Ramblings while Pairing a La Aurora 1987 and Coffee

• Vitola: Robusto
• 5” x 50 ring gauge 
• Price $5.99
• Purchased at Burns Tobacconist

Ramblings

I don’t know when this article will actually hit the inter-webs, but I smoked the cigar in question today for a review exactly one week ago from the day I am writing this. The interesting thing is, after I smoked that stick for review, I thought about the stogie. I went to work on Wednesday at the Downtown Chattanooga location of Burns Tobacconist intending to buy some more…and found that we don’t carry them there yet. I can probably be forgiven for not knowing, though…it was my first time back at the Downtown shop in about eight weeks.

After I fractured my ankle, I was off completely for two week, then I spent the next six working Wednesdays in the East shop as a “rehab” type assignment. Downtown requires more walking because the parking is somewhat atrocious, and there was no way I could do it previously. As I write this, I’m still in “Das Boot” as I have called it…an “air cast” of sorts that immobilizes my leg, but allows for walking and removal of the device for showering and sleeping.

I worked at Burns East on Thursday and Friday but was busy enough to forget about the cigar I wanted to get on those days…but yesterday I remembered. I thoroughly enjoyed the Aurora 1987 Connecticut Robusto and postulated that it might be very good with a cup of coffee in the morning, so I decided to put that to the test today.

Well, technically it’s not “morning,” but I did work until 10 last night, didn’t get home until 11, then ended up watching a documentary/interview show about Eric Clapton’s new album, read a little, and didn’t get to bed until 2 am. So I didn’t get up until 11 and now it’s after noon, but…what the hey…it’s still morning somewhere.

Nothing special for the coffee…just my normal 8 O’Clock Coffee French Roast that I drink nearly every morning…black, with some Splenda. This morning I’m drinking it out of a Ronald Reagan coffee mug. I didn’t think of it until now, but it’s fairly appropriate since I’m smoking the 1987 and Reagan was President in that year.

If you want exhaustive details about the cigar itself, check out my review…I’m not going to try rewording everything now that I said then.

The cigar started off much the same as it did last week…cedar and earth up front, along with a healthy dash of pepper on the nose. This is not a truly “mild” cigar that I had expected to get from a La Aurora with a Conny wrapper…but it is very nice on the palate, on the nose and with a cup of steaming black coffee.

I work at Burns about 40 hours in 4 days a week, so I get 3 days off pretty much every week…pretty much…with the freelance work and normal amount of “around the house” work (not done lately because of the injury…but starting up again soon), I simply don’t get enough of these days where I can relax a bit at the start of my day and have a cigar.

As I puff and sip today, I’m listening to the Clapton album that I watched the documentary about last night…thankfully almost the entire album is already available on Amazon Prime. The old man still rocks. I Still Do is a great mix of classic “Slowhand” rock and blues, along with touches of gospel and Latin American music thrown in along with way.

It is a pleasant 75, sunny and breezy as I sit on my front porch. The bitter cold of the winter is long gone and will be missed soon as the scorching heat and sweatiness of summer set in. In other words, this is just about a perfect day to do this.

I took some time off from reading novels in the past couple years…until about 8 or 9 months ago, anyway. Since then, I’ve fallen in love with the Kindle app on my iPad and with the Tennessee library system that offers an absolutely stunning selection of e-books. I’ve caught up on all the Tom Clancy novels (most of them being the ones written by other people in his name, since he died), read 12 of Michael Connelly’s books (most of them in the Harry Bosch series, but a couple from the Lincoln Lawyer series, too), and even a couple newer releases from Stephen King and Dean Koontz. I had finally caught up to everything available with a couple books that I had placed holds on when Amazon sent me an offer for a 3 book collection for $6.99: The John Milton Series by Mark Dawson. It’s a British “special forces / government assassin” character and I’ve made my way about halfway through the first book. Pretty good, especially for the price. There are more in the series when I get done with these three…and I’m set to get into the Jack Reacher series soon…but I’m open to other suggestions.

This was a great way to start the day. The Aurora 1987 Connecticut is a really fine, inexpensive medium-bodied cigar. The coffee goes great with it. Listening to some great tunes and reading a good book…it all combined to make for a relaxing time before I have to get into some work…yes, working even on my “days off.” If you’ve read this far into my ramblings…Thank you. I won’t do this often, but it seemed a nice way to organize some random thoughts and let you know that it’s not all cigars all the time here at Leaf Enthusiast World Headquarters. Have a great week!

Update: After getting this ready to post, I realized that the information about my leg was pretty outdated. Two weeks ago I got out of the boot and have been working my way back to “normal walking” ever since. I surprised myself yesterday afternoon by walking around the house with virtually no limp. I’ve got a ways to go still…but I’m really happy to be on the mend.