release review tasting panel back in November 2014, hosted by Roger and others from Havana House (the official Canadian distributor for Habanos).  While the tasting for the cigar itself did not go well, it was still a treasured experience…

Cigar Review – La Flor de Cano Siboney 2014 RE Canada, Sep 2014 “OEP” box code; Final Score – 82

In talking with Simon and a few others in the following months since that tasting, we’re hoping for better things with that cigar.  Hell, maybe they slightly tweaked the blend for boxes that were still being produced when we did that initial pre-release tasting, or perhaps we just got a fairly sour box from the onset of production.

Simon’s review can be found here:

Flor de Cano Siboney Exclusivo Canada

No idea if the box codes match up or not, or if there’s a distinct difference there, leading to the fairly different overall impression.  I do notice from his pictures that his box sampled from is box # 171 – decently far-enough removed from our pre-release box # 0000, but it does depend a bit on the box / factory code as well (mine was Sep 2014 “OEP”).  I do note that he also mentioned the sourness, and while it wasn’t pleasant at all back in November, it sounds like it’s not a detriment in Simon’s tasting.

So, sounds like they’re improving a bit, which is definitely a needed must.  I hope they do continue to evolve positively, as they are a nice format for wintertime smokers in Canada.

Cheers all.

EDIT / ADDITION: In discussing this further with Simon, I was curious about the final market pricing for these. When I did the pre-release tasting in Havana back in November, we were told that the plan at the time was for an MSRP pricing of $18 or $19 CDN per stick, factoring in taxes and such for the Canadian market. Even then at the tasting, we thought that price was damn well too high, putting it past the pricing for some regular production minutos that are already well-reputed, and can be great ROTT or with some extended aging time. Well, it sounds like the current / actual pricing on this is a ghastly $24 CDN per stick!!!!!!!!!!! That’s insane!!!! As Simon mentioned, that’s too damn expensive, and now puts it only a couple dollars shy of a regular production robusto (I think a RASS is only $26). That’s absurd, especially for a little minuto.

Hopefully they VASTLY improve then, so that these are able to be moved, and don’t just simply gather dust on store shelves for 8 or 9 plus years.