Cigar Aficionado voted the Mi Dominicana by Jose Seijas a Top 20 cigar for 2008. I happened to find some at my local B&M, so I had to try one. They are a relatively new cigar that was produced in limited production. The cigar is named for the man who ran the largest factory for Altadis S.A. Technically, the robusto was rated a 91 in Cigar Aficionado. I purchased the churchill which is two inches longer than the number 20 ranked Cigar of the Year. With that said, I was excited fire one up.

The Mi Dominicana by Jose Seijas is constructed with Dominican fillers, binder and wrapper. As mentioned, I fired up the churchill which measures 7 x 54. A box of 20 runs for about $162. It had a rich appearance highlighted by a simple white band. This overly large stick fired up easy and had a smooth draw. Smoking time for this stick is well over two hours. It started out with an even burn, but an inch into the smoke, the burn started to run. The burn never evened itself out which caused an enormous amount of effort on my part to try to correct it. It never did! However, the taste of this medium-bodied smoke was very enjoyable. It had hints of spice, cinnamon and leather. It was very tasty which kept me motivated to finish this very large stick. As I approached the nub, the burn went out requiring a couple of relights. Overall, this cigar was a disappointment. It required a ton of effort to smoke and although delicious, the taste was not enough to want me to smoke another one.

Thanks to Cigar Aficionado for another wonderful suggestion. Further, evidence this cigar journal sucks. Granted, they did review the robusto, but I highly doubt the construction on the robusto was so much superior to rank this cigar number 20 for the year. Come on!

MonkeyDan Rating: 83