Finishing Up the La Aurora Preferido Coronas and Bernie Parent at Goose’s

imageThursday evening I smoked the Ecuador (Sumatra) La Aurora Preferidos corona.  While this was an exceptional cigar, it had a hint of bitterness that put it in fourth place flavor-wise among the ones I’ve smoked thus far in comparison.  That’s not to say it wasn’t better than many cigars out there, it just didn’t hit my palate as favorably as the others. The construction was perfect and no oozing tar! I’ve got the Maduro (Brazil) and the Broadleaf coming up, I hope I didn’t set the bar too high and set myself up for disappointment.

 

Friday night I took a break from the La Aurora’s to visit Goose’s Tobacco Outlet and Cafe in Limerick, PA. Goose was hosting an event in his Montecristo Lounge featuring Bernie Parent and his BSB No.1 Cigars by Rocky Patel.  You may recall I had the good fortune to have been present at the launch of this line back in photo 1December of 2012 (here, and RIP Luca who hosted that event) and have had the pleasure of smoking cigars with Bernie on numerous occasions.  I’m not saying we’re buddies or anything, but he pretends to know me when we meet.  Rocky Patel account exec Mark Weisenberger was also on hand, taking grief from Bernie for being a Rangers fan.  One of the coolest things about this event was that the great Bernie Parent, with his ’74 and ’75 Flyers Stanley Cup rings, the goalie who “Only the Lord Saves More” than, was hanging out, smoking cigars, answering questions and telling stories.  I picked up one each of the three 40th Anniversary cigars, which come in a numbered box with an autographed puck, and four each of the Broadleaf wrapped Conn Smythe, the Habano wrapped Vezina, and the box pressed, Sumatra Lord Stanley, all in the toro size, and all named after trophies Bernie has won (all three back to back, which has never been repeated, not even by Wayne Gretzky).  I smoked the Conn Smythe as I was in the mood for a nice, sweet broadleaf and the cigar was exceptional. Sweet, cocoa and black coffee flavors and it burned well, although perhaps a bit on the moist side. I ended up buying the box at my wife’s suggestion, which allowed me to enter to win special luxury box tickets to the Flyers/Rangers game with Bernie and Mark. I fully intend to win this, by the way! Goose’s put on a great event, I came home with a ton of great cigars and a lighter wallet, and some great memories. Photos from the event below.

 

LaAuroraPreferidos_Corona_MaduroYesterday I wrapped up the La Aurora Preferidos Corona project, smoking the Maduro in the afternoon, then the Broadleaf later in the evening.  The Maduro is a Brazilian wrapper which corresponds to the Ruby in the Preferidos line. I found this to be a nice, smooth cocoa maduro with no rough edges. I did get the bit of tar build up that I got with the Corojo, but I clipped it off and everything was dandy after that.  I did have a couple occasions where I had to relight it, but that wasn’t the fault of the cigar, I had a couple distractions while smoking that led me to ignore it long enough for it to go out.  Like it’s brethren, another great corona.

 

LaAuroraPreferidos_Corona_BroadleafAfter dinner, and before the Flyers game, I tackled the final, and most anticipated, La Aurora Preferidos corona, the Broadleaf, or Diamond. I find it curious that they chose to name these differently from the line of perfectos. Instead of putting Diamond, Ruby, et cetera, on the bands, they used the actual wrapper name.  Nothing that bothers me too much, and perhaps they wanted to distinguish the coronas from perfectos.  I kinda like it from a cigar nerd stand point. The broadleaf was very different from any of the rest of the examples in the line. The wrapper gave this cigar a very pungent, almost cloying flavor, and I was torn between loving it and being annoyed by it. I ended up loving it.  It was also very different from the BSB Broadleaf from the night before. It had a palate coating quality much like licorice, not the flavor, but the texture. Very interesting and entertaining cigar to smoke, and I enjoyed the heck out of it.

 

imageSumming up the experience of smoking the six La Aurora Preferidos Coronas, and thanks to Jason Wood and Gabriel Piñeres for getting these to me, if I were asked to put these in order of preference, I’d have to go, from top to bottom, Broadleaf, Connecticut, Cameroon, Maduro, Corojo and Ecuador, and that doesn’t mean the ones on the bottom of the list aren’t great, it’s just a combination of how they hit my palate and based solely on one sample of each. The experience was great, the size, 5½ x 42, was very nice, especially in the colder weather (which, no doubt, lead to the couple of tar issues I had). I believe these can be purchased via mail order, in addition to in the northeast region, I’ve seen that at Atlantic Cigars, with whom I have no affiliation, for around $43. Not a bad deal.

 

That’s all I have today, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

Share

9 Comments

Filed under Review

9 Responses to Finishing Up the La Aurora Preferido Coronas and Bernie Parent at Goose’s

  1. Interesting. I haven’t tried the non perfectos, except the 107 and 1495. I like the perfectos a great deal, but rate the maduro quite low,whereas had some great experiences with the Ecuador. The 107 is quite nice, BTW, but the 1495 I wasn’t impressed with; stronger yet cruder. I’m still holding the 100 Anos and some reserve stuff. Have to say I’m very curious about the broadleaf perfecto now.

  2. Cmatt777

    I was up at a shop in NE Philly last night and Bernie was there. What a nice guy with endless amusing stories. I am looking forward to trying his cigar.

    • Is that Mike Patel’s place? I haven’t smoked the box pressed Lord Stanley or the Vezina, yet, but I can recommend the Conn Smythe, and I’ve on;y smoked the original box pressed robusto and the toro and they are pretty good. Bernie’s a great story teller, that’s for sure!

  3. Dan Colley

    Thanks for the review of the La Aurora Perfidios coronas. As I’ve said, coronas are my favorite vitola and La Aurora holds a special spot in my heart as being the very first hand-rolled cigar that I ever smoked. I will be on board with some of them. I’ll likely start off with your top ranked cigar (the broadleaf) and work my way down. Thanks again. Great review.

    I am also looking forward to the additional information that you said you would provide on the draw testing machines. The link you gave me last week was very informative.

  4. Lonnie Brooks

    A good word and some nice pics, thanks!

  5. JScott

    I’ve had many La Aurora cigars and have never been disappointed. I’ll have to search for the Preferido. Thx for the review.

  6. Patrick

    Thanks for sharing your night with Bernie

  7. Commish

    Thanks for the breakdown on the line.

  8. czerbe

    That is awesome to meet a Legend like Bernie I haven’t tried any of his smokes. But I will soon