La Aurora 120 Anniversary Limited Edition

If you’re a fan of La Aurora, you know that the company likes to celebrate its anniversaries. If you’ve been around for a while, you might remember the launches of such cigars as the 100 Años, the La Aurora 107 and the La Aurora 115, three cigars that gained notoriety for any number of reasons, with the 107 being particularly notable for its release during the growth of Twitter and calls from fans for a lancero, but I digress.

In 2023, La Aurora marked its 120th anniversary, doing so with a total of five cigars. The La Aurora 120 Anniversary uses an all-Dominican blend highlighted by a habano 92 wrapper and offered in a regular production quartet of fairly familiar vitolas. The fifth cigar, this limited edition, gets special packaging, a vitola almost synonymous with La Aurora, and a significant price tag.

The La Aurora 120 Anniversary Limited Edition is a 6 x 58 double perfecto that uses an all-Dominican blend, again with a habano 92 wrapper, with a filler of corojo, olor and piloto cubano. The size is a nod to the original Preferidos #1, and it comes in what looks like a tubo, but instead of being two pieces that slide together, the two pieces are hinged together so that the finished product opens on its longer axis. It is notably heavier than a standard tubo, and the design helped land the cigar on halfwheel’s 2023 Packaging Awards, finishing in the #8 spot.

 

But it’s not just the tubos that did that, as the box that holds 10 of the tubos is substantial itself with a split lid design finished off by a rose gold medallion and accented by matching hinges and hardware.

“This unique edition is a tribute to the very first Preferidos cigars in 1903, with replicas of the original tubes encapsulating a new, meticulously crafted blend,” said Guillermo León, president of La Aurora, in a press release. “The design features a perfecto or double figurado shape, similar to what was created 120 years ago, and today is our most premium offering known by many from the colored tubos that encase the cigars which only our most expert rollers are asked to craft. Together, these elements create a perfect synergy of aroma, flavor, strength, and tradition that magnifies the quality of our Dominican tobacco, the craftsmanship of our team of experts and the history of La Aurora.”

• Cigar Reviewed: La Aurora 120 Anniversary Limited Edition
• Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
• Factory: La Aurora Cigar Factory
• Wrapper: Dominican Republic (Habano 92)
• Binder: Dominican Republic
• Filler: Dominican Republic (Corojo, Olor & Piloto Cubano)
• Length: 6 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 58
• Vitola: Double Perfecto
• MSRP: $40 (Box of 10, $400)
• Release Date: November 2023
• Number of Cigars Released: 2,500 Boxes of 10 Cigars (25,000 Total Cigars)
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

Seeing a La Aurora perfecto is always enjoyable, as I really do associate this vitola with this manufacturer, and it harkens back to my early days of cigar smoking and learning about how closely intertwined La Aurora was with this shape. For a high-dollar anniversary cigar, the wrapper is a bit more rustic-looking than I would have anticipated. Case in point, there’s a very noticeable vein coming out from the bottom of the band on the first cigar I smoke, and each of the three cigars offers a good number of veins in terms of both visual appearance and texture. While it doesn’t look like it, touching the cigar reveals that there is a bit of oiliness to the leaf. There is also a bit of mottling that takes a bit closer inspection to reveal, as at arm’s length the dark brown leaf looks rather evenly colored. The firmness of the three cigars falls between slightly firmer than average and outright firm. The foot has an initial aroma that reminds me of marmalade, and fittingly, an orange marmalade at first, but then evolving into a more common grape jam. A bit of loose earth follows, then a bit of simple syrup and finally some black pepper. Three fairly conservative cuts of the head—taken in an attempt to replicate the size of the foot’s opening—all reveal a very smooth airflow. The flavor takes the jam from the cold draw and puts it on some light wheat toast.

The La Aurora 120 Anniversary Limited Edition starts off with a pleasant hit of black pepper and a slightly oily texture to the smoke, while the flavor has a thin spread of the marmalade sweetness sitting atop some lightly toasted white bread. I find myself impressed with the air movement and smoke production out of the gate, as neither the tapered foot nor head seems to be holding the cigar back from delivering a smooth draw and decent-sized clouds with each puff. Retrohales have a focused black pepper and just a bit of creaminess that calls my attention to its presence in the flavor as well. It doesn’t take long for the flavor to take on some texture by way of the addition of rough-cut lumber; it’s a dry mix of bark and wood that latches on to the pepper both on the palate and through the nose. That said, there is still a building amount of creaminess that makes moves toward the front of the profile before falling behind a thin but still tingling pepper. After the first clump of ash comes off, the flavor begins to show some complexity and layering as the earth gets lighter, the pepper stays thin but potent, the creaminess dries out a bit, and the wood thins out a touch as well. Flavor is medium-full, body is medium-minus due to some thin texture of the smoke and strength is mild but moving towards medium. Construction, in all regards, is fantastic thus far.

Creaminess returns to the profile at the start of the second third, and its reappearance has me wondering if I’m going to be challenged to describe the frequently changing menu of flavor profiles. After driving the transition into this third, the creaminess dials back a bit and lets the wood and pepper take the lead, once again giving the profile and smoke a good bit of texture and eliciting some sensation as they hit my taste buds and nostrils. The retrohale picks up some substantial pepper in the lead-up to the midway point, leading to an interesting smokiness around the middle of the cigar, which I can’t quite pinpoint, almost as if someone had thrown an exotic word on the firepit. That smokiness brings a touch of irritation to the eyes, while the retrohales are fuller than they have been before despite picking up only a bit more body. The midway point introduces some creaminess into the retrohale, tempering the black pepper just a bit but not so much that it still doesn’t tingle my nostrils. The flavor gets drier on my taste buds in the back half of this section, delivering a bit of dry earth that I haven’t tasted to this point. Flavor is medium-plus nudging up to medium-full, body is medium and strength is mild. The burn line struggles in this section, shoveling a bit at times and requiring an occasional touch-up, but the rest of the construction is very good.

The final third takes a turn for the sharper, as the black pepper in the retrohale gets more defined and determined to drive the profile. There is still some creaminess and wood, but both take a beat to register on the palate as they have separated a bit from the pepper. A touch of orange bitters joins the profile, giving the puffs a bit of a cocktail-like sweetness which then reminds me of unsweetened, aged rum. Not long after this development that gives the cigar a new layer of complexity, the flavor gets quite muted, as the pepper and creaminess depart, the wood settles quite a bit, and whatever ancillary flavors lose their distinctivenss. For a cigar that has been solid with its transitions and the more prolonged profile expressions, the final third falls a bit flat. Flavor becomes a muted medium, body is medium and strength is medium-minus. Construction is generally good, but combustion really struggles in one cigar.

Final Notes

• These cigars were smoked in late February. Due to scheduling issues in March and April, this review has been sitting as a draft since then. — Charlie Minato.
• The only vitola that I associate with a manufacturer more than the perfecto and La Aurora is the Chisel and La Flor Dominicana, something aided by the fact that the company owns a patent on that size.
• If you don’t recall the backstory of the La Aurora 107 Lancero, my colleague, Charlie Minato, recaps it in this 2011 review of the cigar from his previous site, The Cigar Feed, one of the predecessors to halfwheel.
• There’s more on the cigar in this article, and yes, orders for it were being taken by direct messages on Twitter.
• If you didn’t check out the new booth that La Aurora had at the 2023 PCA Convention & Trade Show, it’s worth a look.

• The back of the band features a QR code that takes you to a landing page with several options, including visiting La Aurora’s website and Instagram account.
• I would have loved to see La Aurora create a dedicated landing page for this cigar, with someone like Manuel Inoa explaining the blend and the numerous aspects of the company’s history that went into this cigar.

• This cigar is listed at 6 x 58. Due to the unique shape, we didn’t measure the ring gauge.
• None of the three cigars hit me with much strength, with slight touches of it appearing at best but nothing that stayed with me once the cigars were smoked.
• La Aurora advertises on halfwheel.
• The cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.
• Final smoking time was two hours and 20 minutes on average.
• Site sponsors Atlantic Cigar Co. and Corona Cigar Co. carry the La Aurora 120 Anniversary Limited Edition.