2023 Big Las Vegas Seminars: La Flor Dominicana—Father And Sons
It was the middle of the afternoon, and most guests were already onto their second or even third cigar, when senior contributing editor Gordon Mott asked Litto Gomez of La Flor Dominicana and his two sons, Litto Jr. and Tony, to join him on stage. What followed was an emotional seminar that at one moment would have guests laughing out loud and the next, feeling a few hard tugs at their heartstrings. The classic dichotomy of the father-and-son relationship, balanced between playful barbs and teaching moments, was on full display with Gomez and his two sons.
As the seminar began, Gordon Mott couldn’t help but laugh at his average height in comparison to the Gomez boys, who are usually among the tallest in the room. “I guess I’ll be the point guard of this group,” Mott joked. He then pulled out a Coronado by La Flor Double Corona that he’d been aging from 2006, when the cigar was named the No. 2 smoke of the year. La Flor Dominicana was a young, yet flourishing cigar company at the time, but Litto remarked that after the No. 2 rating “it took our company to the next level.”
Litto then began sharing the story of how he got into the business. He mentioned that when he first started, his favorite smokes were typical Dominican cigars with Connecticut shade wrappers, even though now La Flor Dominicana is better known for strong, full-bodied smokes. “My palate was asking me for something with more flavor, more kick, more power,” said Litto.
“I started trying to make fuller-bodied cigars, but I couldn’t do it with the tobacco available. So I said, ‘if I want strong tobacco, strong ligero, I have to cultivate it myself.’” This led Litto to purchasing his farm, La Canela, located in the Dominican Republic. The only issue was, he wasn’t a farmer. “Believe it or not, I couldn’t keep one plant alive in my house. I didn’t know shit about how to grow tobacco,” said Litto with a chuckle. “I didn’t tell my wife I bought the farm either.” Litto’s wife, Ines, didn't take the news well. “She didn’t speak to me for the next month. Which was great, by the way,” he quipped with a bit of Henny Youngman humor. Of course, Ines wasn’t in the room to respond.
The eldest son, Tony, shared the story of the conception of the Andalusian Bull, the most elusive, sought-after cigar in La Flor Dominicana’s portfolio and the Cigar of the Year for 2016. As the story went, Litto was in Belgium visiting Frederik Vandermarliere, of Vandermarliere Family of Cigars (owner of Oliva Cigar Co.), when he noticed a unique wooden cigar mold on Vandermarliere’s desk. He soon sent a picture of this mold, a big Salomon with the end cut off, to Tony, who agreed they needed to do something with it. The shape reminded Tony of a bull and to honor his father’s birthplace in Spain, they called the cigar the Andalusian Bull.
“We worked on the blend together, we had a few disagreements, but ultimately ended up on the same page,” said Tony. “That cigar became something we never imagined it could be.” As many cigar lovers know, Bulls are not easy to come by, and one guest asked Tony how he can get his hands on one. “We can’t make nearly enough Bulls to satisfy demand,” said Tony. “So, the best we can do with the Bull is make everybody equally unhappy,” he said with a laugh, although he wasn’t joking.
Mott then turned the attention to Litto Jr., or who he referred to as a “Litto Joven.” Litto Jr., freshly out of college and already deep in the business, certainly looks young, but he is no newbie in the industry. Litto Jr. has already created and released his own cigar blend with La Flor Dominicana Solis, which came out last year. The blend was intended to be the counterpart to La Nox, a La Flor Dominicana line that was Litto Jr.’s favorite. But the blending process for young Litto Jr. was no easy experience.
“My dad brings me into the boardroom with this giant table and I swear to God there are almost 400 different leaves of tobacco on it,” recalled Litto Jr., who was directed by his father to smoke all of them and write down what he likes. “I was there for a week, I think I puked about 18 times. But at the end of it I walked away truly understanding what goes into blending.”
Though there were many, one of the funniest moments of this seminar came when Tony shared his first cigar experience. When he was a late teenager, Tony was down at La Canela with Litto for the week when his dad put a cigar down on his desk, proclaiming this was the day Tony would learn to smoke a cigar.
“I cut it, I light it, I don’t really know what I’m doing. And I start puffing on it,” said Tony. “Then my dad goes ‘listen, if you truly want to get the essence of a cigar and be a real smoker, you have to inhale it,’ ” which drew a loud mixture of gasps and laughter from the audience. “I proceed to spend the next five to 10 minutes on my knees in front of the toilet, and the whole time I can hear him laughing at me,” Tony said. “I finish, I walk back into the office. Then he goes ‘Tony, you just learned how not to smoke a cigar.’ ”
There were a few moments during the seminar where Litto may have dug himself into a proverbial hole with his wife, who wasn’t there to defend herself against his jokes. During the question portion of the seminar, Beba Padrón, wife of Jorge Padrón, grabbed the mic and asked Litto: “I want to know how much it’s going to cost you to erase the video of you telling me and all these people about Ines. I’m very good friends with her,” she said as she sported a “gotcha” grin. Litto quickly asked for leniency. “Beba, we have been very close friends for many, many years," Litto implored. “Please do not ruin that.” Another hearty laugh erupted from the crowd.
Though not one to hide from an opportunity to joke, Litto did have his moments of sincerity and gratitude for his sons being in the business with him. “If you don’t have the next generation that can carry on, then what are you working for?” said Litto. “At least there’s going to be a picture of me somewhere on the wall now. That makes me very happy, we built this company for family.”
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