La Aurora seems to have a lot of cigars in the aging room. In fairness, I don’t know how many cigars it has in its aging room, but the sheer quantity isn’t my point. It seems to have a noticeable number of different types. The factory is the one that produced the cigars that Don Doroteo is selling, cigars that it says were 9-14-years-old.
Last year, the company announced its Small Batch Series, which features different blends in limited quantities that, so far, have been sold with similar packaging. For Small Batch Lot No. 003, the company has released a 5.78 x 58 toro gordo that uses an Ecuadorian wrapper over dual binders—Cameroon and Dominican—and fillers from the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Peru. It also says the cigars are 19-years-old, which would mean they were rolled in 2004 or 2005. Quite simply, unless you have been smoking cigars for roughly a decade, you probably haven’t smoked something that old.
“Small Batch will continue to be a series that is very special to me. These cigars will only ever exist in small batches: each release features distinct tasting notes and are unable to be blended and rolled in large scale quantities,” said Manuel Inoa, La Aurora’s master blender, in a press release. “Lot No. 003 was aged for 19 years and features a flavor profile and complexity that are unlike any other smoke. With its oily, bright red wrapper, Lot No. 003 is flavorful and medium/full-bodied cigar that offers a creamy smoke with notes of pepper and tobacco tones like leather and cedar that accompany until the end of the smoke.”
- Cigar Reviewed: La Aurora Small Batch Lot No. 003
- Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
- Factory: La Aurora Cigar Factory
- Wrapper: Ecuador
- Binder: Cameroon & Dominican Republic
- Filler: Dominican Republic, Nicaragua & Peru
- Length: 5 25/32 Inches
- Ring Gauge: 58
- Vitola: Toro Gordo
- MSRP: $13 (Box of 10, $130)
- Release Date: January 2024
- Number of Cigars Released: 400 Boxes of 10 Cigars (4,000 Total Cigars)
- Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3
In terms of wrapper appearance, this isn’t the frontrunner for the beauty contest. Each cigar has a couple of very prominent veins, a few of which look gnarly, and the caps aren’t the best. The wrapper color is a pretty typical medium brown with some reds and lighter discoloration. Two cigars smell pretty similar: medium-full with leather, acidity, saltiness, mahogany and some caramel sweetness. The third cigar has an interesting peppermint and mango smell, sort of like walking through a vape company’s booth at a trade show. The feet have a sweet tobacco smell, one that reminds me of an aging room, joined by ammonia, woodiness and some pipe tobacco-like smells. All three cigars have slightly open cold draws with flavors of sweet cracker, cake batter and some sweetness that ranges from chocolate-like on one cigar to reminding me of Dr. Pepper on another. While that sounds overly sweet, I don’t find any of the flavors to be that strong, so it’s not that sweet. A large part of the profile just tastes like tobacco.
Each of the La Aurora Small Batch No. 3s starts out with an open draw, which means the first puff doesn’t have as much smoke volume as I’d like. Flavor-wise, it’s a complete contrast to the cold draw. Instead of sweetness, there’s dry leather, earthiness, woodiness and toastiness—each cigar has different intensity levels for those flavors—and not much in the way of spice and sweetness. After 30 minutes, each cigar is in a pretty similar place as that first puff. I find the woodiness and leather get a bit stronger than the earthiness and toastiness. Sweetness and spiciness do join the profile as secondary notes. Oftentimes, the flavor has a very chewy texture, something that is further emphasized during the retrohale. While I find the main flavor to be a bit pedestrian, I enjoy the sugary sweetness, nuttiness and grains that the retrohales often deliver. Flavor is medium-full, body is medium and strength is medium. The draws continue to be at least slightly open, meaning that I have to be a bit more attentive to keep the combustion levels up, but when I do draw, there tends to be lots of smoke. I make it through the first thirds without any further use of my lighter.
The spiciness—just a generic pepper mixture—picks up and really intertwines itself with the woody profile. That spicy woodiness seems to be stronger than any other flavor, though I’m not sure if I would be able to tell you that if I wasn’t taking notes of the cigar. For the most part, the La Aurora Small Batch No. 3’s second third is just a gradually amped-up version of how the cigar started. After the halfway mark, some grains add to the profile, but rarely does that flavor ever outpace the woodiness. Sweetness and brown butter are present as secondary flavors, which helps to bind the other flavors together. The finish tends to see a toasty version of the woodiness over top of some minerals, barnyard and leather. Retrohales have gotten a lot more interesting. There’s a savory nuttiness mixed with cornbread over something that I’d describe as toasted blueberry—not really toast with blueberry jam, more like if you tried grilling blueberries for some reason—and some grassy flavors. The finish adds dry minerals,and it’s tough to really tell that apart from a normal puff. Flavor is full, body is medium-full and strength is mild-medium. While the draw doesn’t get any better, the cigar is remarkably accommodating to different puff rates. At one point, I went four minutes in between puffs and the cigar didn’t seem to care. One cigar does need some help to correct an uneven burn, though I’m more annoyed by the draw than the burn.
Two cigars see an uptick in toastiness as the final third gets underway. Given where those cigars were in the middle portion, it’s not surprising that collectively, it’s flavors of toastiness, leather and grains joined by spiciness over sweetness. One cigar seems to avoid the toastiness, which allows the grain flavor to shine. Unfortunately, there’s just not much else there beyond leather and sweet and spicy accents, though it’s a much calmer profile. One cigar gets sharper—meaning the flavors are more saturated—though I don’t find that to be the case on the other two. As monotonous as the main flavor might be, the retrohales continue to deliver interesting flavors. All three cigars have a much brighter profile when I make a deliberate effort to push more smoke through the nose. Flavor-wise, there are a lot of light roast espresso characteristics with funky fruitiness and other sweetness, herbal flavors, cinnamon candy and something that reminds me of the smell of birdseed. For the cigars that are toasty, that extends to the retrohale’s finish, though there are a few seconds in between that seem like I’m at a spice-tasting event. Flavor is full, body is full and strength is medium. The open draws don’t get any worse, but they do seem to be leading to combustion issues and all three cigars need touch-ups to help with smoke production, the first time that’s been an issue.
Final Notes
- The La Aurora Small Batch Series Lot No. 004 is set to be announced in “late 2024.”
- If this cigar was rolled in 2004-2005, this size would have been considered one of the thickest on the market. If I divide the market up into three evenly-populated tiers—thinner than normal, normal, and thicker than normal—this may be on the fringe of being in the middle tier.
- I had forgotten that Inoa gave a tasting description, which was as follows: Lot No. 003 is flavorful and medium/full bodied cigar that offers a creamy smoke with notes of pepper and tobacco tones like leather and cedar that accompany until the end of the smoke.
- I didn’t get the creaminess, but the rest of his description seems close enough to what I tasted.
- I like the back of the bands, which appear to feature the mouth of an animal. Given La Aurora’s general theme, I suspect it’s supposed to be a lion.
- These bands are translucent. They appear to be wax paper, which isn’t something that’s commonly used for the main band.
- These cigars were listed at 5.78 x 58.
- While the burn line could have been more even, the ability of the cigar to stay lit was insane. There were multiple times when I spent at least three minutes between puffs, and the cigar never seemed to get close to going out. I wish the draws were a bit tighter, but there aren’t any other construction or flavor issues I can clearly attribute to the loose draw.
- La Aurora advertises on Woggi.
- Cigars for this review were purchased by Woggi.
- Final smoking time ranges from two hours to two hours and 20 minutes.
- Site sponsor Atlantic Cigar Co. carries the La Aurora Small Batch No. 3.
88
Overall Score
If you are uninterested in retrohaling, I wouldn’t make much of an effort to buy the La Aurora Small Batch No. 3. It’s simply a “fine” cigar without retrohaling: pros and cons, but not something I see people falling in love with. If you decide to retrohale, you’ll get a lot of added nuance—especially in the second half of the cigar—that makes for a far more enjoyable experience. For any project like this, I think there’s a basic question: should this be a regular production cigar? To that, my answer is probably not. When retrohaling, it’s good enough to want to smoke, but there’s a long list of other La Aurora cigars I’d pick before the Small Batch No. 3.