Every so often a cigar comes along that the whole industry agrees on, which in this hobby is roughly as common as snow in Santiago. The Andalusian Bull is one of those cigars. A decade after Litto Gomez pressed it out of an antique mold, it still sells out on sight, and people who own boxes talk about them the way other people talk about real estate.
The La Flor Dominicana Andalusian Bull is a 6½×64 figurado blended by Litto Gomez and made at Tabacalera La Flor S.A. in the Dominican Republic. It wears an Ecuadorian Corojo wrapper over an all-Dominican interior built on Criollo ’98 and Pelo de Oro tobaccos, launched in July 2016 at about $15 in 10-count boxes, and went on to take the industry’s top Cigar of the Year honor for 2016.
- La Flor Dominicana Andalusian Bull, 6½×64 figurado from an antique Belgian mold. Ecuadorian Corojo over all-Dominican Criollo ’98 and Pelo de Oro, made at Tabacalera La Flor, blended by Litto Gomez.
- Black pepper, leather, and cedar out of the tapered head, an earthy cumin-and-saffron spice through the widening middle, espresso depth at the full 64-ring finish. Medium-full building to full.
- BLC Rating: 92/100. The rare award-season legend that still earns its reputation stick by stick, if you can find them.
FROM THE PORCH
This one starts in Tampa. I was down for Collective Mind Society 3, and part of the crew made the run over to Paradise Cigars in Clearwater. I had somehow never smoked an Andalusian Bull, which felt like a gap in my education, so I grabbed a handful. One got smoked at the event that night. The rest came home and went into the humidor to wait their turn.
The wait ended on a late-spring afternoon, right around 70 degrees, the kind of weather this hobby was invented for. Dallas was a little camera shy this time, but he handled his cookie while I handled the Bull, and neither of us registered a single complaint. All the details are below. For the record: this cigar is Dallas-approved.
BEHIND THE BLEND
Litto Gomez has spent three decades building La Flor Dominicana into one of the Dominican Republic’s defining houses, and he has never been shy about strength, shape, or doing things the slow way. The Bull is the purest expression of all three. Its story starts in an antiques shop in Belgium, where Gomez came across an old cigar mold with a shape nobody was rolling anymore, a salomon-like figurado with the tail of the foot cut away. He brought the idea home and rebuilt the shape at Tabacalera La Flor.
The blend he hung on that skeleton is classic LFD: an oily Ecuadorian Corojo wrapper over an all-Dominican core that leans on Criollo ’98 and the famously temperamental Pelo de Oro. It debuted in July 2016 at roughly $15 a stick, and by the end of that year it had collected the industry’s biggest annual honor. The line has stayed in production ever since, in quantities that never quite catch up to demand, which is why finding a full box in the wild still feels like an event.
The name completes the picture. Andalusia is the heartland of Spanish bullfighting, and the band wears a matador and bull in gold silhouette. It is a theatrical name for a theatrical cigar, and for once the theater is earned.
BLC BLEND BREAKDOWN
BLEND SPECS
THE VITOLA LINEUP
| VITOLA | SIZE | FORMAT |
|---|---|---|
| Andalusian Bull, reviewed | 6½ × 64 | Figurado |
One shape, one size, no committee thinking. The profile of the cigar looks like a salomon that lost its last three-quarters of an inch, and that is essentially what the old Belgian mold dictated. The geometry is the whole point: you light a nearly flat foot, draw through a tapered head, and the ring gauge grows underneath you as you smoke. Very few cigars change this much between the first puff and the last, on purpose, by design.
THE COLD DRAW
The Corojo wrapper is a rich mahogany with a light sheen of oil and seams that disappear into the curve of the figurado. In hand it is heavy, dense, and flawlessly rolled, this shape leaves no room for sloppy bunching. A shallow straight cut on the tapered head is all it needs, and the cold draw pays it back with cedar, raisin, and a quiet black pepper warning of things to come. The foot aroma is all dark earth and barnyard sweetness.
BLC CIGAR PROFILE
What makes the Bull special is that the shape is doing real work. The tapered head funnels smoke like a nozzle, so the first third hits with a concentration most 64-ring cigars never achieve. As the burn line climbs into the swell, the draw opens, the smoke volume grows, and the same blend starts speaking in a lower, rounder voice. It is one blend telling three different stories, and the transitions are the reason this cigar has a trophy shelf.
THE FIRST THIRD
Out of the narrow head, the opening is bold and focused: black pepper and leather up front, cedar right behind, everything compressed and vivid. There is a creaminess underneath that keeps the intensity from reading as harsh, and the retrohale is pure LFD, peppery and proud of it. The nearly flat foot lights in seconds and burns evenly from the first match. It is one of the most distinctive opening acts in the business.
THE SECOND THIRD
As the ring gauge swells, the profile broadens with it. This is where the earthy spice cabinet opens: cumin and a whisper of saffron settle in over the leather, the cedar picks up a smoky, almost hickory edge, and the pepper drops back from lead to rhythm section. The smoke turns thicker and creamier as the draw opens up. It is a completely different experience from the first third, from the same cigar, and that is precisely the trick.
THE FINAL THIRD
At the full 64 ring, the Bull digs in: espresso and dark earth take the lead, the spice warms rather than bites, and the body finally lands in genuinely full territory. Pace matters here, the fat final third rewards a slow hand and will turn hot on a rushed one. Managed properly it closes long, dark, and composed, a 90-plus-minute arc that ends exactly where a cigar named for a bullring should.
OVERALL RATING
BLC OVERALL RATING
The Bull earns 92 because the shape is not a novelty, it is the engine. The tapered-head-to-64-ring arc creates transitions most blends can only imitate, the construction survives a geometry that punishes lesser factories, and a decade of scarcity has not been about hype. At fifteen-and-change when you can find one, the only real criticism is that you cannot always find one.
WHO GRABS THIS CIGAR
This is a cigar for the smoker who pays attention. If you love figurados, or you want the clearest demonstration in the industry of how shape changes flavor, the Bull is the reference standard. Give it ninety unhurried minutes and a clear palate. It is medium-full heading to full, so newer smokers should treat it as a destination, not a starting point.
It is also a cigar for the hunter. Part of the Bull’s character is the finding of it: the call from your shop, the last box on the shelf in Clearwater, the handful you grab because you may not see them again for a season. Some cigars you keep in stock. This one you keep an eye out for.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Common questions about the La Flor Dominicana Andalusian Bull 6½×64.
