La Aurora has announced that it is bringing its Santiago Collection of mixed-filler cigars to the U.S.
Next month, the Santiago Maduro will ship to stores. It uses an Indonesian maduro wrapper over an Indonesian binder and fillers from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. In September, the Santiago Connecticut will arrive on shelves; it uses an Ecuadorian Connecticut-seed wrapper over an Indonesian binder and fillers from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. Both lines are mixed filler, meaning they use a combination of the long-filler tobaccos found in most handmade cigars as well as smaller pieces of tobacco that are produced as larger pieces are cut for other cigars.
Both blends are offered in the same two vitolas:
- Santiago Connecticut/Maduro Robusto (5 x 50) — $2.50 (Bundle of 20, $50)
- Santiago Connecticut/Maduro Toro (6 x 54) — $3 (Bundle of 20, $60)
“Blending a Maduro is about balance — sweetness from the wrapper, depth from the fillers,” said Manuel Inoa, master blender of La Aurora, in a press release. “Santiago Maduro uses both long-filler, and medium-filler tobaccos instead of only long-filler you’d find in our core line, so the real challenge was construction — finding leaves that would hold their burn and draw the entire way down, not just in the first third. We went through several rounds of blending to get that right without losing the coffee and wood notes people expect from us. The end result is a cigar that brings new smokers into the La Aurora family without asking them to compromise on quality.”
The cigars are named after Santiago de los Caballeros, the home of most of the Dominican Republic’s cigar industry.
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La Aurora
La Aurora Cigar Factory
Santiago
Santiago Connecticut
Santiago Maduro
