La Aurora Cigars

La Aurora was founded on October 3, 1903, by Eduardo León Jimenes, then eighteen years old, who began production in the Guazumal community near Santiago de los Caballeros with a payroll of six tobacco rollers. The company's first cigars were perfecto-shaped, sold under the name Preferidos, and are considered the origin of what is now one of the oldest continuously operating cigar brands in the Dominican Republic.

Production moved to Santiago de los Caballeros in 1912 and to Villa Progreso on the city's outskirts in 1963, before returning operations to Guazumal in 2007; the company's headquarters now sit in the Tamboril Free Zone off Avenida 27 de Febrero, just outside Santiago. Leadership has passed through four generations of the founding family: from Eduardo León Jimenes to his brother Herminio, then to nephew Eduardo León Asensio, and, since 1995, to Guillermo León Herbert.

Each of La Aurora's cigars is hand-rolled using a different blend of tobacco varieties depending on the brand, distinguishing the factory's output from machine-made cigars built from chopped leaf and pulp. Visitors can book a guided tour through the tobacco seed nursery, a curing barn, the pressing and rolling floor, and the aging rooms, concluding at the on-site La Aurora cigar lounge and store. The company's product lines include its flagship La Aurora range and the León Jimenes brand, introduced in 1987 to honor the family name.