La Aurora’s Preferidos Coronas, part 2

Vitola: Corona
Size: 5.5” x 42 ring gauge
Price $8
Samples provided by Miami Cigar & Co.

Background

Last week, I kicked off this series by taking a look at the Cameroon and Corojo wrapped versions of the La Aurora Preferidos Coronas. Read the whole thing HERE. But to recap a bit, Miami Cigar decided to let each regional sales rep get their own exclusive cigar to sell. Christopher Lenzo represents the Mid-Atlantic region and he originally got a Corona size of the Preferido Diamond, with the Broadleaf wrapper. Soon after, though, they decided to expand that offering to each of the six wrapper varieties that La Aurora offers in the blend. All are available for about $8 each.

The Preferidos blend consists of Dominican, Cameroon and Brazilian fillers, a Dominican binder, along with the changing wrappers.

Connecticut

The Connecticut Shade wrapped version of any cigar line is usually the mildest and I fully expect that this is not an exception to that rule…especially when even the Corojo wasn’t much beyond medium in body and strength for me (it’s listed as “full” on the MCC website). This Conny had a beautiful, golden hue, almost perfectly even in color, with a very oily feel to it. The aroma from it was a clean, sweet hay, while the foot had some ripe earthiness. I wish I could have taken this outside fairly early in the day with some coffee as a true “morning cigar,” but the weather was uncooperative…mid-30s and fairly dry doesn’t help a Connecticut Shade leaf. So I waited until the middle of the late fall afternoon when the temp had reached a more “reasonable” 45 and paired the cigar with some Cumberland Cask Tennessee Whiskey.

The Connecticut was mild in some ways and more medium in body in others. It had the characteristic sweet creaminess of a good Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade leaf, but in the middle of the puff there was a solid earthiness with a sharp pepper spice on both the palate and the nose. It seemed to me to put this blend more in the “new wave” Connecticut category, at least this particular vitola.

The spicy fire continued through the entire cigar with no lessening, making this smoke more like a Nicaraguan-based Conny than a Dominican one. The body remained medium, too, making me happy that I didn’t treat this like a “morning smoke” but saved it for the afternoon. This was a big surprise and a very pleasant one, at that.

Maduro

It was just over two and a half years ago that I found out my local cigar shop was carrying a special size of La Aurora Preferido Maduro…a Lancero, originally destined for another shop. The other shop decided not to take all 25 boxes of 50, so Burns got a few boxes at each location. At a price of $10.70 per stick, I went through quite a few before they disappeared. Now I get to try a very similar ring gauge (42 to the Lancero’s 40) and that makes me happy…and isn’t that what cigar-smoking should do?

The Preferido Maduro uses a very nice Brazilian Mata Fina leaf. It tends to be lighter in color and smoother in texture than a lot of other Maduros, like Broadleaf or San Andres. This beauty was the color of milk chocolate with a few noticeable veins and a oily touch. I got earth and leather notes from the wrapper and a riper earthiness from the foot. The cold draw featured notes of chocolate and mild earthiness.

Once fired up, the Maduro had subtle dried fruit and chocolate sweetness along with dry earth and hay notes on the palate, and a fiery pepper burn on the nose. As I burned through I remembered why this is my favorite of the first five Preferido wrappers; it’s just a remarkably well-balanced cigar, offering up plenty of Dominican toasty, earthy notes, a decent amount of spice, and a wonderful sweetness to wrap around it all.