A cigar and Snickers by Frank Seltzer
Last Friday at Washington, D.C.’s “Little Puff” La Aurora began the roll out of its new Fernando Leon Cigar. It has been shipped to stores and should be showing up in the coming days. What is the Fernando Leon? Well the answer is complicated.
One of the best cigars La Aurora has ever made was the Don Fernando. It was the personal cigar of Don Fernando Leon, who took over his family’s cigar business in the 1950s. Don Fernando stayed at the helm of La Aurora until the 90s when his son Guillermo took over. At first, the cigar was either smoked or given out by Don Fernando himself to friends. It had a special Cameroon wrapper over Dominican Olor binder and Dominican seco and ligero fillers. I still remember the first one Guillermo gave me in the 90s. The cigar was only one size, a Number 4 or corona (5.5”x 42). On occasion La Aurora would sell some of the “overruns” or put more simply, the cigars that Don Fernando did not smoke or give away. In Dallas, we were lucky to get a few boxes several times a year and we snapped them up. The packaging on the cigar was very understated, it was a standard Leon Jimenes box that simply had the words in Spanish , made especially for Don Fernando Leon.)
Don Fernando worked with Guillermo and Jose Blanco on what became the company’s critically acclaimed 100th anniversary cigar the Cien Anos. That cigar was released in 2003. ( While the Cien Anos came back in a limited edition this year, the company’s 107 line is another anniversary smoke marking the company’s 107th year.)
As time went on, Don Fernando also smoked the Cien Anos and fell in love with the Dominican corojo wrapper. He then decided he wanted a true Dominican puro for his personal cigar and the wrapper was changed to the Dominican corojo that was used for the Cien Anos. The cigar, while different, was also spectacular.
When Don Fernando passed away in Spring 2009, son Guillermo wanted to come up with a way to release his father’s cigar to everyone. After all, Don Fernando has honored HIS father with the creation of the Leon Jimenes line. There was a problem though…the blend for the Don Fernando only worked in the corona size. In a robusto, which was the favorite of Guillermo’s brother, it was a totally different cigar, not bad but just totally unrecognizable from the original. (Once as a joke, I gave one to Jose Blanco after a day of smoking and asked him what it was, he could not identify it. When told what it was, he simply said, “See, it doesn’t work in this size.”)
Fast forward to this year’s IPCPR show and La Aurora was displaying the new Fernando Leon cigar . The cigar comes in the traditional corona or number 4 size but also in a 5”x50 robusto, 6” x 47 corona gorda, 6”x58 gran toro and a 6.25” x 52 belicoso. But is it the same cigar? No. The Fernando Leon does use the Dominican corojo wrapper and binder but adds in Peruvian and Brazilian tobaccos to the filler. I have not smoked a corona to compare it to the original, but my guess is the additional tobaccos were needed to keep the cigar’s flavor the same across the different sizes. As for the pricing, the Fernando Leon will run just under $8 for the corona ( about the same price as the Don Fernando) up to just over $10 for the gran toro.
