The La Aurora Time Capsule is a series from the first cigar factory of the Dominican Republic, founded in 1903. The line of cigars pay tribute to the year the renowned factory used specific wrappers for the first time. Those cigars are the La Aurora 1962 Corojo, 1987 Connecticut and 1903 Cameroon which is today’s featured review.
Cigar: La Aurora 1903 Cameroon
Wrapper: Cameroon
Binder: Ecuador Sumatra
Filler: Dominican Republic, Nicaragua
Length: 5″
Ring Gauge: 50
Size: Robusto
The Look: The packaging and bands of the cigar are as old school as they come. Featuring a flip-top, wrapped box of 20 cigars that are laid out in 4 rows of five. The primary band has the La Aurora logo of a lion, which represents the history of the factory and the Leon family ownership. A secondary band denotes the wrapper, in this case Cameroon. The Cameroon wrapper that adorns the cigar has a sandpaper like feel to it and some oils.
The Notes: The cold draw of the La Aurora 1903 Cameroon is chewy with notes of chocolate and caramel that reminds me of the old candy bar Charleston Chew. The aroma off the foot is earthy with some hints of cedar and what reminds me of the La Aurora factory which I’ve been to more that any other factory. On first light the primary note is cedar.
The first third of the cigar has a sweetness that is synonymous with Cameroon including notes of mocha, licorice and a subtle vanilla component. The retrohale of the cigar enhances the sweetness by introducing a subtle caramel. As I continue to smoke the first third of the cigar I can’t help but think how much this reminds me of the latin desert, flan.
The second third of the La Aurora Cameroon continues to offer up sweetness with hints of mocha, but the cigar begins to feature a hearty coffee note. At the half way point the coffee note becomes dominant with the sweetness moving to the background of the cigar. The retrohale continues to offer a sweetness with almost no pepper, in fact if you listen to the podcast I am pretty confident Mr. Jonathan can retrohale this one with no issues.
As the cigar concludes it develops some earthy components, that are noticeable on the front end with notes of coffee and subtle mocha on the finish. The sweetness of the Cameroon wrapper continues to shine right until the end when we put the cigar down. The retrohale remained consistent with added sweetness.
The Finish: If you ever wanted to taste a Cameroon wrapper, there are just a handful of companies who do it the right way. La Aurora is one of them, and the 1903 Cameron is the quintessential example of wrapper. Let’s face it, La Aurora has used this wrapper since their start 114 years ago. Longer than anyone else in the cigar industry today and they do it right. It’s definitely worthy of a box purchase in my eyes.
Score: 91
Price: $5.89 / $103.99
La Aurora Cameroon Robusto
La Aurora Cameroon Robusto Foot
La Aurora Cameroon Robusto Burn
