Last September I flew down to Miami to hang out with Jason Wood and the Miami Cigar Crew. While there a person was interviewing for a job as a sales representative by the name of Raphael Delgado. The two of us hit it off and became friends. He was assigned the Maryland/West Virginia/Delaware/Washington DC territory and did a lot of his training up in New York. We became good friends, and this past week I got some bad news that he was being shipped to Texas to take over that area. So to all my Texas readers when you see him out there, take good care of him. He is as good as they come.
Another plus is when I left I was given a box of La Aurora Sumo Robusto cigars. These cigars were available in the European market and are now set to be release here in the states. I smoked the box pretty quick and before I knew it they were gone and I didn’t have any pictures to post to associate with the review. Well as luck would have it I ran into Rene Castaneda from Miami Cigar & Company yesterday and he gave me one. The review is based on the notes from the box I smoked last summer, the photos are from the cigar that Rene gave me.
Cigar: La Aurora
Size: 4 x 58
Wrapper: Ecuador Sumatra
Binder: Dominican Republic, Peru, Nicaragua
Filler: Corojo
Strength: Medium
Number Smoked: Box + 1
La Aurora Sumo Robusto
Appearance and Construction: The La Aurora 1495 Sumo Robusto features an oily wrapper that has varying shades giving it a brindle like appearance. The cigar is a little bumpy with the finest veins and extremely well rolled. There is a nice weight and no spots although the food is a little loose. The cigar features the classic looking 1495 band.
Sumo Robusto Foot
Flavors & Notes: Once the cigar is clipped with my Xikar scissors the cold draw offers up some sweetness while the foot has a fair amount of spice and a touch of cedar. After we light up there are some spices present with a bit of nuttiness and an underlying sweetness in the first third. In the 2nd third of the cigar the sweetness has gone away while. the nuttiness is joined by cedar and a wisp of cinnamon. On the retro-hale there is an abundance of pepper notes. The last third of the cigar has some subtle notes of coffee, nuts and cedar with some spice on the finish.
Sumo Robusto Burn
Smoking Characteristics: The burn of the Sumo Robusto had some waviness to it at times but it never gets out of hand. It is like the soft waves of a calm sea, enough to see but not enough to rock the boat. The draw is ideal and the cigar produces a nice amount of smoke. The light color ash is a tad flaky and lacks strength. One thing to note is while the cigar didn’t burn hot you could feel the heat coming off the smoke if holding it down wind.
Conclusion: While the Nub craze might be behind us La Aurora joined the mix with this offering that is very enjoyable to say the least. This slow smoking stick is worthy of a buy if Dominican cigars are your thing.