Flor de Selva Robusto Review: My Favourite Surprise This Year

I have never been one to limit my experiences, whatever they may be. I always like to speak from a position of experience and therefore I am always open to trying new things. This is no different when it comes to cigars. Back in the spring of 2020 I asked my followers on Instagram to recommend me a reasonably priced cigar, and the Flor de Selva Robusto was one that ended up on my list.

On paper, this does not sound anything like my usual cigar. I have always found Connecticut shade wrappers to be very mild and unexciting. And the mention of flowers in the name (Flor de Selva translates to silver flower) didn’t exactly appeal. Not to be put off by first impressions, I thought I’d give it a go added it to my order thinking that if it was good enough for someone to recommend to me, it can’t be that bad.

Having been sat in my humidor for five months, I decided that I’d give it a try in case I wanted to add it to my end of year order. In all honesty, given my thoughts about the Flor de Selva when I bought it, I was half expecting to be adding it to the “glad I tried it” list rather than the “more please!” list.

Out of my humidor, the cigar was light and fresh. The Connecticut shade wrapper was the usual latte coffee and milk chocolate colour and felt like coconut oil between my fingers. As it’s name suggested, I smelt aromas of hay and summer meadow flowers, but also the earthiness of black cardamom. These were echoed in the cold draw, but with added barley and the slightly sweeter notes of green cardamom.

The first draws had me as giddy as a school girl on prom night. The reason being that the barley notes were joined by a perfume I had not smelt since my childhood. When I was a young lass, my parents had a couple of crabapple trees in our back garden, and every autumn my sister and I would eagerly watch the plump, cherry-sized, bittersweet apples ripen, awaiting the windfall that we would then turn into a delicious jelly to enjoy all through the winter. The aroma that I caught from the Flor de Selva Robusto was the same gentle apple sweetness as when we stewed down those ripe crabapples.

As I enjoyed this reverie back to my childhood my mind also took me to the summer meadows that surrounded the village I grew up in. The Flor de Selva Robusto was definitely starting to look like a very good recommendation and I’m glad that I had chosen an autumn evening to enjoy smoking it. I admired the perfectly even burn and beautiful construction with it’s ever growing ash that faded from dark grey at the foot to a lighter grey towards the middle like a black and white sunset.

As I approached the middle of the cigar, I noticed that cigar was starting to taste a lot greener. There was a a pureness to the flavour that reminded me of spring melt water coming off the hills. At the forefront was a creamy moss taste with hints of dates that started to develop into the rich gaminess of an ostrich burger fresh off the grill. I really couldn’t quite believe that such a bland-looking cigar could be so full of flavour and take me on such a journey. And that was before we got into the final third.

The smoke itself was as delightful as the cigar. As the name would suggest, the Flor de Selva offered a silvery smoke, light-yet-richly flavoured with milk chocolate, that once blown dissolved into the air like summer clouds on a moonlit night.

In the final third, the green meadow notes returned, this time supported by rich, creamy, fresh milk and gentle nuances of cedar. All in all, this cigar blew my expectations out of the water and I can’t wait to try more vitolas and blends in the Flor de Selva range. This is most definitely a top pick and a definite contender for one of my cigars of the year.

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Flor de Selva Robusto Cigar Details