There are a few different versions of this brand floating around. The original is, of course, the Cuban label registered by Ignacio Larrañaga in 1834. By the end of the 19th century the brand was known world-wide, inspiring Kipling to find “peace in a Larrañaga.” Today this marca is a relatively minor player in the Habanos market.

And then there are all the “other” PLs, of which there are at least three. Altadis has a Dominican version with a Connecticut wrapper. Cuban Imports recently released the “Por Larranaga Cuban Grade,” and then there’s this one: the Honduran version with an Ecuadorian Connecticut seed wrapper. (I read somewhere that the “Por Larrañaga” name was at issue in a trademark dispute. Evidently the final decision was to let everybody use it.)

The Honduran PL is made in Santa Rosa de Copan with Honduran filler and binder, and is finished off with a very smooth and supple Ecuadorian grown wrapper. The Churchill is a standard 7 inches by 48.

This is a well-made, mild to maybe medium, but mostly mild bodied cigar with a great Ecuadorian wrapper. The aroma of the wrapper really made the cigar. There are some muted nutty flavors here as well, but without the wrapper there wouldn’t be much here to go on. It smells great, it burns well, it’s entirely inoffensive…  it’s everyone’s favorite political candidate!  Actually, it’s the opposite of cigars that are marketed to “seasoned smokers only.” But it really needs something to give it a little more traction, in my opinion.  On the other hand, I’ll admit it’s a pretty decent mild cigar. Better than a Don Diego, for example.

The Honduran PL is available from JR Cigars. Whether this means it’s an Altadis product or a new Santa Clara line, I don’t know. And furthermore, I don’t care. It’s just not my kind of smoke. But it could be yours, if you dig the super mellow stuff.

La Flor Dominicana in the past couple of years has earned a reputation for full bodied bombers like the Double Ligero and Litto Gomez Diez cigars. But that’s not all they do. The Reserva Especial is a real sweetheart of a cigar that aims for finesse rather than a crushing blow to the senses.

Cigar Insider (as featured on the LFD website) calls the LFD Figurado a belicoso. It isn’t really, because torpedoes and belicosos are like parejos in that they have straight sides. “Torpedo” and “belicoso” are often interchangeable terms, it seems, but they are distinguished from pyramids, which are figurados having non-parallel sides and a slightly conic cylinder. This Figurado, I believe, is actually a pyramid. No doubt somebody will disagree with the way I’ve split these hairs, and that’s okay.

The dimensions of this figurado are 6 1/2 inches by 32 graduating to 52 at the foot. (Don’t ask me where the 32 comes from. I think there’s some theoretical mathematics at work here.) The wrapper is an even and smooth Ecuadorian grown Connecticut seed leaf with a little bit of ripple in the veins. The binder is Nicaraguan, and the filler is piloto cubano from La Flor Dominicana’s farm in the DR.

The aroma from this pretty stick is sweet and elegant. It’s floral like the best Connecticut wrapper often is, but with a dollop of spice as well. The flavor is very mild for the first inch or so, and then gentle flavors of nuts and wood enter into the mix. The smoke is creamy at first and just gets more so until it reaches an almost buttery texture. At the mid point the flavors pick up a little more heft, but stay basically the same, while the rich aroma continues its long-legged strut down the catwalk. There’s a little bump in the octane at this point, but nothing to kick it past medium grade.

The foot unraveled a bit at first, which I’m going to attribute to operator error; aside from this, it burned perfectly and had no construction defects. I’m not sure if there was much age on this particular stick since I received it in a trade, but I’ll be picking up a few more to experiment with. At six dollars apiece, or about $150 a box, it’s not a thoughtless purchase. I might have to sample a few more singles and give them some thought.

This is a gorgeous, if somewhat flamboyant cigar. It’s not huge on flavor, but it’s long on looks and aroma. I’d hand this out to deserving new smokers in a heartbeat, but first I’d put a few in reserve for myself.

A panatela is a long, thin, and currently unfashionable cigar. The latin root of the term is “pan” which means bread. Panatela is a diminutive form of the word; in Italian it means a small loaf, or a thin biscuit. In Spanish it can also mean pound cake, which might cause some confusion if you’re looking for cigars in a Spanish bakery. In this case you may want to document your experience for a future BBC comedy sketch.

Panatelas can be from about 5 1/2 to 7 inches in length with a ring gauge from 34 to 38, sort of like a thin lonsdale. It is one of the historically “standard” sizes but in recent years it has become increasingly rarer due to the trend toward larger ring gauges. The long thin aspect lends it an elegant appearance which according to some people makes it more attractive to female smokers. That sounds to me like a stereotype, so I’m not going to give it too much weight; on the other hand I’m sure there are guys out there who would feel a little uncomfortable smoking this in the pub. I can hear the Virginia Slim jokes already.

The thin ring gauge makes this a difficult cigar to roll: the most common problem is a tough draw because there are so few leaves to work with. Aside from the annoyance of a bad draw, a tight roll will result in a bitter and tarry smoke. On the other hand, if the roller overcompensates and rolls the cigar too loosely, the burn will be too hot and the flavor unbalanced.

I am happy to report that the Padron panatela suffers from neither of these problems. The cigar is actually quite soft to the touch, which I thought might be an indication of a loose roll, but the roll turned out to be perfect. It had an easy draw and an even and fairly slow burn.

It isn’t the prettiest cigar in the world — the wrapper has a few large veins and a variegated black and brown appearance. The color is similar to the finish on my Gibson 335, now that I think of it.

The Padron panatela is typical of Padron’s Thousand series. It’s full flavored from the first draw with a long finish and a slight bite that mellows after the first inch or so. The flavor is predictably woody with some rich coffee bean flavors, graduating after the mid point to a milder roast.

Despite its delicate size factor this is a full-bodied cigar that means business. It is a little tempting to smoke this one too quickly because the small ring gauge results in a smaller volume of smoke, but don’t. Take your time with it and it won’t get hot or bitter.

There isn’t a whole lot of change or complexity in this cigar, aside from the mellowing effect after the first inch or so. The lack of complexity with smaller ring gauge cigars is often due to the fact that fewer leaves can be incorporated in the blend. And while the flavor here doesn’t span the spectrum, the part that it focuses on is quite tasty.

If you like the Padron Thousand series cigars, and you can appreciate the “panatela experience,” you will most likely enjoy this cigar as well. At two to three dollars a throw, it’s worth a try. And if you’re afraid to be seen smoking an overgrown Virginia Slim, you can always herf it up Cigarfan style: by yourself in the back yard, with the dogs. The dogs may laugh at you, but they won’t tell anyone.

Rocky Patel started it all with his bandless Edge cigars packed in rough-hewn crates. Camacho followed up on the theme with El Legend-ario, and the Cubans have been going nekkid for years. But now that Rocky has responded to the copycats with a joky promotion for Edge “Counterfeits” in the latest CI catalog, I don’t know how much longer the trend can last. Even the Cubans have started banding cigars that have never had bands before… and Rocky is now banding Edges at the foot! Bandless cigars may soon be on the endangered list. Despite all this, Altadis showed up late to the party last year with a bandless Nicaraguan called Omar Ortez Originals.

Omar Ortez is a native Nicaraguan tobacco man who in the past has worked with Philip Wynne in the production of Felipe Gregorio and Felipe II cigars. Ortez established Agroindustrial Nicaraguaense de Tabaco in 1995, and is also the blender of the Exile brand cigar made in the NATSA factory. He oversees a “vertically integrated” production facility (like Padron) where he controls every aspect of the process — from seed to smoke.

Omar Ortez Originals are presented without bands and come packed in unfinished crates of 60. So far three sizes are available: robusto, toro, and torpedo.

The manufacturer is a little tight-fisted with information about the blend, admitting only Nicaraguan wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and –wait for it — Nicaraguan filler. But looking at this cigar I’m really reminded of the Ecuadoran leaf used on Aurora’s Pueblo Dominicano and 5 Vegas Limitada cigars: the smooth sheen and widely spaced veins are eerily similar. It’s a rustic looking cigar, a little rougher than the Auroras, but that goes along with the whole tough guy 60-count crate thing. Like you might pick up a crate of these at the tack store while you’re loading up on alfalfa for the herd.

It opens up with a woody flavor typical of Nicaraguans, accented by a metallic twinge that dissipates after a couple inches. It’s a full flavored smoke, but for the first third the aftertaste is very mild with no spice. There’s a nice aroma here: simple wood at first, followed by some light spice that makes the aroma smell almost like sandalwood. Not what I expect from a Nicaraguan wrapper, but very nice. The flavor moves into bittersweet chocolate territory in the second third and the aftertaste becomes slightly bitter. Towards the end of this cigar the flavor becomes sweeter, almost chocolate liqueur-like. Unusual, unexpected, but not unpleasant.

Omar Ortez Originals are Nicaraguan puros that really don’t smoke like Nicaraguan puros. They’re medium to full bodied cigars with good construction, fine taste, and an unusually sensitive aroma. They’re far less aggressive than I expected, which is probably a good thing. What they lack in power is balanced very nicely by a complexity that belies their appearance.

And get this: they’re affordable. If you play your cards right, you can pick these up for less than three bucks a stick. As Borat would say: “You like! I very excite!”

Puros Indios by Rolando Reyes, Sr. is made in Danli, Honduras with no Honduran leaf. For some reason Don Rolando just doesn’t like Honduran tobacco. Instead, he uses Ecuadoran wrapper, Ecuadoran binder, and filler leaves from Nicaragua, Brazil and the Dominican Republic. I’ve smoked a lot of these over the years because they’re decent tasting affordable cigars.

Rolando Reyes has a reputation as a hard-nosed tobacco man who watches his factory like a hawk. He reportedly examines every single cigar produced by his company and can tell a bad batch of cigars merely by weighing them in his hand. After the workers have gone home for the night he looks over the day’s production, and if he finds too many mistakes from a roller he turns that worker’s table upside down and leaves a note reading “ojo” to let that unfortunate soul know that the Don has his eye on him.

Puros Indios cigars are mild to medium in body and have a fine woody aroma with a floral element that makes them easy to smoke just about any time of the day. The flavor is leathery with a very soft finish and aftertaste. The only drawback that I’ve found is a slightly metallic flavor that comes and goes. I find that the flavor goes quickly downhill after the two-thirds point, so if you’re a nubber you might want to look elsewhere.

Most of them have good construction as well, with the exception of some of the smaller ring gauges that have, in my experience, been rolled a bit tight. Time to knock over a couple rolling desks, eh Rolando?

You can find these in most places for under four bucks per stick, sometimes under two if you buy them by the box on one of the auction sites. I always have some on hand for the ride home from work or to hand out to moochers. Because even moochers need love.