Cigarticle: La Aurora

February 27, 2006

CW Member Frank Seltzer (Mowee) describes his recent trip to La Aurora

Learning more about the whole cigar process has been a desire of many smokers.

Often, what is learned comes from bulletin boards, magazines, cigar representatives and sometimes manufacturers. The trouble is often the information is much like the old game of whisper down the lane where one person tells another and so on. By the end of the line it rarely resembles the original story. That's why we decided to try to cut the process short by going directly to the source.

For years, Jose Blanco had been inviting us down to La Aurora but flights had been expensive during the times when the crops would still be in the fields. This year, we bit the bullet and went for it.

Our trip began dark and early on Saturday Februrary 4^th. We flew from Dallas to Miami for a 7 hour layover before our early evening flight to Santiago.

We had arranged in Miami to meet with George Rico of STC Cigars. George picked us up at the airport and took us to his office. We have been big fans of STC, especially the GR Specials and George decided we needed a care package for our trip.

In that package were two bundles of a new blend he is working on to retool one of the Gran Habanos lines. We really enjoyed the blend but for now wont say what it is.

Our flight to the DR was uneventful and with the two-hour time change (The Dominican Republic is on Atlantic time) we arrived fairly early for us, late for them.

Jose met us at the airport to take us to our hotel and he brought gifts; La Aurora Maduros, a few test blends and a 1495 each of us.

We got settled in our rooms at the Gran Alamirante and immediately headed to the bar.. It was necessary for our research to find the best Dominican rum. For Saturday night we decided on Ron Barcelo Imperiale.

Sunday was an off day since the factory was closed. The DR works a Monday through Friday schedule. At La Aurora, the work day is 6 am to 3pm with an hour for lunch . We went to Boca Chica just outside Santo Domingo. On the drive down, Jose brought more cigarstest blends of churchills and Don Fernandos. We smoked the robusto test blends from the night before on the drive down and pronounced them delicious. ( The blend we liked was also the one Jose picked.)

Having passed the Presidente brewery, we felt it was our obligation to drink as much of it as possible. The Caribbean was very warm and the sun hot. It was lots of fun people watching as we continued testing some of the other blends.

After most of us getting fried on the beach (from the sun not the beer), we took time for a coffee and smoke inside the Hilton. As Jose said, this is a free country, you can smoke anywhere. (Well except the mall and inside the airport after security.)

This was where we really began our education. Talking about the process generally. Jose told us that this year the crop of tobacco looked exceptional. He also told us about a Nicaraguan criollo 98 from a few years back that looked wonderful with tons of oilyet that was the problem. Too much oil in the leaf wouldnt let it burn. That leaf reminded him of the original Habanaos 2000 that looked good but was too thick to burn. He said because it was a new hybrid people werent sure how to cure it and it took a while to get it right.

From the hotel we went to the colonial section of Santo Domingo. It is amazing to think this was where Columbus lived.

We continued smoking test blends on our return to Santiago. And the smoking continued into dinner where we had a large meal of steak, onions, plantains -- both mashed (tostones) and crispy fried (plantanitos). We learned that Dominican food has subtle spices and uses a lot of vinegar. Very tasty.

Monday was our day at the factory. Tuesday was spent in the fields. The first impression of the La Aurora complex is that of size. It is vast., complete with its own streets. Think Hollywood studio big. Think Disney clean and manicured.

Inside the complex is the cigar factory, cigarette factory, buildings for distribution of Presidente beer, a bank, medical facilities for the employees, a cafeteria, maintenance facilities and generatorslots of generators. Electricity in the DR can sometimes be iffy. We only experienced a problem once at a local shopping mall where the power went out for a few minutes but apparently it happens around the city so La Aurora has the standby generators to insure a constant flow of power.

The offices in the cigar factory are modest and functional. It was in Joses office that he continued our education by having us try to guess the wrapper on cigars.

The first one was almost Connecticut in its appearance. Light with very fine veins and it had a nice sheen. Jose gave us a tip to wait until about a quarter inch into it before deciding. Good thing. At the appropriate point, the taste kicked in and we guessed it was a Cubanthough we were totally lost on the blend. It was a very light Hoyo de Monterrey. That was about the last wrapper we got right. We began to realize how little we know about wrappers and blends.

One of the La Aurora farms is out past Davidoff. The Leon family does not farm all the acres all the time. They rotate crops to allow the soil to be replenished. This is unlike the Cuban operations which grow tobacco year after year since it is their primary cash crop. In the DR, the soil and its nutrients make the difference, just as in Honduras or Nicaragua. The variations in the soil can even be noticed field to field within the same farm let alone country or region.

The seedlings we saw were being grown two ways. One used a traditions spray from the top for water, the other had the plants sitting on top of a little pond to allow them to absorb the water from the bottom up.

Virtually all of the tobacco grown by La Aurora is corojo seed. La Flor Dominicana grows primarily criollo seed. However no matter the seed, each variety is considered Dominican tobacco. Most of the tobacco is shade grown.

This years crop looks very good indeed. The crop had just the right amount of rain and sun. The 6^th and 5^th primings had been done. The 6^th priming is the top leaves called corona. Out of a plant there are only about 8 leaves that are good for wrapper. Sometimes the 5^th is corona too but often it is ligero. Most of us think of ligero as the strongest, but they are not. On each stalk there are only two leaves known as mediotiempo,they are the strongest leaves. Below the ligero is the seco and the bottommost leaves are volado. Each priming is a cut from the top down 6^th being the highest, then 5^th and so on.

Drying barns are located on the farm. The tobacco begins its process of becoming useful. The green leaves are no good because they will not burnit takes time to allow some of the oils and moisture to dissipate. The leaves hang in bunches and will slowly turn from their current green to the brown with which we are all familiar.

Once the leaves are dried, they go to the fermentation area located a short drive from the farm. Here, the leaves are piled into pilones stacks of the bunched leaves a few feet high. This is where the ammonia begins to dissipate. The pilones at La Aurora were different from others we have seen. Instead of the usual full square, they had an open center to allow more air circulation and less heat buildup in the center. Think of a compost heap where temperatures get very high in the center. The La Aurora design helps control the fermentation without having the leaves in the center of the pile getting too hot.

The tobacco is constantly rotated and turned as the ammonia lessens. The leaves have already taken on the brown color.

Towards the end of their time in fermentation, the wrapper veins become smaller and the wrapper itself becomes silky.

After fermentation is complete, the tobacco is brought to the La Aurora complex for a final step.

The tobacco goes into old rum barrels at the factory.

The tobacco sits in the old barrels for 8-to-10 months. The rum is long gone from the wood, but the wood itself helps in the aging, imparting a subtle flavor.

The factory itself is located downstairs from the rum barrels and sits directly behind Joses office. It is deceptively large, extremely efficient, clean and bright.

The reason it is deceptively large is that some of the processes for the building of the cigar are in different rooms. Stripping, blending and rolling are separate.

The process begins in the stripping room.

It is here, machines remove all the stems from the leaves.

The leaves are lines up, fed into the machine and the stems are automatically removed. So much more efficient that doing it by hand.

From the de-stemming process, the tobacco goes to the blending room. Using the same process as Cuban factories, the blenders group the tobacco for each blend. Again this improved efficiency and consistency.

In the finishing area, the rollers work in modules, eight to a team. Four of the rollers do the bunching.

For the regular La Aurora and Leon Jimenes lines they use a device which the Cubans simply call a machine but the Dominicans call it a Lieberman. No machine is used for 100 anos, Preferidos and the Don Fernandos.

The machine is much like what we know as a cigarette-rolling machine where the leaves are placed in the vinyl or leather portion and then a lever rolls them into a bunch. Once the filler and binder are rolled, they go into mold. The filled molds are put into the press to help them keep their shapes.

After an hour or so in the press, the bunched cigars are ready for finishing. Here, the other four rollers in the module add the wrapper and the cap, cutting the cigar down to the correct size.

This area is for the usual La Aurora and Leon Jimenez lines including the 100 anos and 1495. The Preferidos are a whole different story. As part of the complex, the Leon family built a replica of the original factory at 24 Independencia.

It is located on the outside of security and open to the public. It is here that the rollers work on the Preferidos. Unlike the main factory, one roller does it all, working on the cigar blending, bunching and finishing.

Quality is extremely important at La Aurora. So is time. Each Preferido is left to age after rolling for 180 days.

Once the cigars have rested, the go to the sorting area where the colors are matched.

The final step is applying the band and boxing.

What is interesting about the premium operation is that all the tobacco is accounted for. La Aurora knows how much tobacco each roller gets and then their output is weighed. It needs to be very close to the weight of the tobacco given them. This is part of the impressive quality control, which includes draw testing as well. Scrap tobacco is used for the Habanitos and some of the shorter remnants are used for the mixed filler flavors they make for Don Lino (Tatianas) and CAO. Rather than simply injecting the cigars large tumblers infuse it with the flavor. Machines make the cigars.

We also saw over our two days the La Aurora cigarette operation. Here, one machine can make 5,000 cigarettes per minute! La Aurora makes Marlboros and its own Nacional brand for the DR. This was interesting as well but no photos were allowed.

Our two days were filled with information. We tried various wrappers, some over familiar blends. Others we had no idea about. Jose would ask us which wrapper was which but we could not figure it out. Jose on the other hand could smoke a cigar and tell where the tobacco originated, or in one case he told us a Nicaraguan cigar we gave him was not a total Nicaraguan, it had something else in it. He was right.

Jose and Guerillmo were generous with their information. They admitted not all cigar makers will tell the truth about their puros. They fear someone may copy it. But as Jose said the key to La Aurora and Leon Jimenes is the process. The way they age the tobacco, the time spentand then the quality control on the blends. They have no fear of telling you exactly what is in their cigars because they believe no one could duplicate it. For example, the 100 anos cigars made to commemorate La Auroras 100^th anniversary in 2003 (debuted at RTDA 2003 and released in2004) took 8-9 years for the piloto cubano filler to age. The corojo filler is 5 years old. This is why the 100 anos are so limited in production, the company must wait until the tobacco is old enough and just right. La Aurora is so picky about the wrapper for the 100 anos that the wrapper that does not measure up is used as the binder in the 1495s.

On one of our outings around Santiago, we found this avenue27^th of February. It has multiple significances. First, it is the day of Dominican Independence (from Haiti in 1844). Second, it is national Cigar Day to commemorate the day that Oscar Hammerstein I patented his first cigar-rolling machine in 1883. ( (A footnote, Hammerstein used the money from his inventions to build theaters in New York City and invested heavily in the theater. His grandson Oscar Hammerstein II is probably more famous for having co-written South Pacific, Carousel, The King and I and The Sound of Music.) And third, it is my birthday.

What we realized as we were leaving was our knowledge of tobacco was limited to country but even then we could be fooled. We rarely know what seed is being used. A corojo in the DR is dramatically different from one grown in Honduras or for that matter in the Jalapa Valley or Esteli in Nicaragua. I guess we will have to go back to learn more.

Frank Seltzer (Mowee) is a former network correspondent who now owns a media consulting company in Dallas, TX. A regular cigar smoker since 1973, he runs the DFW Cigar Society that has almost 300 members who get together twice a month to trade smokes and lies. He also runs away as often as he can to his condo in Maui...hence the name Mowee (which btw was the way Captain Cook originally spelled the island when he heard Hawaiians speak it.)