The Dominican Republic was the first country I visited working in the cigar industry nearly twenty years ago and La Aurora was the first factory — and next came La Aurora’s Cigar Institute.

I can still remember Jose Blanco (who was with La Aurora at the time) picking me up from the Gran Almirante hotel in Santiago and handing me cigars.  He questioned my expertise on what I thought which tobaccos were in whatever mystery blend that he handed me.

How was I to know? I never had the chance to try individual tobaccos, especially not enough to be able to pinpoint specific ones inside of a blend.  I could only take a guess as to what it was based on other cigars that I had tried before and knew what tobaccos I was told they contained.  The resources to learn twenty years ago were a lot more limited than today.

While sitting at an airport waiting for a flight headed back to La Aurora in the Dominican Republic to attend their Cigar Institute, it’s easy to reminisce about all the changes to the cigar lifestyle since I first visited the factory two decades ago.  I can’t go to my local brewery or bar to enjoy cigars anymore.  You can’t even enjoy a cigar outside in some places and a lot of us must deal with exorbitant taxes.  Despite the odds though, the cigar industry has continued to not only grow, but thrive.

With all the information available on cigars today: the process, the tobaccos, the countries who produce cigars and those who make them, there is still nothing better than firsthand experience.  Years ago, there weren’t many opportunities for people to see the cigar making process firsthand.  If you weren’t in the cigar industry it really wasn’t possible to visit a cigar factory let alone walk around a factory to see the entire process.  The idea of making or rolling cigars didn’t even come to mind.

Today, we can explore the world of cigars through festivals like Procigar in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua’s Puro Sabor and many individual cigar companies offer trips, tours and welcome visitors with open arms.  Some of the companies will even let you blend a cigar.  You can choose the tobaccos from a list and sometimes even try to put the wrapper tobacco on yourself.  Then they will present you with a finished bundle of your blend at the end of the trip.  One of the most in-depth and hands on trips that I have ever experienced though, was La Aurora’s Cigar Institute.

What Makes La Aurora’s Cigar Institute Great

La Aurora’s Cigar Institute is an incredible experience that will take you through the entire process and see it firsthand, from seed to packaging.  Many trips today allow you to do that.

The cigar making process isn’t that much different from one factory to the next other than specific practices in say fermentation temps, how tobacco is rehydrated after aging, etc. La Aurora’s Cigar Institute on the other hand is a deep dive not only into the process, but you spend time learning about the tobacco plant, about specific tobaccos, agricultural practices, countries of origin and one of the best parts – getting your hands on and trying specific, individual tobaccos for the purpose of creating your own blend.

Creating your own blend isn’t just a matter of checking off boxes on a piece of paper and handing it over to be made.  You will learn about the ratios of tobaccos in a blend, how many leaves it will take to make a blend and then you will make the cigar, from beginning to end.  You will personally pick out the tobaccos of your choice, your wrapper, your binder and fillers.  You will then create the bunch and put the binder on, place it in the molds, put the wrapper on as well as the cap and finally take your cigars to packaging where you will put on the bands and place them in a box.

It’s easy to fall in love with cigars and seeing the process of how they are made firsthand allows you to really appreciate them.  When you try to bunch and make a cigar with your own hands it takes that appreciation to the next level.  It’s easy to know how a cigar should smoke, what a well-constructed cigar is, but after you try to do it you may find yourself not being so harsh on the small imperfections you may find while enjoying a cigar.  Then when you get a cigar that is beautifully constructed, you really understand how difficult that is to accomplish.

That’s just on the physical “building” of a cigar, not to mention what it takes to get the tobaccos ready to use and then of course the blending process and understanding how each tobacco can work with and play off one another.  It sounds easy – but just wait until you try it yourself.

The Cigar Institute program is a three-day, intensive course given by non other than Master Blender Manuel Inoa.  Upon arriving and at the first dinner, attendees will be given a gift bag with La Aurora Merchandise, a La Aurora cigar travel case, cutter, lighter and an extensive selection of La Aurora’s offerings.  The dinners are where you will also be able to enjoy as much of La Aruroa’s Cien Años rum as you like.

The Itinerary

The remaining trips itinerary will look like the following:

Day 1 at La Aurora’s Cigar Institute (Theory)

• Tobacco and its history
• Economic and Social Importance of Tobacco in the Dominican Republic
• Microclimate and cultivation zones, seed selection and soil preparation
• Seedbeds, cultural practices
• Harvesting and curing
• Lunch Break; (smoke tobaccos from various zones, “perritos”)
• Processes for fermentation and aging of raw tobacco
• Pre-manufacturing preparation
• Visit to processes with detailed viewing of destalking of filler

Day 2 La Aurora’s Cigar Institute (Theory/Practice)

• Factory Tour
• Cigar manufacturing process (begun in primary process)
• Lunch break
• Selection of tobaccos
• Manufacturing — final pressing and rolling

Day 3 La Aurora’s Cigar Institute (Practice)

LIVE THE EXPERIENCE

• Rolling cigars
• Selection of cigars, cutting and lighting
• Ringing and packaging
• Lunch Break
• Basics of sensory evaluation
• Tasting: comparing a fresh cigar vs. an aged cigar
• Tasting Seminar
• Knowledge test

The lunch breaks need to be mentioned.  You will get to experience traditional Dominican cuisine in abundance, accompanied with Dominican coffee and the Dominican’s own Presidente beer.  Lunch is probably one of the most crucial parts of the experience as you will be tasting a lot of tobaccos and enjoying a lot of cigars, which is always recommended to do on a full stomach.

The Cigar Institute is great for anyone interested in cigars whether you’re just getting into the hobby or a seasoned pro.  As many cigar tours and trips that I have been on throughout the years one can quickly understand that there is always more to learn.  This trip gives you the opportunity to experience cigars like nothing else out there.  Anyone who attends will no doubt walk away with more appreciation for cigars than ever before.

It’s not just what’s in a cigar that matters, but who makes it and the terroir that a lot of factories exhibit. La Aurora is most certainly one of those. It’s also a company whose cigars I have appreciated along my entire cigar journey.  They have a distinct character that can’t be reproduced anywhere. When you have a La Aurora cigar you know it.  There is no better place to dive deep into the process with hands on experience than at La Aurora’s Cigar Institute.

For more information and to learn about how you can attend La Aurora’s Cigar Institute be sure to check out: https://laauroracigarworld.com/la-aurora-cigar-institute/?lang=en