La Aurora 1495 Series

The La Aurora 1495 Series is where there is a lot more to the cigar than just looking at the band and wrapper.   This is a cigar with some very interesting background behind it.   For starters, while it might look like an oily cigar with a lion on the band, this is a cigar that features six different tobaccos in it.   The name 1495 Series has a historical significance.  It was in that year that the city of Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic was founded when Christopher Columbus landed on the island.  As a result, La Aurora Cigars created this cigar to pay homage to this city which is now the second largest city in the Dominican Republic.  Ultimately, it will come down to how good the blend behind the cigar is.  In the case of the La Aurora 1495 Series, this proved to be a very good cigar smoking experience.

Let’s drill down into the La Aurora 1495 and see what this cigar is all about.

Blend Profile

While there are six tobacco leaves that go into this blend, it is also interesting that the tobaccos come from four different countries. 

Wrapper: Ecuador
Binder: Dominican Republic (Corojo)
Filler: Dominican Republic (Corojo and Ligero) , Nicaragua, Peru

Vitolas Available

The La Aurora 1495 Series is available in four sizes:

Belicoso: 6 1/4 x 52
Churchill: 7 x 50
Corona: 5 1/4 x 43
Robusto: 5 x 50

Appearance

For this cigar experience, I selected the Robusto vitola. The wrapper for the La Aurora 1495 is milk chocolate in color and quite oiily.  It has some veins on it, and for an oily wrapper it is somewhat toothy.  The cigar features a band with brown, yellow, gold, and red colors.  A lion in brown is on a yellow background.  The name “La Aurora” is above it in red font.   Below the lion, “1495 Series”  is in gold font on a brown background surrounded with red striping.

The aroma of the 1495 Series is a combination of earth and farm notes.

Preparation for the Cigar Experience

As I normally do for most of my cigars, I selected a straight cut.  When I proceeded into the pre-light draw  of my La Aurora 1495 Series, I was treated to an interesting combination of flavors.  These dry draw notes included a combination of butter, leather, earth, and a hint of cedar.  While I normally don’t factor pre-light flavors into an assessment rating or score, this was a very good pre-light draw.  It was now on to firing up this cigar and seeing what would come to the table.

Flavor Profile

When I lit the La Aurora 1495 Series, the farm and earth note aroma that was present on the pre-light was replaced by a more peppery aroma.   This aroma would be present for a good chunk of the smoking experience. The flavors on the tongue featured earth notes with pepper on the afterdraw.

In the early stages of the cigar experience, coffee notes joined the earth notes.  The pepper remained present on the afterdraw.  As the cigar experience crossed the one third point, the pepper notes increased on the afterdraw.  Eventually these pepper notes made their way into the mainstream draw by the midpoint of the cigar experience.  These flavors would hold for the remainder of the cigar experience.  This wouldn’t be the most complex flavor profile, but it would be a flavorful one.  One of the most amazing things is that usually when I detect earth notes in a smoke, it tends to be a boring smoke in my book.  This was not the case with the La Aurora 1495 as it surprised me with the resulting flavor.

The finish to the cigar had some spice, but no harsh notes.  The resulting nub was cool and firm – the way a nub should be.

Burn and Draw

For the most part, the La Aurora 1495 scored well in the construction attributes of burn and draw. The burn was relatively straight and did not require a large number of touch-ups.  I did notice the cigar was burning a little hot in the middle.  As I eased up on the draw, it seemed to stabilize the burn temperature and it actually finished cooler toward the end.   The burn rate was ideal.  As for the draw itself, it was a little loose and this is probably why it affected the burn rate to begin with.

Strength and Body

The La Aurora 1495 Series  provided a good balance between nicotine and depth of flavors.  The cigar is not going to overwhelm you with nicotine – and from a strength perspective its going to deliver just enough power.  I assessed this cigar as medium to full strength.  As for the body, the depth of the flavors were robust.   I also assessed this cigar as medium to full in terms of body.

Final Thoughts

Overall, this was a solid cigar experience.  If I had one “wish list” for what this cigar would have delivered, it would have been a little more complexity in the flavor profile – especially since this did have a blend of six tobaccos from four countries.  In the end, I believe a less complex can still be a good cigar – and that is the case with the La Aurora 1495 Series. Novice cigar enthusiasts looking to graduate to a fuller strength, fuller-bodied cigar might give this one a try.  For experienced cigar enthusiasts, I would also encourage them to give this a try as it does deliver excellent flavor.  From a personal standpoint, this is a cigar that I most certainly look forward to smoking again.

Summary

Burn: Good
Draw: Good
Complexity: Low
Strength: Medium to Full
Body: Medium to Full
Finish: Excellent
Assessment: Nice to Have
Score: 89

Source: The cigars for this assessment were gifted to me by a friend about six months ago.