Wrapper: African Cameroon
Binder: Dominican
Filler: Dominican
Size: 5 x 50 “Robusto”
Body: Medium
Price: $6.25 MSRP

This is a La Aurora Event cigar. It is a limited edition cigar. It is also given to tourists that take the tour at the La Aurora factory in the DR.
Escogidos means “The Chosen One.”
What does that mean? Is the stick Jewish? (You know..the Chosen Ones) I check for a circumcised pig tail then realize it doesn’t have a pig tail. Not kosher. So, I have no idea.

Some B & M’s carry the stick but the only online store I found them at was Famous Smoke. I got mine on auction. And they can be had for considerably less than $6.25.

It is a nice representation of La Aurora blends.

The stick is very rustic. I pick the nicest looking one. Lots of veins; both big and small. Tight seams. A lovely caramel colored, oily wrapper. Well executed single caps on all of my samples.

I clip the cap and find aromas of potent graham cracker, sweetness, earthiness, spice, caramel, vanilla, cedar, cocoa, and nuttiness.
Time to light up.

I get a blast of flavors. All revolving around sweet elements. And an almond marzipan flavor as well. The earthiness appears and is met with notes of cedar, black cherry, creaminess, caramel, and vanilla. The stick has made quite the impression at less than half an inch in.

The char line is spot on. And the draw is perfect with smoke billowing around my head like a shroud.

Red pepper is next. My tongue feels like I’ve kissed a jalapeno pepper. This stick is moments away from becoming an official flavor bomb. I will reserve my final judgment for when I finish the cigar but based on the early experience…Wow. My first thoughts are that I am smoking a very good $9 boutique brand.

An inch in, the cocoa arrives. I run to the fridge and grab a Diet Coke for my NYC Egg Cream Experience. Are you Experienced? (My apologies to Jimi).

And the hits keep on coming. Cinnamon. As I near the end of the first third, the flavors just keep expanding without any sign of stopping.

Clearly, this cigar is a gem. The cigar’s strength has been medium from the start. I cannot believe the price point of these cigars. One explanation is that La Aurora has an endless supply of great tobacco. While boutique cigars must fight for what they get. Hence, the expense. La Aurora has made a regular production cigar that challenges most boutique blends for a fraction of the price.

On auction, I paid $1.75 each for 10 cigars. Famous sells a bundle of 20 for $45.00. The cigar is only sold in the robusto size and in addition, there is also a maduro.

I pass the first third because I am not paying attention to taking photos. I am so enjoying this cigar it has my complete attention.

So now, I’m already at the halfway point. Every flavor is the same and in the same order.

More flavors jump on board. I taste lemon citrus. And an intriguing woodiness. The spiciness gets much stronger and I think the cigar will hit medium/full bodied soon. The char line is dead nuts.

One last time, here are the flavors in order: Sweetness, spice, earthiness, nuts, creaminess, cocoa, citrus, cinnamon, graham cracker, black cherry, caramel, vanilla, almond marzipan, and wood. Yikes. Is there anything left?

The last third is upon me. And it feels like the cigar is gone too soon.

On Friday, I plan to hit Famous and buy a bundle of these sticks. Not going to fool around with auctions. The price point is so outstanding that who cares if I save 25 per stick on auction?

And here we go once more. A new flavor of buttered toast. The cigar is smooth, creamy, buttery, and balanced perfectly. A very long chewy finish.

Now this is the cigar you can hand out to your mooch friends. Just don’t mention the price. Once they smoke it, they won’t care.

In fact, I might buy two bundles. One in the natural format and one in Maduro.

La Aurora took a lot of care in the construction of this cigar. A near perfect char line the entire time. The wrapper is impeccable without a hint of cracking. And the single cap is impeccable without a single piece of loose leaf.

The strength just barely reaches the medium/full body. But it is so smooth, it is impossible to detect the transition.

Your Uncle Katman really found a diamond in the rough for you, my lovely readers.

The cigar finishes blasting away with flavor. The strength settles down and is, once again, classic medium bodied.

The spiciness has ratcheted down quite a bit…leaving all that creamy, smooth, fruity, nutty, buttery flavor.

Of course, I recommend this cigar. Don’t fool around with the auction, go directly to Famous Smoke and nab a bundle.

ADDENDUM 5-1-2014:
This cigar is a life saver. I find myself waiting on a large purchase of cigars and all I have are cigars waiting for review and crap. The bane of reviewing cigars is smoking great cigars every day (Well, most of the time anyway). One becomes sort of a snob. And those cheap crappy cigars that so many online stores sell are unbearable. I can’t smoke just for the sake of smoking. I want a little character and flavor. So I have a bunch of these cigars that have been humidor aging for over a month and are just wonderful. Flavorful to the max. And a real life saver. I’ve found my go to cigar and I’m not embarrassed because they are inexpensive. These are GOOD cigars!

And now for something completely different:

With the uncountable stories I’ve told you about my musical career, I found one I had forgotten about.

Yes. It was in the mid-70’s while I lived in England. I played bass in British progressive band, Curved Air…still touring to this day with over 15 albums to their credit. When I was with them, I could explain them as a combo of Jefferson Airplane and It’s a Beautiful Day. You youngsters will have to look that one up.

We always stopped at the Paradiso Club in Amsterdam the moment we got to Holland. The first stop of every European tour. We bought a shit load of hash and weed for the tour because after Amsterdam, there was no safe place to buy the stuff.

We checked in to our hotel and soon after had sound check. The band was so well known in Europe that it had a huge fan base. We always were the main event at any concert…so we got to sound check first.

We normally got totally shit faced with the hash before even stepping on stage this one afternoon. The band leader had only done drugs once when someone slipped him LSD without telling him. From that day forward, he never touched any drug.
But he was a drunk.

The drummer had some blotter acid left over from a letter a friend in Berkeley had sent him a few weeks earlier.

At sound check, we headed straight to the dressing room. Tuned our instruments. Got something to drink and on to the stage we went.

The drummer put a tiny piece of blotter acid in the violinist’s beer. Sound checks normally lasted an hour.

About 30 minutes in, the violinist began acting strange. At this point, only the drummer knew what was going on. He didn’t include us.

The violinist did a horrifying psychedelic 15 minute solo in one song called “Vivaldi.” We all ran off stage and smoked a pipe full.

At sound check, he began playing psychedelic crap where it wasn’t supposed to go and he was laughing uncontrollably.

We all pretty much looked at the drummer at the same time…sternly. What have you done?

Turns out, the drummer had taken a dose too. He was staring at his sticks for a very long time without playing.

This was just fucking great. We had a concert in about 4 hours. No way would they be down by then. In fact, they would probably be peaking by then.

Sound check ended early and back to the hotel we went once more.

The drummer told everyone what he had done. The violinist began vomiting all over the room. He started screaming. He was running all over the big room like a crazy person.
If word of this got back to our manager, Miles Copeland III, heads would roll. Even if only his brother the drummer was the culprit.

There was nothing we could do. And then the chick singer took out her satchel of pills and gave him some downers.
It worked. It calmed him waaaaay down and he actually fell asleep.

We woke him an hour before the show. He was drugged out. Could barely stand.

We got him dressed and loaded him into the car.

He also played keys when he wasn’t playing violin. So he sat in the piano seat the whole concert just picking at inappropriate notes.

The audience was confused so the chick singer told the audience what had happened. An enormous cheer went up. The applause was deafening.

We plopped him in the middle of the huge stage, still sitting in his chair. We handed him his violin and told him to play.

He had a pedal board with maybe 7-8 devices. He then proceeded to play the longest, and weirdest, psychedelic solo I had ever heard. He played for 45 minutes while the rest of us plunked notes when we recognized something that sounded like music.

It turned out to be one of the funniest nights on stage and the audience went with it.

Of course, it made the papers. And every concert after that, the audience demanded that solo. If that hadn’t happened, I’m sure the violinist would have dissolved the band.

One last thing, he fired the drummer once a week for two years. The drummer was living with the chick singer and so she would quit too. This soap opera went on for eternity.
I was so relieved when they fired me.

Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS

Tags: cigar review, cigar reviews by the katman, cigars, la aurora cigars, La Aurora Escogidos Cigar Review