La Aurora is paying tribute to its DNA, literally.

At a factory tour during the Procigar festival today the company showed off La Aurora ADN Dominicano, Spanish for Dominican DNA. The cigar is centered around andullo, a type of tobacco found in the Dominican Republic that is aged very differently from traditional cigar tobacco.

la-aurora-adn-dominicano

Generally, leaves are harvested, hang-dried in a barn and tightly placed on top of each other in large piles called pilones. Andullo tobacco is harvested and placed into long cylindrical pods known as yaguas. They are then stacked on top of one another and rotated while the tobacco processes.

Andullo is commonly found in pipe tobacco, but is generally a rarity for cigars. La Aurora has made at least two other cigars that use andullo for private label clients: the Project 805 for Ventura Cigar Co. and Total Flame Wild One.

As for ADN Dominicano, it uses a Dominican wrapper from the Cibao Valley, a Cameroon binder and four filler tobaccos: Dominican from the Cibao Valley, Nicaraguan, Pennsylvania and Dominican andullo.

The cigar will be sold in four sizes: Robusto (5 x 50), Toro (5 3/4 x 54), Gran Toro (6 x 58) and Churchill (7 x 47) Each size will come in boxes of 20.

La Aurora has no plans to sell the cigar in the U.S., as of now it will be sold in the Dominican market.

Interestingly, La Aurora has filed for trademarks for ADN Cubano, ADN Hondureño, ADN Nicaragüenese. 

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Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.