Another Marcus Daniel Kiev and Some La Aurora Preferidos

Sunday afternoon I decided to tackle the Connecticut Shade version of the Marcus Daniel Kiev Gran Parejo, which is a large 6½ x 57 shade wrapped cigar. The cigar is pretty, and it smoked very nicely. It was very mild for the first half, almost to the point of being off-putting, making me wish I had selected something else. It eventually picked up to near medium with a smooth, mellow flavor profile. This is a cigar that needs to be paid attention to, the flavors are there, but they aren’t jumping all over the palate.  Based on the pricing on the website, $1032.75 for a box of 25, I’d definitely take a pass, there’s no way these are $45 cigars, but I’m happy for the opportunity to have sampled them, and it’s my fervent hope that my recently retired friend who brought these back was given them by the store owner and didn’t pay that ridiculous amount for them. I’m admittedly frugal, and there are very few cigars that would get me to open my wallet that far, if any.  If you find yourself in Olde Naples, FL, stop in and check out the store, it sounds like a nice place to have a smoke, and he seems to have a good selection of other boutique cigars and realistic prices.

I decided this would be a good week to dig into some samples of the La Aurora Preferidos Coronas that are making their ways to shelves in the NorthEast part of the US.  There are six varieties, representing the six wrappers used on the regular Preferidos line.  I wrestled with what order to smoke them, should I do what I usually do and start with the darkest first and go from there? My wife pointed out that that may set me up for disappointment, given my proclivity for the maduro leaf. Then I wondered if I should go alphabetically. I decided to go with the opposite of what I’d normally do and go light to dark. I started with the Connecticut. I’ll preface this by saying these are all 5½” x 42 coronas, a very elegant size as far as I’m concerned. They also all have the wrapper designated on the band, which is handy.  The Connecticut was a terrific example of a smooth and creamy cigar.  It burned perfectly for the better part of and hour and a half, building nicely in strength and flavor.

I like a Connecticut shade wrapper, Ecuador or US, but it’s not on my go-to wrapper list, basically above Indonesian and  Criollo in preference, so things are looking very good for me enjoying the rest of the Preferido Corona offerings. Next in line was the Corojo.  Naturally, the Corojo should be a little stronger, and it certainly had a stronger flavor, which was unique and interesting.  Again, the construction was perfect, however I had to wipe some oozing tar of the head at the halfway point as I began to get an off taste. Once the goo was gone, it was back to tasting pretty darned great.  Another winner, although I’ll switch from the punch to a straight cut for the rest of the series.

Tonight I went with the Cameroon corona.  Cameroon is an interesting wrapper with a distinctive flavor, nutty maybe?  The first La Auroras I bought, a box of Bristol Especiales back in 1995, had Cameroon wrappers and I recall they ended up not being great, almost vegetal and they had some construction issues. Granted, I didn’t have the storage experience that I have now, and probably had no business buying a box of anything at that point in my cigar journey. The box was about $40 and my daughter (who’s name is Aurora) may still have the box, that certainly figured into my purchase.  That being said, this Preferidos Cameroon was spectacular. Well balanced and loaded with Camerooniness!  Three for three!  So far the Preferidos Coronas have all been wonderful. Many thanks to Jason Wood of Miami Cigar and Co. and Gabriel Piñeres of Creativas for sending samples as well as sponsoring Day 14 of the 12SDoCG.

I’ll continue working through the last three, the Ecuador (Sumatra), Maduro (Brazil) and Broadleaf (Connecticut), taking a break on Friday to head out to Goose’s in Limerick, PA to attend an event featuring the great Bernie Parent and his line of Rocky Patel cigars. Bernie is a legend in Philadelphia sports, he’ll be there with his Stanley Cup rings from ’74 and ’75. He’s a hoot, I’ve been fortunate to enjoy several cigars with him over the last couple years.  With that, I’ll wrap this up and get to watching the Flyers game.

Until the next time,

CigarCraig