Tag Archives: La Aurora

by | March 25, 2011 · 10:29 pm

La Gloria Cubana Serie N Contest and a Visit to NYC!

In honor of La Gloria Cubana Serie N Day, I’ll be giving away two (2) Five packs of Serie N JSB (5½ x 54) to two people who leave a comment on this page. Winners will be drawn randomly on or around Wednesday, March 30, 2011. I will also be giving away five packs for the next 3 weeks, so stay tuned!

I had the honor and pleasure of participating in the Serie N day webcast, and, in case you missed it, I asked how they could possibly manufacture the Serie N cigars with the light tobacco leave “N” and sell it for a reasonable price.  Having recently seen all the steps that go into the manufacture of a cigar, it’s incredible that the cost can be kept as reasonable as it is, and the “N”s are hand applied.  If you look at a box of Serie N cigars you will notice that all the “N”s line up and are nice and straight.  This  is a testament to the attention to detail paid to this one little distinctive feature.  The cigars smoke great, and if you like maduro cigars with some oomph to them, the La Gloria Cubana Serie N is well worth a try.  General Cigars was very generous in providing samples as well as the cigars for these contests, many thanks to all involved in this very special event. It was fun to participate in this event, and I always appreciate the opportunity to embarrass myself!

We took a family trip to New York City today (Saturday) and I had an opportunity to stop by De La Concha and pick up a few cigars.  It’s very convenient that the store is right around the corner from Tiffany’s, where my wife always likes to visit.  Of course, I spent more than I normally would on cigars, but I wanted to try some of the New York only cigars that have been released recently.  I picked up a La Aurora Broadway, a couple sizes of the Alec Bradley New York Series and a Gurkha Para la Gente.  These cigars were created specifically to help out New York State cigar retailers after the cigar taxes were raised.  The cigars were pricey by my standards, but probably provide the retailer with better margins than other cigars.  I wanted to pick some up as much for the novelty as anything, and I’ve never had a Gurkha, believe it or not.  Maybe I’ll have a “NY Cigar Week” in the coming months!  As a side note, we walked at least 50 blocks on our visit, but I passed on having a cigar because it was so crowded, cold and windy I wouldn’t have enjoyed it.  How many miles is 50 city blocks?

That’s it for now, leave me comments to win a 5 pack of great cigars, and remember, I’ll be selecting two winners on Wednesday!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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by | October 10, 2010 · 8:31 pm

The Week’s Cigars: 601, Camacho, La Aurora – Sunday October 10, 2010

Autumn is my least favorite time of the year.  The days get shorter and there just seem to be fewer opportunities to enjoy a nice cigar.  Undeterred, however, I did manage to get a few interesting cigars in this week, as well as a cigar store visit.

I started out smoking a 601 Habano Robusto, which I had gotten a couple weeks back when I met Eddie Ortega at Old Havana Cigars in West Chester, PA.  I had previously smoked and enjoyed some 601 cigars a few years ago that I had received as samples at the IPCPR show.  I had really enjoyed the samples, which I believe were green and maybe red banded varieties.  This one was a fine cigar, it had a nice taste, it burned very well and all in all was nice.  It didn’t “wow” me like the previous samples, which was a  disappointment, but despite my expectations, was still a very nice cigar.  I think, when given the option, I’d probably opt for the Murcialago over the 601.

Friday evening was a nice, warm evening, so I selected the last Camacho Corojo Monarca from my humidor.  I have had this one for years and had passed it by more than once.  I love these cigars and smoking the last one was a little sad to me, but I finally said the heck with it and fired it up.  It was a disappointment. It really didn’t burn very well, although the draw was fine.  It was very bitter tasting to me, not as rich as I think this cigar should be. I figured it would lose a little of it’s punch over several years storage, but I didn’t think it would actually turn bad.  I’ve smoked many of these in the past and always enjoyed them, I guess I’ll have to pick up a few more and give them another shot.  I’ve enjoyed Camacho cigars since I first reviewed a Monarca in 1996, which I liked better than a Montecristo #2 in a blind review.  I still have a few Candela Monarcas that always make me smile.

Saturday October 9 was the anniversary of John Lennon’s birth, he would have been 70.  As a Beatles fan, and the husband of the public relations person for several Beatles related artists, we decided to make a trip up to New York City where one of her clients was having a gallery show and demonstrating her craft.  We got there plenty early and walked over to De La Concha on 6th for a cigar.  I have been itching to smoke the La Aurora 107 corona and I haven’t been able to find them around home.  They had them, and I was pleased to find that they were priced at $7.77, which I thought was OK considering NY taxes.  Most of the cigars there were over $10, which offends my sensibilities being from Pennsylvania where there are no oppressive cigar taxes.  Despite the sudden onset of a head cold, the La Aurora 107 corona was a really nice cigar.  I look forward to ditching this cold so I can properly enjoy the one I brought home.  Burn and flavor were terrific.  I’m guessing that if i can find these in PA, or most places that aren’t New York, it’s probably a very reasonable cigar, maybe in the $4.00 range.  From De La Concha we headed to the Gallery at 25 Central Park West.  There was good foot traffic as there had been a viewing of the movie “LENNONYC” a few blocks further down Central Park.  Shannon is “the Worlds Greatest Beatles Artist”, and has a huge collection of Beatles related art.  She capped the evening off by painting her vision of what
John Lennon would have looked like today.  It was incredible to watch the image take shape.  I stepped out for a bit at one point and encountered a very nice old guy taking a Davidoff 3000 for a walk. He was in his 70s, lived in the building the gallery was in, and enjoyed his cigar while walking the street as he had family visiting.  It was nice see someone enjoying his cigar in NYC.

I couple posts ago I promised to select three people to send some Hamiltons House Selection Torpedos to, so I once again consulted Random.org and selected the following people:Joel Solomon, Joel Scott and Keith911,  please e-mail me their addresses so I can mail you each a cigar. Congrats to the winners!

That’s about it for now, hopefully this cold will run it’s course and I won’t have to bore you all to tears with a tour of my lighter colllection!

CigarCraig

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by | June 20, 2010 · 7:42 pm

Weekend Cigars: La Aurora, Liga Privada, Esperanza – June 20, 2010

Today was Father’s Day, and leading up to it, I managed to smoke a few cigars this weekend.

Friday started the weekend with a La Aurora 1495 Robusto.  This cigar was well made and burned and drew nicely.  I didn’t particularly care for the flavor.  It had a rustic Ecuadoran Sumatra wrapper, which I verified through a brief exchange with La Aurora company president Guillermo Leon via Twitter.  I was actually unaware that this was also offered in Cameroon, Corojo and Brazilian maduro until Guillermo asked me which wrapper it was.  I think I would like this in any of these other 3 wrappers over the one I smoked.  It’s pretty special to be able to communicate with someone of Señor Leon’s stature so quickly and easily, something that was not so easy in years past.  Most people involved in the cigar business are very approachable, but to have almost instant access is pretty cool!

Saturday my daughter and her husband took us out to the Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner.  After a great meal, which I partook of all 4 food groups (Filet, bacon wrapped scallops, and a piece of chicken from my wife’s salad), we came home and my children presented me with a very exciting Father’s Day gift.  They established a bank account for me to use to save up for a trip to Drew Estate’s Cigar Safari!  What a great gift and they even chipped in cash to get me started.  Now I just have to get to saving up so I can go to Nicaragua and visit the Drew Estate factory!  I had chosen a cigar to smoke after that great dinner, but quickly put it away and decided a Liga Privada No.9 Parejo since it seemed much more appropriate.  The cigar was exceptional as usual.  These are amazing cigars which are satisfying and delicious while not being overwhelming.  For those who don’t know, the Liga Privada line was blended as the personal cigar for company president Steve Saka.  I first became acquainted with Steve through the alt.smokers.cigars Usenet group in 1996.  He was a prolific poster on that group for many years until he took a job with JR’s Cigars, then eventually became president of Drew Estate.  He rarely is seen without a Liga Privada clenched in his jaw.  This is a cigar that is so smooth and satisfying that you really could smoke them all the time.  A tremendous cigar that I reserve for special occasions.

Since purchasing a box of Esperanza Para los Niños in 2000 for Father’s day I have smoked one of these every year since.  The cigar is a beautiful box pressed maduro that was made by Christian Eiroa of Camacho to raise money for children orphaned by Hurricane Mitch, which devastated Honduras in 1998.  Christian was an active contributor to alt.smokers.cigars at the time and brought several people to his facility to work on the blend for this cigar, with the proceeds going to charity.  They came up with this amazing blend and sold 45,000 cigars through their dedicated website.  I purchased a box of toros, of which I have one left after smoking and gifting them sparingly over the years.  Tonight I smoked a Chruchill which was gifted to me by a good friend who won a box a few years ago and knew that they were very special to me.  Oddly, the several cigars I’ve smoked over the past few years from this batch have been wonderful, lush and heavy maduro cigars, but when approaching the band have hit an almost amonia stretch.  I find this odd in a twelve year old cigar.  Still, this remains a special cigar to celebrate Father’s Day with, and I will continue to do so for the next few years.  That last toro will be the last to go, probably close to two decades after it was rolled.

I’m quite pleased to note that CigarCraig.com has risen two places on CigarTopsite.com from 19 to 17 in the past couple weeks.  Thank you very much to all of the folks who’ve paid a visit and mentioned and linked to the site.  This is something I enjoy writing, and it humbles me to know that there are folks who check in on a regular basis.  A Thank You is also due to my lovely bride who got me started on this and puts up with my obsession!  Keep an eye open for another contest coming up soon as July closes in on us!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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by | February 26, 2010 · 8:37 pm

This Week’s Cigars: CAO, La Aurora – Friday Feb 26, 2010

More snow this week in PA, so my cigar consumption had been fairly light.  I started out with a CAO Gold robusto which had a good draw, a nice amount of smoke, but really didn’t have a flavor I’m overly fond of.  It was sort of grassy, and didn’t really hit the spot for me.  I enjoy a great many of the CAO lines, I’m hoping this one was an anomaly.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently received a bunch of various CAO cigars as a gift from my wife, and I have a few various singles floating around.

The next cigar I had was a La Aurora Barrel aged robusto, which I got at the 2008 IPCPR tradeshow, so it was at least a year and a half old.  This looked like it should be a tasty cigar, it had a very dark and rustic wrapper that just wouldn’t burn.  I tried relighting it over and over to no avail.   It had some nice flavors on the odd occasion that I got some flavor, it refused to give me enough smoke to make a good judgment. I was very disappointed with this as I had high hopes for it.

I have a soft spot for the La Aurora brand for personal reasons but have been let down frequently.  As a matter of fact, the first box of cigars I ever purchased was a box of La Aurora Bristol Especiales back in 1996 for around $35.  While the cigars tasted good, they had very fragile Cameroon wrappers and exploded more times than not.

In that spirit, tonight’s cigar was a LA Aurora 1495 Corona, again from the 2008 IPCPR show.  The 1495 was an even burning, medium bodied, tasty treat.  At 5.2″ x 42, it gave me a very pleasant 45 minutes of cigar happiness.  I still have a couple assorted La Auroras in the humidor, including an old Bristol Especiale, and one of the beautiful Perferidos.  I’ll likely smoke them sometime in the coming months.

That’s it for now, have a great weekend!

CigarCraig

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