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Old 10-20-2017, 09:16 AM   #1
bigipps
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Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Southern California
Posts: 324
IPCPR 2017 Review: Merlion by La Sirena

This was a new one for me. But, let's be honest, most are new to me.

The La Sirena brand had a soft debut at the Miami Cigar & Co. both at IPCPR in 2008 and was officially released in 2009. La Sirena, which is Spanish for Mermaid, was originally a collaboration between Nestor Miranda(1) and Arielle Ditkowich(2) under the Miami Cigar & Co. umbrella. In 2012, Ditkowich started her own company and acquired the distribution rights to the La Sirena brand.

The Merlion brand was released in 2012. It was created by La Aurora in the Dominican Republic and was intended to be a medium bodied, full flavored cigar. The wrapper is Ecuadorian Corojo, which is said to be sweet, spicy and complex. The binder is from Brazil and the filler is from the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Brazil. I didn't see it available online, but CA lists its price at $9 each as of 2013.

Now for the cigar itself. It certainly looked good. Nice dark wrapper, a few small veins, and an impressive band. The band is almost as long as the cigar. Overall, great construction. The draw was great too.



As far as flavor, it was a good tobacco and leather flavor, which I enjoyed. Although, there was sharpness to it that I couldn't put my finger on that detracted slightly from my enjoyment. I generally like to observe and contrast the flavor profile from one third to the next, but the flavors were consistent throughout the cigar. I also like to try to find the nuances of the cigar and go into more detail about it, but I didn't get much subtlety from it.



It was a fine cigar that I'd smoke again. I'm a cheap ass bastard though, and since the La Sirena Merlion apparently goes for 50% more than similar cigars like New World from A.J. Fernandez, I probably won't be seeking it out.

(1) Nestor Miranda was behind the popular Don Lino brand in the '90s, see here.

(2) Here is an interview with Arielle Ditkowich. Off topic, she was in the choir behind Adam Sandler in his Chanukah Song on Saturday Night Live. I'm guessing it was before she started smoking cigars.
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Last edited by bigipps; 10-20-2017 at 09:21 AM. Reason: Added pics
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