The cigar: La Aurora 1495 Series corona
Nutritional information:
Vitola: Corona (5.2 x 43)
Origin: Dominican Republic
Wrapper: Sun grown Ecuadorian Sumatra
Binder: Dominican corojo
Filler: Peruvian ligero, Dominican corojo, Dominican piloto cubano, Nicaraguan piloto cubano
The marketing (
from CI):
Behold, La Aurora’s finest creation to date.
In 1495, Christopher Columbus sailed to the Dominican Republic, where he arrived to the fertile valley of Cibao - home of today’s finest Dominican tobaccos - founding the city of Santiago de los Caballeros. La Aurora’s 1495 Series honors the foundation of this city with a supremely-made, medium to full-bodied blend could be the factory’s greatest accomplishment to date. Combining a complex, but patiently aged, blend of Dominican Corojo and Dominican-seed ligero grown in Nicaragua, the 1495 is adorned with a stunning, marbleized Ecuadorian-grown wrapper leaf that’s thick, toothy and loaded with pop. Chewy hints of leather and spice excite the taste buds without overpowering the palate, keeping the flavors smooth and balanced from first light to your very last puff.
Prelight: This cigar looks great. It's a little shorter and thinner than a regular corona, but a little bigger than a petit corona. The Ecuadorian Sumatra sun-grown wrapper is dark, a little mottled in color, but pretty smooth, particularly for a sun-grown. It feels good, firm and well filled, with a nicely applied cap. The bunching at the foot looks good, with a scent of barnyard and earth, with a hint of spice. The prelight draw is easy, with more barnyard and spice.
Construction and burn: Excellent all around. It lights up with no troubles and burns evenly, generating a dirty gray ash. It burns pretty slowly and gives lots of thick smoke.
Flavor: This cigar had a lot more flavor than I expected - more than the 1495 robusto, in my opinion. The filler blend of Dominican piloto cubano and Nicaraguan and Peruvian ligero leaves brings a good bit of spice and power to mix. There's leather and black pepper spice at the start, with a long finish. The spice settles down after a half inch or so, and the flavor becomse more balanced, with little sweetness from the sungrown wrapper.
The flavor stays strong, however, more spicy than creamy, and it becomes nicely complex in the middle. It's a rich flavor, with earth, leather, coffee, chocolate, and mocha, but these flavors drift through and shift.
Overall, this little cigar had a lot more richness, complexity, and power than I'd expected -- and I liked it. It reminds me just a bit of a PSD4. You can find these for fairly cheap at auction, and they are definitely worth it.
[Reply]
