La Aurora’s Preferidos Coronas, part 3

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

Background

Over the last couple Mondays I’ve looked at some Preferido blend offerings from La Aurora and Miami Cigar & Company. Go back and read the previous articles on the Cameroon and Corojo wrappers and the Connecticut and Maduro wrappers, but here’s the short version…

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.

Ecuador

When they say “Ecuador” they could mean quite a few things…Conny Shade, Sumatra, Cameroon…but in this case the varietal in question is Habano. The light brown coloration was broken up by a bit of lighter mottling and veins. The aroma from the wrapper was sweet…almost a honey and earthy note. The foot was more earth with a dash of pepper. I felt a little oiliness on the wrapper leaf, although it didn’t have a lot of visible sheen to it.

Once clipped this cigar had a great draw with a very nice prelight flavor; I got notes of earth and molasses, cedar and pepper. After lighting up, the Preferido Ecuador had a strong earthiness, along with cedar and a solid sweetness underneath, and a fiercely fiery retrohale.

The cigar continued on with lots of wood and earth with enough sweetness to balance the full bodied smoke. All in all, an excellent example of something full bodied from La Aurora.

Broadleaf

Finally, I decided to save what would probably be the best…and definitely my most anticipated…for last. The Preferido Diamond was just released a couple years ago as the first in the line to use the Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper. Originally just one size was available, one of the traditional Preferido double torpedoes, and it was over $20 per stick, so I only had one. So this sounded to me like a real treat.

The wrapper leaf was a dark chocolate brown with lumpy veins and a velvety, oily feel to it. The aroma from the wrapper was cocoa powder and anise, while the foot had a ripe earthiness with a touch of cedar. The prelight draw on this had perhaps the sweetest flavor I’ve gotten on a cigar…almost exactly like dried blueberries covered with dark chocolate. I didn’t get quite that much sweetness when I lit it, but there was plenty of unsweetened cocoa, earth and pepper spice, along with an undercurrent of raisin and anise. The retrohale was fiery, too.

The Broadleaf Preferido Corona was full-bodied and strong, with a flavor profile that was excellent and complex. Truthfully…can’t get enough of this smoke…and I need to get more. Guess I’ll need to be contacting one of those “mid-Atlantic” shops that carry Miami Cigar products and order some!