This is one up-and-coming cigar brand that I would buy stock in if I could. The founder, Ian Reith, works in the tech world in Fresno, CA, and is a consumer turned brand owner. You're probably familiar with Dapper if you live on the West Coast, since that's where he's focused growing the brand, but just recently he's began expanding East and cigar lovers seem to have quickly taken notice. I love the name origin. When Reith handed one of his first cigars to his neighbor, a barber who focuses on classic-cuts, he took one look at it and said, "now that's a dapper cigar." And so it was. Reith began Dapper Cigars in 2013 with the goal to create just one really great cigar. Needless to say, with nine brands under the Dapper portfolio, his endeavor was a success. La Madrina means 'The Godmother' in Spanish and the theme of the cigar is the Mexican Day of the Dead celebration. Now for the cigar itself, they bill this as full to extra full in both strength and flavor. I admit this left me a bit confused, because for the most part this is a pretty medium bodied cigar that I prefer to smoke during the day. It isn't until the final third that the strength picks up and begins to approach a full bodied cigar (I'm curious what you guys think smoking it blind). Never the less, this is a really elegant smoke that has a lot of subtlety and balance, with some classic cigar notes like milk chocolate, white pepper (though very little through the nose), coffee, cedar and a lot of natural tobacco flavors. It's also left me looking forward to smoking their full portfolio and I'm excited to see where Dapper goes moving forward.
