- Vitola: Corona Gorda
- 6” x 47 ring gauge
- MSRP $10
- Samples provided by company
Background
The “107” brand originated with La Aurora in 2010 as a means of commemorating their 107th anniversary. Just a few years before they had released a 100 Años blend, so it begged the question of whether they would be releasing regular 100+ brands. Turns out the answer is “No.” Years after the 100 Años came out, they produced a Maduro version. In 2013 a Maduro version of the 107 was officially released (there were at least two prior versions of a 107 Maduro, but neither was considered to be good enough to be released widely), and in 2016 another 107-branded stick was released.
A bit strangely, the Maduro version of the 107 and this new Consecha 2006 version have little to nothing in common with the original release. Some people aren’t bothered by this, explaining it away as just “successful branding.” If slapping a Maduro leaf on the 107 filler/binder doesn’t work, causing you to go back to the drawing board and re-think the entire blend, maybe you should just call it something else entirely…110 or whatever. Perhaps just calling this cigar “La Aurora Consecha 2006” would have been more appropriate than trying to convince people that’s it’s a natural extension of the original 107 blend. But that’s just one man’s opinion.
The 107 Consecha 2006 uses Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers, a Brazilian binder, and an Ecuadorian HVA wrapper leaf. “Consecha” is Spanish for “harvest” and the name indicates that at least some of the tobacco used is from the 2006 harvest. The cigars are made in the La Aurora factory in the Dominican Republic, are made in 3 sizes, and are limited to 1000 boxes of 10 of each size. Miami Cigar & Company is the distributor of La Aurora products in the United States and they provided me with samples for this review. (For comparison, the original 107 used Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers, a Dominican binder, and a sun-grown Ecuadorian wrapper.) I used Cigar-Coop’s news story on the 107 Consecha 2006 for some of the above details (and you can see photos of the cigar there too…how in the heck did I forget to take pictures? January’s been the Monday of months for me).
Prelight
One of the obvious reasons to use the 107 name is to be able to re-use the 107 band. They have done that hear, just adding a second band applied first. It’s a red band with gold trim and lettering that says just “CONSECHA 2006” and visually melds seamlessly with the main band. Overall it’s a good look and works well with the toasted caramel color of the wrapper leaf…better, in fact, than the band works with the dark brown leaf of the Maduro version, in my opinion.
The wrapper was tactilely smooth with a moderate amount of oils and no veins bigger than medium size. The aroma from the wrapper leaf was natural tobacco, hay and earth. The foot of the stick had a slightly stronger earthiness, with touches of cedar and a bell-peppery vegetal note.
After clipping, the cold draw was open and free, with flavors of cedar, molasses, hay and earth.
Flavor
The 107 Consecha 2006 took some doing to get lit, but once going, it gave up flavors of wood and hay right up front. A more subtle earth, natural tobacco and molasses interplay came up behind that, with a bit of dryness and pepper on the finish. As the first third continued, I got a mix of hay and molasses with an undercurrent of apricot and occasional touches of earth and pepper.
The second third saw the woody notes subside while sweeter notes of molasses and apricot took the lead. The pepper was a dull burn at the back of the palate and a slightly sharper one on the nose.
The pepper was resurgent in the last third with plenty of sweeter notes still in the forefront. The balance toward the end was excellent.
Construction
As with most things I’ve had from La Aurora, the construction was very good with one exception. The draw was tight enough that I had to recut twice; after that it was no problem. The ash was solid and the burn line was very straight after the first few minutes and a minor touch-up.
Value
I found this a very good cigar, though the price tag was slightly higher than the regular 107 lines. Because it uses well-aged tobacco and has a relatively short production life, I’m going to call it worth the price of admission.
Conclusions
The La Aurora 107 Consecha 2006 was a very good cigar despite the slight draw issues I had. It was sweet and spicy, with enough undercurrent of earthiness to create a pleasing balance and smoking experience. I’m not sure I liked it as much as the regular 107 in the Corona vitola, but it was definitely worth trying and I would probably pick up a few to see how they age.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 1.5/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8.5/10
