La Aurora 107 Maduro Robusto
La Aurora Cigars from Miami Cigar Company has always been a staple in my humidor for as long as I can remember. Their blends have always been very pleasing and well worth the money. From the La Aurora Cameroon to the Puro Vintage line and everything in between, they are all a solid good smoke in their own aspects.
The La Aurora 107 was released in 2010 celebrating their 107th Anniversary and I have found a decent liking for them. I especially prefer them in a smaller ring gauge and the lancero is probably my favorite size in the lineup. I had never thought they would ever put a maduro or any other wrapper for that matter on it. I figured, one wrapper, that’d be it. But, there was some talk here and there of it being a reality. The maduro 107 was on display at the 2011 IPCPR show, but no samples were given out, so I figured sometime in mid 2012 they would be full production, but saw nothing of them. Although, Cigar King did get a limited number of boxes in late 2011 of them. Also a very limited number of cigars were released to TAA members at the TAA convention in 2012.
Fast forward to present day and Miami Cigar announced the release of the La Aurora 107 Maduro at the 2013 IPCPR Convention Las Vegas. This blend will be a tweaked blend & different fermentation process of the Cigar King’s 107 Maduro. So, if you have had the Cigar King’s 107 Maduro, this should be a different tasting cigar.
Cigar Details
Size: 4.5×50
Vitola: Robusto
Wrapper: Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro
Binder: Dominican Corojo
Filler: Dominican and Nicaraguan
Price: $6-8 varying by vitola*
The 107 Maduro will come in 4 sizes:
Robusto 4.5 x 50
Corona 5.5 x 43
Toro 5.5 x 54
Belicoso 6.25 x 52
First Looks
The over all looks of this cigar is best described as semi-rustic, its no beauty queen by far. The dark brown wrapper has some thick, but small veins, the seams are not at tight as they could be, but we don’t smoke on looks alone. So the rustic-ness of the cigar is no big deal to me. The wrapper has a nice oily sheen to it that is accented by the beautiful gold band. The 107 band is simplistic, yet very eye catching.
The vitola is a robusto, yet it is not the typical length as I usually call a robusto. I would personally call this a “Short robusto”. The dog days of summer are fast approaching and the days of Churchills and Salmones are becoming a thing of the past for me. This 4.5″ robusto is perfect for those hot summer days where you want a smoke, but don’t want to try and beat the heat.
The wrapper has a pungent aroma of hay or stray with a slight sense of a cinnamon type of spice to it in the background. The foot’s aroma is more pronounced in strength with a cedary wood note with some leather. As well, the cinnamon type of spice is there in the background.
Construction
The draw stayed consistently superb! There were a slight resistance to it, but not too thick or not too thin. The burn during the first and second thirds did get a bit wavy. Around the middle of the second third, it did need a touch-up to correct it. But, after that, it did stay fairly even with a few small waves. The off burn could have been a product of the oily wrapper, which is something I have came to expect from many oily wrappered cigars. The great draw produced an abundance of thick billowing smoke that had a warm woody room note.
Flavor
First few puffs were fairly spicy with dark chocolate flavors. There was a bit of the cinnamon type spice that lingered on the tip of my tongue of a long finish. Once into the cigar some, the spice slowly dropped off in strength; it never got too overbearing for me. When the spice subsided, the chocolate and now a slight leather note shined more in the smoke. Soon there after, the dark chocolate changed into more of a dark espresso flavor that I really liked. The retrohale had a potent amount of black pepper and was just about too much for me. Working out of the first third, the leather note ramped up somewhat in strength.
During the second third, the burn got way too wavy for my likings and I ended up giving it a touch-up with my lighter. There seemed to be a sweetness creeping up in the smoke. The sweetness reminded me of a dark dried fruit, similar to maybe a prune; just not as pronounced as a prune’s sweetness. Following the sweetness is a earthy tone that complimented the leather flavor. The burn stayed corrected after the touch-up and was never a major issue again.
Pulling the band off going into the last portion of the cigar, I am reminded of one of my cigar pet-peeves. Although the 107 Maduro didn’t have that pet-peeve, its when you pull a band off and there is too much glue applied that it tears the wrapper underneath. Luckily for me, this did not happened with this cigar. The sweetness turned up a slight bit in strength in the final third, but not enough to overpower any of the other flavors. The dark chocolate, earth-leather, espresso stayed pretty much the same as the middle portion of the cigar. Yet, the leather seemed to stick around more than any other flavors. Each flavor was in and out, but they mixed well when present.
Final Thoughts
When I first sat down with this cigar, I mainly noticed the leather and chocolate notes of the smoke. Now that I sit down and really study the smoke more, I get more flavors. Both times, I enjoyed the cigar enough to make me look forward to the cigar in other sizes when released after the IPCPR Convention in middle July. I am really looking forward to trying this in the 54rg Toro and 43rg Corona to see how the flavors are affected by the size.
Over-all, this is a pretty good smoke in which I look forward to it going into full production. Which one do I like, the natural or maduro? Well, they are both good cigars, so it would just depend upon my mood and what I am wanted have at that particular time.
*This cigar was provided to me, unsolicited, from Barry Stein, of Miami Cigars, for this review. Many thanks to Barry & Miami Cigar for the opportunity to review this cigar.
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