The Good Stuff:

Originally released as a European exclusive, the Viaje Circa ’45 Nicaragua has made its way to the United States. This release serves as Viaje’s owner, Andre Farkas’ tribute to Cuba. The all Aganorsa lead makeup is composed of a Nicaraguan Habano wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and filler. Produced at the Aganorsa Leaf factory in Nicaragua  the Viaje Circa ’45 Nicaragua comes in three sizes: No. 1 (5 x 52), No. 2 (5 1/8 x 58), and the No. 3 (6 x 54) running between $12 and $14 a stick. I purchased mine over from our good friends at Cigars International

• Size:  5 x 52
• Wrapper: Nicaraguan Habano
• Binder: Nicaraguan
• Filler: Nicaraguan
• Body: Medium/Full
• Strength: Medium/Full
• Price:  $12
• Pairing: Bottle Logic Roll for Initiative 2018 (Imperial Stout 13.8% ABV)
• 

Prelight:

The Viaje Circa ’45 Nicaragua starts out with a really rustic, messy looking wrapper. The wrapper is mostly medium brown in color with lots of yellow-tinted areas along with darker brown areas. The wrapper’s texture is pretty thin and delicate with a decent amount of tooth and a whole mess of oils coating it. The body of the cigar showcases quite a few larger veins running their course through the cigar’s body up to the round, double-wrapped cap. The cigar is then polished off with a Cubanesque red, white and gold band with the Circa ’45 crest embossed on the front. 

The wrapper on the Viaje Circa ’45 Nicaragua gives off a sharp spice and cashew aroma with some light citrus while the foot of the cigar carries a much more organic mixtures of hay, grass, and natural tobacco. The Viaje Circa ’45 Nicaragua cut clean and easily using my Xikar XO double bladed cutter. The cold draw produced bold notes of cashew and spice over natural hay aromas.

First Third:

Right of the bat the Viaje Circa ’45 Nicaragua hits you with a ton of cayenne pepper. This pepper bomb lasted quite sometime before fading slightly allowing the cigar to release some strong cashew, orange, oak and light ginger over a mixture of very earthy flavors. The draw is perfect as each little puff kicks out a huge cloud of thick, white smoke. The burnline was thin and even leaving behind a trail of tightly compacted white and light gray ash which held on for almost an inch before giving way.

Second Third:

The pepper is still a dominant force in the Viaje Circa ’45 Nicaragua’s flavor profile until about the midway point of the second half. At times, it was almost overwhelming. Now that the pepper has calmed the cigar can really release some bold cashew and light wood notes over spice, hay, ginger, and vanilla. The retrohale immediately brings that pepper back to the front of the taste so I stopped that right away. I close out the second third with a minor nicotine kick.

Finish:

Into the final third of the Viaje Circa ’45 Nicaragua and not a lot has changed. The cashew leads the way backed by wood, vanilla, spice, and hay over some of the that citrus that I picked up in the preflight. I suspect the pepper was suppressing a lot of that. It took me about an hour and a half to smoke this down to the nub. I experienced no harshness nor any extended heat. I did however feel quite a bit of a nicotine hit towards the end of the experience. 

Overview:

The Viaje Circa ’45 Nicaragua isn’t a bad cigar by any means, but the pronounced and at times, overwhelming pepper flavor that dominates the experience didn’t exactly cater to my personal profile. I felt the flavors underneath were very Cubanesque, but that dominant pepper flavor isn’t one I encounter very often in Cuban cigars. While this is all subjective the construction and burn were all flawless. The price is alright, however I think it may be a bit pricey for me. That is also based off of the flavor profile not matching my subjective choice. 

Pairing:

Roll For Initiative is a 13.8% ABV Imperial Stout brewed by Bottle Logic Brewing in California. The base beer is their famous Fundamental Observation (bourbon barrel aged vanilla stout) which is then aged with even more Madagascar vanilla beans and then finished with cassia bark. The result is delicious. The beer leads with a huge splash of sweet vanilla (still going strong after a few years), dark chocolate, cinnamon, black licorice and some dark cherry with a very heavy mouthfeel before finishing with even more sweet vanilla, toffee, cinnamon and a great bourbon barrel bite. This beer is incredible and really helped add some sweetness, complexity and dimension to the Viaje Circa 45.

The post Viaje Circa ’45 Nicaragua appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

The Good Stuff: Andre Farkas of Viaje has been creating his holiday blend every year since 2009. I’ve had the pleasure of smoking most of the releases and I look forward to the release each year around Christmas time. Usually I find that Viaje’s cigars sell out relatively fast, and are hard to find but that hasn’t been as much of the story as of late. Heck, I can even find these locally as I picked this up at Old Fort Bliss Cigars here on base in El Paso. The Holiday Blend Christmas Tree is a Nicaraguan Puro sporting a Nicaraguan Criollo wrapper. The Christmas Tree comes in one size a 4 x 60 torpedo packaged in boxes of 20 priced at $204.00 a box with only 400 boxes released.

Size: 4 x 60 Torpedo
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Criollo
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Strength: Full
Body: Full
Price: $10.20
Pairing: Prairie Artisan Ales Prairie Bomb! (Imperial Stout 13% ABV)

Prelight: The Holiday Blend Christmas Tree comes with its own wrapping. The cigar is covered with a metallic green and silver snowflake patterned wrapping paper. Underneath the wrapping paper you will find a standard silver and green holiday blend band with a secondary white band with nothing but a little green Christmas tree printed on it.  The cigar itself is a stalky little thing. I haven’t seen this vitola in use much with the exception of some of the nub blends. It’s a thick, and very hard cigar. It actually feels like a little cylinder of cement in terms of weight and density. The wrapper is a very dark brown with some awesome darker/black webbing throughout the leaf. The Christmas is polished off with a long, sharp, torpedo. The construction on this cigar is great as the wrapper leaf is laid seamlessly with absolutely no soft spots at all.

The wrapper on the Christmas Tree gives off nothing but a slight tobacco and chocolate aroma while the foot of the cigar has some pronounced pepper mixed in with earthiness. The cap cut clean and easily using my Palio double bladed cutter. The cold draw kicks out a ton of black pepper, chocolate, and coffee flavors.

First Half: Due to the format of this smoke I decided to break it up into halves instead of thirds. The Holiday Blend Christmas Tree starts as expected with a ton of back pepper on the front finishing with a bit of sweet chocolate, coffee, and some syrupy raisin. The draw on this cigar is insane! Every little puff just pumps out huge clouds of thick white smoke. It’s a small cigar, but I could see myself really taking my time with this one. The burnline is thin, and steady with only some very slight waves. The ash left behind is pretty flaky in some areas, compact in others while sporting a dark and medium grey color. The ash held on until it hit the secondary band when I tapped it into my ashtray. I am starting to feel a bit of the nicotine, but not a whole lot yet.

Final Half: Into the second half of Viaje’s Holiday Blend Christmas tree and the raisin flavor I picked up in the first half has become much more pronounced and it leading the flavor race with some great chocolate/cocoa flavors, coffee, and spice. The black pepper held it’s own but finally dropped out of contention as I reached the halfway mark. The retrohale is very, very sharp and full of strong pepper. I won’t be doing much more of that with this cigar. The cigar finished very strong, and smooth with lots of flavor. It took me a little over an hour to take it down to the nub and left me with a great little nicotine kick. The burnline got pretty thick and real rough and wavy into the second third. I tried to keep up with it as it required quite a few touch ups from my lighter.

Overview: The cigar was great. My biggest issue was the size/shape. 60 ring gauges aren’t very comfortable to begin with. Adding a torpedo cap made it a bit easier on the mouth, but the stubby nature of the cigar made it kind of clumsy in my hand. The construction on the other hand was suburb. The flavors were great, and the strength was strong and right up my alley. That being said, I just think that the $10+ price tag that comes with this cigar is pushing the absolute limit of what I would pay for it. I understand it’s limited, and a special occasion cigar. I just don’t see myself buying very many of these to keep around. I find that it’s always a bit of a toss up with Viaje. Sometimes I feel their blends far exceed my expectations and others fall short. The Christmas Tree is right in the middle.

Pairing: After this disgusting display of hockey from my Devils this weekend, I had to take on something bold to snap me out of it. Prairie Artisan Ales’ Prairie Bomb! Fit that role perfectly. In all honesty, the Prairie bomb! Is probably one of, if not the best stout I have ever had in my life. Prairie Bomb! Is a 13% or 14% ABV Imperial stout aged on espresso beans, chocolate, vanilla beans, and ancho chili peppers. Doesn’t that sound intense? Well it is. First of all, the reason why I state 13% or 14% is due to some information found on the web. Everything states “14%” including one of the bottles I have. But for whatever reason this bottle in particular says “13%”. Why the mix up? Who cares, it tastes great. The vanilla and chocolate are very pronounced making an awesome sweet, thick, and smooth stout while the espresso and chili are only really evident on the nose and the aftertaste adding a great change up to each taste of the beer. The first time I tried this beer I was scared that the chili would add too much spice to the flavor profile, but it’s so mild that all it does really is add a bit of bite to the after taste. Now think about that. Spice, espresso, vanilla, and chocolate. I can’t think of a better combination to pair with this cigar. A big plus was that the beer was so full flavor that even while the cigar was full bodied, it really anchored the flavor and pulled the body of the cigar up even higher than it already was.

The post Viaje – Holiday Blend Christmas Tree 2013 appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

As for me, life has been pretty busy and it will surely continue to be that way until the big wedding day coming up in September. I did manage to sneak away last week and put together a review of the Viaje Oro Edicion Limitada Perfecto Squared. Try saying that 10 times fast! haha.

Now Viaje is a brand I don’t really get to see a lot of North of the border in Canada. Due to their mostly limited production they also have a fairly limited distribution and they also seem to be well sought after, making them even harder to come by. The few I have gotten come from trades or bombs, just like this one did. Today’s Viaje is part of their Oro line up and is the limited edition version, so it’s even more limited production so I’m happy to have a chance to review this one for everybody.

There isn’t a ton of info on the Viaje brand or this particular cigar but I’ll do my best to give a little bit of background. The brand owner is Andre Farkas and he naturally portrays the brand as a boutique cigar company which specializes in small batch cigars. The actual name Viaje is a Spanish word that translates to ‘Journey’ and Andre currently has 7 lines under the Viaje flag. The Oro lines is produced at the Raices Cubanas factory and comes wrapped with a Corojo99 leaf and a double binder.

Now if you can get your hands on a few of these, they’ve all been pretty darn tasty from the small samplings I’ve had so far. They are all Nicaraguan puros, so if you are a Nicaraguan fan, you will be at home here. So let’s jump on in and see if the Viaje Oro Edicion Limitada Perfecto Squared lives up to the reputation that I’ve come to expect from the brand so far.

Cigar: Viaje Oro Edicion Limitada Perfecto Squared
Drink: Unibroue Raftman
Vitola: Double Torpedo (5.25 x 52)
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Corojo 99
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Price: About $9
Burn Time: A little over an hour

Construction:
• The Viaje Oro Edicion Limitada is an interesting looking figurado shaped cigar with a very dark brown wrapper that has a few golden highlights
• The wrapper definitely has some toothiness to it and isn’t afraid to show off a little bit of oilyness
• The cap of the cigar is finished cleanly with a single leaf that blends away into the wrapper
• There is definitely a soft springiness to this cigar, more so near the foot, I’m hoping it doesn’t translate into an open draw
• The foot itself is almost closed, with maybe just a quarter inch visible so I can’t really tell if it’s well packed or not
• A couple medium sized veins show through on the wrapper but they are fairly short and don’t look like they will be a problem
• The stick I have has a small crack in the wrapper near the band, probably from shipment, hopefully it doesn’t cause any problems

Burn:
• The foot is so small on this cigar so toasting was obviously super easy, now let’s see if it works out to be a nice burn too
• I always tend to have a lot of burn issues at the start of tapered cigars like this but this one seems to be starting off pretty well
• Through the first inch the burn is a bit wavy but it seems to be staying within a decent range and not requiring touchups
• The waves got the better of the burn and I needed to give it a quick touch up near the halfway mark

Smoke & Ash:
• Even from the tiny tapered foot at the start this cigar started producing massive amounts of smoke from each and every draw
• The resting smoke was consistent but not overpowering, just a nice light line steadily emerging from the foot
• The initial ash is nothing pretty, it seems pretty uneven and dark grey or black in most spots
• I tapped it off after about an inch since it looked like it was gonna fall anyway
• The ash also has no smooth burn lines to it, weird to see that it’s all just chunks here and there
• The next ash lasted a bit longer than an inch but it was still fairly weak and pretty much exploded when hitting the ashtray

Tasting Notes:
• The aroma on the wrapper is fairly light with only a little bit of woodsy aromas shining through
• The foot is very small so the aromas were pretty much the same as the wrapper here
• The pre-light draw carries more of the woodiness through but this time it’s much more noticeable and comes with a bit of clove and fresh vegetal notes as well
• The initial flavors are very similar to the pre-light with a lot of woodiness and vegetal flavors, plus a bit more of the clove spices
• The spices started to pick up as I head past the 1 inch mark, lots of interesting peppers, nutmeg and a bit of saltiness I usually only find in cubans
• As with a lot of sharply tapered cigars, I tend to get a bit of the oils coming out of the cap that make it a little bitter. Cutting it a bit more usually resolves this problem
• I’m getting a bit of leather in the mix now and the wood flavors have become more toasted now
• For the most part, the whole cigar has been in the medium bodied range and it’s had a nice bite on the retrohale with a smooth woodsy and clove finish
• Just past the half-way mark I’m getting a nice espresso flavor mixing in with the spices and woodsiness, this is getting better and better!
• All the flavors really started to gain some intensity near the end and balance out amazingly
• A nice tasty and flavorful finish without any harshness to worry about, bravo!

Final Thoughts:
I haven’t had too many Viaje’s in my days, mostly because they don’t reach Canada in distribution and of course they are fairly limited. But all-in-all I quite enjoyed this one! The ash may not have been pretty but we’re not here for good looks, we’re here for flavors and the Viaje Oro Edicion Limitada Perfecto Squared did not miss the mark there at all. Tons of interesting flavors that kept changing made me wonder what the next draw was going to bring me, I love having that in any cigar. There were a couple issues on the burn but nothing major that I would knock this cigar for. The price is a bit up there at the $9 mark but even at that price I’d say it’s worth trying a few of these. That is, if you can find them cause they are pretty much all gone from what I can tell.

Pairings:
I’m not gonna re-invent the wheel here, I already did a good write up on the Unibroue Raftman when I paired it with the La Reloba Seleccion Sumatra. Here’s the rundown from my last post:

Next to the Scottish brewery of Innis & Gunn that I paired last week, another of my favorite breweries is none other than Canada’s own Unibroue. This place is based out of Quebec and has a HUGE inventory of brews with a ton of different and unique beers that are a rare find. Today’s brew is called Raftman and I only found a case of these while actually in Quebec, I’ve never seen it in any other stores so far. Now this brew was very interesting as the label says it is brewed with Whisky Malts so I just had to pick it up and give it a try. Well I’m glad I did cause this is one tasty brew and yet again another winner from Unibroue. It’s a fairly light amber beer but it packs in a ton of flavor. The whisky malts are very obvious as they give a classic touch of whisky, as if you just put a little whisky inside a good beer. Along with that it also has a delicious malty finish and some notes of sweetness as well.

As for the pairing, I found it made an awesome compliment for the Viaje Oro Edicion Limitada Perfecto Squared. The unique and interesting flavors on the cigar made for an awesome experience to go with the beer. Other good selections could have been a nice Porto, or a flavored coffee seems like an interesting idea here.

The post Viaje Oro Edicion Limitada Perfecto Squared appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

The Late Harvest might sound familiar to any wine aficionados we have around here. In the wine world, some grapes are harvested later in the season to produce a slightly different type of wine typically called a Late Harvest. It’s even a popular method of making Ice Wine which is a very interesting dessert wine especially common to the Niagara region wineries up here in Ontario.

Contrary to what the name actually seems to mean, the Late Harvest cigar from Viaje is not actually produced with tobacco leaves harvested later in the season. It’s trademark is actually that the filler being used is sourced from the last priming’s of the tobacco plant. These last priming’s are left on the plant slightly longer and are also exposed to the sun longer, this produces a darker, thicker, oilier and stronger leaf. The blend is said to have about 90% of it’s filler from these last priming’s.

To put the limited blend into perspective, the Late Harvest is made in 125 boxes of 35 cigars each making a grand total of 4375 cigars(if my math is right). The Late Harvest was debuted at IPCPR 2011 and it seems like Andre is planning to make a yearly release of it, although the yield could change from year-to-year. The production factory of these cigars is located in Honduras, the popular Racines Cubanas factory which is part of Casa Fernandez Cigar company.

My one gripe here is that there’s no indication on the band of the production year. Although I know this one is a 2011 release since it’s brand new, I would have liked to see an indication for future years to compare with and keep track of when aging. I guess we’ll have to be vigilant and make note of them if you’re not buying a box. But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, lets see if these cigars are worth aging and worth trying out next year…

Cigar: Viaje Late Harvest
Drink: Wychwood Brewery Wychcraft Blonde Beer
Vitola: Toro (6 x 48)
Wrapper: Nicaraguan
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Price: About $9.00
Burn Time: 1.5 hours

Construction:
• The Viaje Late Harvest is a bit of a rough looking cigar with a few medium sized veins running up and down along with some bumps here and there
• The wrapper presents with a medium cinnamon brown colour with some dark speckles here and there, it’s also fairly coarse
• The top of the cigar is finished with tight little pigtail on top of a triple cap that looks clean and well applied
• A little squeeze produces almost no give, the Viaje Late Harvest is fairly firm from foot to cap
• With a quick glance at the foot it’s easy to see this is a well filled cigar with almost no gaps to be seen
• Clipping off the cap with my double bladed guillotine cutter was fairly easy and left a nice clean cut

Burn:
• The foot of the cigar lit up very quickly and easily while toasting
• The initial burn has an interesting zig-zag pattern… let’s hope it tightens up
• Zig zag seemed to calm down and although it’s a bit wavy we’re off to a better start now
• A couple small corrections were needed in the first half but they were very minor and did not affect the flavor of the cigar
• A couple other small touch-ups through the cigar but nothing major, it burned very well for the most part

Smoke & Ash:
• The Viaje Late Harvest is producing a good amount of smoke from each draw, it’s not super-thick and billowy but it’s not light either
• Resting smoke is also fairly moderate, nothing over the top but it is notable
• The ash is looking to be a pretty dark tone of grey as I smoke through the cigar
• I’m also getting some flaking so I don’t think the ash is going to last too long
• It started to look really weak at about an inch so I tapped it off into the ashtray
• As I hit the halfway mark it seems the thickness of the smoke has been slowly increasing, getting a nice billowy thickness now

Tasting Notes:
• The wrapper of the Viaje Late Harvest has a fairly strong barnyard aroma to it, smells like it’s fresh from a farm!
• The foot, on the other hand, is strong with earthy and woodsy aromas followed by just a touch of peppery spice
• Pre-light draw brings an interesting mix of fresh cedar, earthiness and a touch of sweetness
• Initial draws bring more of the woodsy and earthy flavors I caught onto earlier, with a touch of very mild spices
• After a few draws there is a kick of pepper to this cigar, you can feel it on the back of your throat as well
• The Viaje Late Harvest is starting off in the mile-medium bodied range and the retrohale is giving a nice little bite with a smooth cedar finish
• The strong pepper faded as quickly as it appeared and I’m back to a nicely balanced cedar and earthy flavor profile
• There is a touch of tart sweetness that I’m picking up now and again although it’s not too strong right now
• The woodsy flavors are developing nicely and I’m getting a nice bready flavor coming in all wrapped up with a smooth and creamy finish
• The bite on the retrohale is pretty much gone now but it’s still giving me a smooth creamy cedar finish that I’m really enjoying
• As I creep into the final third, some of the spices are starting to make a comeback. It’s not the strong pepper like before but rather a more mild white pepper profile
• The Viaje Late Harvest finished on a smooth medium note with no harshness at all, I enjoyed it’s creamy finish and sweet tart cedar flavors right to the nub

Final Thoughts:
This was an interesting and unique cigar and I’m glad I was able to give it a try. As I mentioned, my access to Viaje cigars is pretty limited so it’s always a treat when I get a few sent to me in a package and this one was not a disappointment. It had an interesting variety of flavors that were very well balanced along with a smooth creamy finish to round it all out. The burn had a couple small touch ups but nothing worth complaining about. Considering the type of filler used here I was expecting a much stronger cigar but I ended up with a smooth medium bodied stick that I really enjoyed. The price on these is also fairly reasonable considering the limited production runs they are offered in. If you can track down some of these they are definitely worth a try. I’m curious to see if they change much from year-to-year…

Pairings:
Today I have another offering from Wychwood Breweries. Just recently, I tried out their winter ale called “Bah Humbug” with the Tatuaje TAA and I’ve also done a full review of their buby beer called Hobgoblin. This particular brew is their Blonde beer called Wychcraft. It clocks in at a light 4.5% alc./vol. and is triple hopped and filtered. It made for a perfect midday beer with lots of citrusy and malty flavors to it. An interesting combination since most blondes don’t carry too much of the malts with them, but I guess that’s where the triple hopped process makes a difference. I found that the Wychwood Breweries Wychcraft paried quite well with the Viaje Late Harvest. The cirtusy sweetness of the beer complimented that tart sweetness that sometimes made an appearance in the cigar and neither of them over-powered the other. I’d recomend sticking with a lighter pairing similar to the Wychcraft with the Viaje Late Harvest, choice such as a thick stout or strong coffee might drown out the cigars flavors.

The post Viaje Late Harvest 2011 appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

Andre Farkas is the brand owner of Viaje and has been leading the brand into a successful time with a pretty large following. For the most part the Viaje lines are fairly limited so this results in a split opinion between a lot of people. Some cigar smokers are not fans of seeking out rare or limited cigars while other love the thrill of the hunt! Tony also reviewed a couple other Viaje’s recently including the Platino Lancero and the Oro Reserva #5.

One of the lines that Andre and Viaje have been releasing is called the “Skull And Bones”. We are into the 3rd iteration of the brand and each year the band and blend is changed. Tony reviewed last years release which was simply called the “Skull and Bones #2” and had a White on Black band with the “Jolly Roger” logo on it. In case you didn’t know, the “Jolly Roger” is the skull and cross bones symbol that was commonly flown by pirates. There are other variations of the “Jolly Roger” but this is the most common. Below this band you will find a thinner White on Black band that just says “Skull and Bones”. Oddly enough, there is no mention of Viaje on the cigars.

Now this years “Skull and Bones” carries essentially the same two bands with the exception that the White parts of the band are now Red. The look of the cigars is pretty interesting and I like the way the band looks. Another difference I noticed is that the foot of this cigar is clean cut while in Tony’s review of the #2, there is a closed foot. This release of the Skull and Bones series came out in March of 2011. As mentioned, this is the follow up to the previous “#2” and the first released “Daisy Cutter” and apparently this years blend should pack a heftier punch, I guess I’ll find out soon!

The names of the vitolas may seem odd to some people but there is a method to the madness. The original Skull and bones release was called the “Daisy Cutter”. A quick search shows that a “Daisy Cutter” is a bomb used to flatten forests into a nice helicopter sized landing zone. There are also 2 vitolas released for this years blend, the WMD (Short Robusto) and the MOAB (Short Torpedo). WMD stands for “Weapon of Mass Destruction” and MOAB is “Massive Ordinance Air Blast”, both of which keep the trend of bomb related names. So let’s see how explosive this cigar is and dive right into this review!

Cigar: Viaje Skull And Bones WMD
Drink: Creemore Springs urBock Dark Beer
Vitola: Short Robusto (3.75 x 54)
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Sun-Grown Criollo
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Price: $9.00-$10.00
Burn Time: almost 1.5 hours

Construction:
• The Skull and Bones WMD has an awesome dark chocolate wrapper that is super toothy with a touch of oil
• There are some minor veins here and there that are visible but none seem large enough to pose and problems
• The entire length of the cigar has a nice give to it when squeezed, never too firm
• The foot looked to be very well packed and I’m not sure if the picture will get this but you can pick out two very distinct colors of filler leaves
• The cap is finished in a very clean triple cap and looks well composed
• Draw is a tad tight but nothing that will bother me through the cigar experience

Burn:
• Toasting was even and slow, leaving me with a nice glowing foot
• The start of the burn is going a little wavy, I’m hoping it kicks itself back into line without a touchup
• Luckily, the burn did correct itself and although we’re still going a little wavy it’ more in control now
• I had a couple small touchups needed here and there but none were too major, it burned quite well for the most part
• A quick note, I think burn is EXTREMELY important on short vitolas like this so a poor burn would cost a lot of points so I’m glad it burned nicely for the most part
• The whole cigar burned surprisingly slow, good value for the dollar

Smoke & Ash:
• Each draw is giving me a very full mouth of smoke that is thick and billowy
• The ash has a bit of a medium grey tone to it and is showing signs of some flakiness early on
• The ash fell apart before even hitting a half inch
• The flaky ash continues but this time we got closer to an inch before falling off
• The ash continued to be flaky and a bit messy, falling off before reaching one inch each time

Tasting Notes:
• Wrapper aroma is fairly light with just a hint of woodsiness
• The foot has a similar woodsiness with a hint of peppery spice that tickles your nose
• Pre-light draw is dominated by a nice light cedar
• Initial draws are very interesting, I’m getting a burning wood flavor that reminds me of a fresh campfire. I LOVE the smell of a campfire so I’m loving this start. (Note: I’ve never tasted a “Campfire” but if it were possible it would taste like this, lol)
• Aside from the campfire flavor, I’m getting some peppery spice and a bit of leather
• The retrohale has a nice medium bite to it but a bit of a rough woodsy finish
• So far through the first inch I’m getting a comfortable medium bodied smoke
• The woodsiness continues to be the most dominant flavor with some other spices sneaking in now, more like a strong nutmeg or close and a bit of earthiness
• Not too much change-up as I head into the last third, the whole cigar has been nicely balanced and smooth
• As I get to the nub there is a definite build-up in body to the full range but it’s not getting harsh, i like that
• Near the end, the main flavor was still cedar but I started getting some nice coffee and nutty notes
• Brought out the toothpick near the end to get that last bit of enjoyable cigar burned down without burning my fingers

Final Thoughts:
I really enjoyed this cigar, especially for it’s size. I’ve been leaning towards larger vitolas lately but had a short timeframe this afternoon and went for a shorter cigar. There were enough favors to keep me interested and on my toes the whole time and it burned very well for the most part. I was a little worried about the cigar being strong after reading some reviews but it wasn’t as ass kicking as I was expecting. It is full but it didn’t give me a hard nicotine kick. the price for a cigar this size is also a bit high although it is actually cheaper than previous years releases. Luckily it burned a lot longer than I expected so I felt I got my money’s worth on it. The limited nature of these cigars (and most Viaje’s) make them harder to find but if experience is any indicator, most of Andre Farkas’ work is worth tracking down.

Pairings:
Creemore is actually a little town not too far from where I live. They pride themselves in making their brews with all natural spring water direct from their local spring. The Creemore Springs brewery mainly focuses on their Lager but they also brew a lot of other varities in smaller batches. The beer chosen today is a Dark Ale called an urBock. Bock beers began in Munich and can be traced as far back as 1612. It is actually a Ruby beer and not the darker chocolate color of some other Dark Ales. It’s also surprisingly fuller and thicker than the average Dark Ale with a smooth roasted malty flavor. It paired very well with the Vieje Skull and Bones WMD and is an excellent brew to pair with almost and strength of cigar. Other good pairings for this cigar would be coffee, a dark cola, or some Porto of course! lol (Are you tired of hearing that yet??)

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