This week we have the La Aurora Maduro robusto at 5×50. The La Aurora Maduro is advertised as a more refined, medium to full-bodied smoke than the Cameroon-wrapped La Aurora comprised of Dominican long filler and a Brazilian-grown broadleaf maduro wrapper. I’m not generally a big Cameroon fan so I’ve never tried it and can’t compare to the La Aurora Maduro. However, big fans of the LAM might want to stop reading now as I wasn’t terribly impressed by this specimen.
The wrapper was splotchy, with one single medium-sized vein running down one side. There was a very firm spot about an inch from the foot and about an inch long. The cut was clean revealing a decent draw and a nice sweetness from the wrapper. The splotchy appearance of the wrapper was very similar to the Ashton VSGs that I’ve seen this year.
The foot toasted quickly, and the cigar lit very easily yielding a rich maduro flavor with a bit of something extra I couldn’t quite place. The draw was decent at best, and unsurprisingly didn’t produce much smoke unless puffed too quickly to be enjoyed. The closer I got to the firm spot the tighter the draw got, but never got bad enough to set it down so I decided to try and smoke through it since it didn’t feel very big. I’m not exaggerating at all when I say it took me close to 20 minutes to get through the next inch…this is becoming work.
When I finally reached the back side of the firm spot the draw did improve, but by this time an occasional sour taste had surfaced. At first I thought the sour taste was caused by my constant puffing on the cigar trying to get some smoke, though it continued to rear its head even after the draw opened up and I slowed the pace of smoking. I tried purging the cigar to see if the taste would improve, and it seemed to go away immediately afterward but resurfaced quickly.
Getting just into the second third the draw began to tighten up on me again, despite the lack of any hard spots on the rest of the cigar. At this point I had been smoking this cigar for close to an hour, wasn’t even close to half way through it and was just out of patience with it. Had the flavors been fantastic I might have tried to suffer through it, and this wasn’t a bad tasting cigar, but it just wasn’t good enough for me to put up with any more.
I actually considered grabbing a different cigar to review as this was my only La Aurora Maduro but I figured I was bound to have a review for a cigar I just didn’t like one of these days, might as well be today. While I didn’t hate it, first impressions last a long time and this one didn’t leave me with a good taste in my mouth. Pun intended. 🙂
I have not been happy with any of these cigars. The La Aurora I had got tossed not even half way through.
I’ve also had some trouble with La Aurora cigars, but I really like their 1495 line. It’s a balanced, nutty smoke with great earthy notes. Give it a try.
Speaking of cigars…Brian, Walt, and Jeff: If you haven’t already done so, take a few minutes to join the Stogie Guys NCAA pool. Entry is free, and the winner gets a “Final Four” super premium pack courtesy of StogieGuys.com. Check out our Tuesday post for details. I’d love nothing more than to give the cigars to our buddies at the Stogie Review!
glad you didn’t blow chunks on camera…lmao. yeah every now and then you get a dog rocket! nice honest review as always. thanks
you gotta start gettin videos up with the other guys!
good review
Great review Brian. Hate when the draw is hard.
I’ve not tried this paritcular cigar but the few La Aurora’s I’ve tried I didn’t like. I see some of their limited editions getting some top ratings, but they are also expensive. Just hate to pay $15 + for a cigar. Just too cheap I guess.
Dave
Well, at least I didn’t upset anyone who had this as a favorite. It looked really good and had a nice pre-light aroma but I was rather disappointed in this one.
Dave, I agree with you. Kinda hard to part with $15 for a single cigar to see if I like it when that’s one third the cost of a box of Padron Londres maduro, and I _know_ I love those.
I have smoked many of these, and have not had any issues… wonder if the new run isn’t as good. I guess I will have to go buy another one to smoke 😉
Adam you’ll have to let me know how these compare to the older ones. I didn’t care much for this one.
I had a La Aurora Cameroon today and it was pretty good when i got about halfway through. It was good then and a little after that but when i got further it really produced a harsh taste that surprised me and didn’t wanna burn very well. Soon after that i had to put it out cause on the draw i just started to taste smoke and not much else, it was pretty harsh.