I had hoped that I’d stay somewhat on budget in September. August I kind of threw my budget out the window with the Partagas 150 and the Avo 80th. One day into September it looks like the budget is all out of whack again.
Today I bring you the La Aurora Preferidos Sapphire. At $17 a stick I took a chance on this smoke. I’ve never had anything from the La Aurora line and I normally don’t here aficionados talking about this when talking about the ultra premium type sticks and at $17 a stick, I wasn’t sure what to expect.
The La Aurora Preferidos Sapphire weighs in at 5 x 54 and features a three mix filler from the Dominican, Brazil and Cameroon, a Dominican binder and finished off with a very smooth looking 7 year old Connecticut Shade wrapper. I think they call this shape a double perfecto as both the foot and head have that torpedo looking shape. Everything comes packaged in a glimmering sapphire blue tube. This is a limited edition stogie with a production run of 25,000 and if my math is correct and they come in boxes of 25, that means only 1,000 boxes are available.
I was really impressed with the look and feel of this stogie I’m liking the whole torpedo shaped stogies even though I can’t cut them straight to save my life. Seriously, if you saw me cut one of these you’d just want to smack me. The Connecticut Shade wrapper of the La Aurora Preferidos Sapphire is ultra smooth. No veins, not even those little guys you see on other smooth wrappers. Its definitely a site to look at.
Like I mentioned earlier, I screwed up the cut. Taking a quick smell of the stogie I was totally stoked to hurry and light it up. Definitely a stogie that smells like it fits me. A nice creamy scent is given off. Toasted the foot and I was off.
Not much physical smoke but you got a nice smoky aroma in the air. The creamy taste is the big player up front with a slight nutty flavor to compliment the initial flavors. And boy is this 7 year old Connecticut Shade wrapper smooth! Strong solid construction. Ash burned on the dark side but was a very tight ash. Even burn throughout. As you can see in the picture, the band is located at the halfway point of the stogie. It was on there pretty tight. It wasn’t until some of the band started to burn that it loosened up and I could peel it off without damaging the wrapper. It was around this point that the complexity kicked in. The creamy taste started to get richer and more smoke start billowing out. The nutty flavor is still there but on a lesser scale and is accompanied by a small but delightfully refreshing short peppery finish (probably the Brazilian part of the filler) that you can taste right under your tongue.
Now here is the difference between an outstanding mild stogie and a pathetic mild stogie. I reviewed the ST Dupont awhile back and thats a pathetic excuse for a mild stogie. No flavor, no complexity whatsoever. If the ST Dupont guys would’ve constructed and formulated their stogie along these lines, it would’ve been a hit. If you’re out golfing in the morning or having brunch with friends and want premium mild stogie that is still pact with smooth complex flavors, the La Aurora Preferidos is it. Total smoke time was 1 hour and 20 minutes.
At $17 a stick I probably overpaid a bit. I didn’t do any research to see what these guys go for online so I will assume I did. While its an excellently constructed and flavorful stogie, I think this is one of those stogies to collect and save for those special occasions. Better value, mild bodied smokes are out there like the Hemingway Series.
Jerry, i must say, i thought we were friends!
🙂
Ive been really looking to try this smoke, but do to both its price point, and lack of availability in my area, ive havent had any luck getting ahold of one.
Anyway, great review. Sounds like a nice mild smoke. The last few months ive had a craving for a really good mild smoke, this one might be just what im looking for.
Good review
For $89.99 for a box of 8 in tubes, this is a bargain. I have many Habanos in my humidor with my favorite being Cohiba Siglo IV. But at $485.00 for a box of 25, that is $20 per cigar. The La Aurora works out t $11.25 a piece. In my humble opinion it smokes as well and tastes eve better then the Cohiba. Granted the Cohiba will smoke for a good 90 minutes as opposed to 60 minutes for the Aurora. I was fortunate to pick up 3 boxes last week and I will treasure them due to their limited production. A cigar for an occasion or a good friend with a few fingers of bourbon.
I still don’t know what the difference is between the different colored versions of this stogie…like whats the difference between the Ruby & Sapphire? Anyone?
If i remember correctly, there are 4 different colored tubes for 4 different wrapper types.
I believe that Sapphire is Connecticut, Ruby is Maduro, Platnum is a cameroon, and gold is Corojo. I drool over these at the local shop but they are too much $$ that is why I have not had one yet
Actually there is 5. I’ve found a sample of all 5 for somewhere close to 60 dollars so you’re looking at 12 dollars a cigar.
– 1 La Aurora Preferidos Emerald Tubo – Sun Grown
– 1 La Aurora Preferidos Gold Tubo – Corojo
– 1 La Aurora Preferidos Ruby Tubo – Maduro
– 1 La Aurora Preferidos Sapphire Tubo – Connecticut
– 1 La Aurora Preferidos Platinum Tubos – Cameroon
I want to buy 5 Sapphires though. I like that shade wrapper.
I was able to give this a try, one my wife picked up for me as a “special” occasion smoke. I really enjoyed it, except for cutting it a bit too small. It tooka while for it to develop but that was half of the pleasure. I smoked it while drinking some guiness, tamnavulin scotch and a cigar scotch. The creaminess up front went well with the Guiness, and as the flavor grew in complexity it went well with the scotch. I enjoyed the ease of smoke, the development and strong finish of this cigar.