Litto Gomez, of La Flor Dominicana, is an innovator. His products are unique and exciting. Unlike some of the top blenders today, you would be hard pressed to try to categorize his line of cigars. Some are mild and creamy like the Premium Line, some are rich and nutty like his Reserva line and then there are the Ligeros and Double Ligeros – some of the strongest and most flavorful cigars on the market. (Please check out my Manufacturer Spotlight on La Flor here).
Litto is easily one of the top 3 blenders making cigars today. His limited editions and small-batch cigars are always unique, different and down-right tasty!
I had the privilege to correspond with Litto Gomez of La Flor Dominicana a couple of weeks back. I had e-mailed him to inquire over a few more details to his new El Museo charity cigar. I also asked if I could shoot him a couple of questions for my blog and he graciously agreed.
Zen: Senor Gomez, thank you for taking the time to respond to my questions. What brought you into the cigar business?
Litto Gomez: When you don’t have a formal education or a rich father you have to make your own path in life, in the process you find yourself at crossroads, then you make your decision on which direction you are going to go.
I made the decision to get in the cigar industry without any analysis of what I was getting into. It made no sense to anybody our chances of failure were about 99.9999999%, but something almost magic happened… I just happen to [have] fallen in love with tobacco and everything involved in what I was doing. The rest is history.
Zen: La Flor started out with more mild-medium cigars like the Reserva Especial, 2000 Series and the Premium Line. What steered you to try more full-bodied cigars such as the Ligero, Double Ligero and the LG Diez?
LG: The first line was the premium line in 1994, then came the Reserva, later in 1997 we released the 2000 series.
The change in the later blends came because of my own taste preferences, I started to blend fuller bodied cigars for myself and then I realized that it was unfair that I smoke something different than what our consumers where smoking so we released the rest of the lines on a more full body style until today blends that are probably the fullest bodied blends in the market.
Zen: I am a huge fan of your limited release cigars such as the Salamone, Los Perfectos and Limitada Series. Do you have any plans for any more small batch cigars this year?
LG: I will always have those [LEs], that’s one of the advantages of growing your own tobacco.
Zen: I have heard some about your special charity cigar the El Museo, can you tell us more? (Here’s more on the El Museo)
LG: The El Museo is a very special cigar, in fact the whole project was special, it will be a real collector’s piece. The cigars will be for sale at Christy’s and Barney’s of New York and also at fine tobacconists around the country.
Zen: Do you have any other new lines or sizes you plan on releasing in 2009?
LG: Yes, but only in limited editions.
Zen: My home tobacconist is Empire Cigars, Home of the LFD Cheroot, which is a huge favorite among the local
clientele. Can you tell us a little more of the origin of the cigar, as I understand you originally passed this out yourself at LFD cigar Events?
LG: The Cheroots (ice pick) are a cigar that I will smoke some times and will also make for David Savona of Cigar Aficionado. One day La Flor was doing an event in a store in Connecticut and the cigars for the event were lost by UPS and Savona offered to bring the Cheroots he had to pass at the event and Hal Rubin [of Empire Cigars] happened to be at the event and he loved them.
Some time later I started to get orders for boxes of Cheroots from a customer of ours, of course I never new who was the consumer buying them, months later I meet Hal and he told me he was the one. At that time he was a retailer and he asked me to ship the cheroots to his store, I was pretty [amused].
Zen: A LFD has an unmistakable flavor, what is it about your cigars that set them apart from the rest?
LG: 70 % of the tobacco we use in our blends comes from our farm that means that nobody can have the same tobacco we use because I am not selling it baby!
Zen: I have noticed a new cigar band on the La Flor line, what brought about the change?
LG: We wanted a new look, a little cleaner and without the flower. Some of our fans though it was a little too girlish.
Zen: The Chisel shape is one of the most innovative changes I have ever seen to a cigar, how did you come up with this concept?
LG: I was driving to the factory one morning and chewing on my cigar, when I realized that, I pulled out of my mouth and looked at the tip and it was just like a chisel, at that time, instantly [I] decided to make that shape. It was a beautiful thing. I love my industry and what I do.
I’d like to thank Senor Gomez for his time, and most importantly, wish for his and his family’s continued success and innovation in the fields and factories!
Man it would be sweet to be able to sample the El Museo.
Nice report J… thanks!
Great interview, you must be very satisfied with the result? I love La Flor since I first sampled the chisel vitolas years ago. Good luck on your future interviews you have a real knack! El Museo sounds pretty sweet hopefully I’ll be able to sample those:)
Thanks for a fine interview! LFD has always been a class act, and Empire sounds like a great home base. This post has me hankerin’ for a Coronado now…