Vitola: Zeppelin (figurado)- 4” x 58 ring gauge
- ~$9
- Purchased from Burns Tobacconist
Background
La Aurora celebrated its 107th year in business in 2010 with the La Aurora 107, a four-country blend of tobaccos. The complexity of the blend really heralded a different way of doing things for the longest-running cigar company in the Dominican Republic, as it was more dynamic than the typical old-school “Dominican mild” cigars that occupied most of the company’s catalog previous to that. After the core sizes were made, they steadily produced a variety of additional vitolas (there are now 12 in all), including the Corona (still my favorite size), Lancero (the Twitter/Blogger cigar), Salomon, and now the Zeppelin.
You’ll be forgiven if you look at this and immediately say it looks like something else porcine that has been known to fly. Instead this chunky little cigar aspires to be “blimp-worthy.” The 107 blend uses Dominican, Brazilian, Nicaraguan and Peruvian fillers, a Dominican binder, and an Ecuadorian Sun Grown Sumatra wrapper.
As always, a shout-out to my good friend, Will Cooper, as he produces the very best cigar news coverage I’ve seen. I used his news story for background on this review. I bought my Piggies…I mean “Zeppelins”…at Burns Tobacconist, where I work. If your local store doesn’t carry them, Leaf Enthusiast sponsor, Small Batch Cigar, does.
Prelight
I’m usually not a fan of the “pizza box” style of boxing and displaying cigars. It takes up a lot of room on a shelf and when people start buying, it starts to look really empty really fast. I like this box, though…love the logo and art…it still looks empty fast, though. So I’m torn between the designer side of me that says it should look fantastic and the retailer side of me that cries that this thing is inefficient as hell. The band is the same as used on previous 107 releases and there is no secondary band…and there does not need to be.
The wrapper leaf had a medium-plus brown color with some of the lighter coloration along the veins that is characteristic of many Ecuadorian Sumatra leaves. It had an aroma of hay and cedar, with a tiny touch of mineral earthiness. The foot was very narrow, so it was mostly the same, although with a slight addition of sweet earthiness.
After clipping, the cold draw was excellent for a cigar with such a narrow front and back end. I got prelight flavors of cedar, copper, and pepper spice.
Flavor
Once fired up the La Aurora 107 Zeppelin produced a very stout quantity of medium-to-full-bodied smoke right from the get-go. I got flavors of hay and cedar, black pepper and dark fruit, metal and citrus on the palate, while the retrohale had roasted almonds and red pepper.
As I got into the second third, the body actually toned down a bit into the medium range, while the pepper backed off, too. I got more citrus and dark fruit sweetness, less of the metallic note, and more sharp cedar. This was a very, very slow smoking cigar. Although it looks like a short smoke, at this point I was expecting the time to be an hour or more.
The final third of the 107 Zeppelin was more earthy with citrus backing off a bit and sweetness moving way down in the profile. There was plenty of cedar and spice remaining.
Construction
I had a great draw and solid ash. The burn line was a little wonky, but nothing big.
Value
Great cigar and a very attractive price still.
Conclusions
While I still think the 107 Corona is the ultimate expression of this blend, the Zeppelin performed way beyond my expectations. I had never really gotten a great deal of complexity in the Robusto size and since it was just a little larger than the Corona, I didn’t really even want to bother with vitolas larger still. Usually that is sound reasoning, but not here. The Zeppelin is a complex, rich, medium-to-full-bodied cigar packed into a fun size that is definitely blimp-worthy.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10
