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Home > What's New > Litto Gomez Kicked My Ass
Litto Gomez Kicked My Ass
Posted: Thursday, June 29, 2006
By Michael Moretti
I went to Davidoff Madison Avenue in New York City for what I thought was a cigar dinner with Litto Gomez and La Flor Dominicana and got my ass kicked. Gomez did it over the course of three hours with his cigars. If you're going to get beat, though, this is the way to go.
I arrived there at 7 p.m., picturing a leisurely meal with steak, seafood and a couple of cigars interspersed throughout, paired with a nice wine. I was blindsided with something a little more intense. It was a smoke smorgasbord.
Instead of dinner, we were going to take part in a roundtable where attendees would test the effects of age on La Flor Dominicanas, which are made in the arid La Canela region of the Dominican Republic. Gomez has been rolling his cigars with the strength of the sun that beats down on his crops. Their strength then in turn beat down on me.
At the function, attendees sat around a table and were given two cigars at a time to compare and contrast. The idea was that the two cigars would be smoked side by side, one of which had been aged in the Davidoff humidors and one that was from a more recent release. This would demonstrate how cigars change with age. It was a great idea and the session was informative, but I was ill prepared. I hadn't eaten anything since noon.
Litto Gomez showing his softer side with his wife, Ines.
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The participants were composed of a few area retailers and loyal patrons of the store. The first cigars on the docket were La Flor Dominicana 2000 Series No. 6s, one from 2003 and one from 2006. Now, Litto had given me a cigar to smoke before we even started this…before I knew what would be involved. So I was one cigar in already. We were not told which was which, only that one cigar was aged and one was not. At about 7:30, we lit up the first and smoked it for a few minutes, then lit up the second. Back-to-back smoking can be challenging enough, but side-by-side smoking is a different animal.
The first round was very informative. I could taste many of the subtle nuances in the cigars. I smoked both nearly to the nubs, alternating with a few puffs between each and taking sips from my wine glass that was never allowed to be less than a quarter full -- no doubt a contributing factor to my ass kicking. Smokers worked their way through their cigars and gave their two cents. At this point, I was still intelligible and not yet wobbling. The smoke was beginning to fill up the room. Outside the glass-enclosed shop, some spectators pressed against the window. They gave us the thumbs-up.
The next round came: a pair of Chisel Puros, one a first release from 2004 and the other from 2006. I was still confident and even a bit cocky. It was the same drill as before. I clipped the head and began smoking. Ashes were starting to pile up. My lighter, having been passed around, was out of fluid and needed to be refilled. Midway through the second Chisel, I was running out of gas, too. I thought, "Maybe if I eat I could get a second wind." Hors d'oeuvres in the corner were the only means of sustenance. Delicious, but not enough to satiate the barren wasteland that was my stomach. My solution: drink more to fill the void.
I carried on, determined. I didn't add much to the conversation on this round, though. I got by with a pensive expression and appreciative nods of my head in between puffs. My legs felt like gelatin and my eyes felt swollen. I was getting worked.
Next came the Limitada No. 1 from 2004 and the Limitada No. 2 from 2006. They were bigger and stronger. At this point, I knew I was about to go down for the count and resolved to just take small puffs and not finish the whole thing. I tend to be compulsive with my cigars and smoke them all down in a short amount of time. I couldn't taste much of anything and my eyelids were almost closed over my blood-shot eyeballs. Someone remarked that I looked as if I had been smoking something else. But I carried on, lighting up both and comparing. This time the panel had a guessing match, which I completely botched, calling the younger the older of the two. I was done and so was the tasting, but the other attendees weren't and neither was Litto.
The night ended with a multi-hued Perfecto, the new release from Litto. Everyone lit up ravenously, as if it was the first cigar of the evening. I put the stick in my pocket, reasoning that anything I smoked now would be a waste of time for the cigar and me. I dragged myself home and hit the showers.
Click here to read more about Litto Gomez and La Flor Dominicana.
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