Tuesday evening we found ourselves, once again, at Cigar Mojo in King of Prussia PA to meet with our friend Victor Vitale of Legacy Brands. You’ve heard me mention Cigar Mojo on occasion, it’s not the closest cigar store to me, but we’ve come to feel at home there as they have a terrific humidor and lounge, and Trae and Wade, the owners, make us welcome when we visit. Victor now lives in Philadelphia, his home town, and Mojo is conveniently located just about directly between our homes. Victor has become a good friend, and it’s always entertaining and educational to get together with him for some smokes. I have my 
old friend Mike Perry to thank for introducing us several years ago. As always, I picked up a few cigars that I haven’t tried before (and one I had), this time it was some of the new La Antiguedad from My Father Cigars, and a few of the Surrogates series. I led off with the La Antiguedad Robusto, which was a very nice smoke. I suppose this one could be considered strong, although I found it solidly medium. It’s a nice, box pressed 5¼”x 54 with a Ecuador Habano Rosado Oscuro wrapper. I enjoyed it pretty thoroughly while engaged in conversation with Victor, Trae and my wife, Jenn.
After I finished that tasty treat, Victor turned me on to his newest creation, the Tortuga 215 Reserva El Coyote Negro. This lovely belicoso is a tweaked version of the regular 215 Reserva with a beautiful dark Brazilian Mata Fina wrapper. I instantly regretted no smoking this cigar on a clean palate, a situation I will certainly remedy once these become commercially available. This had many things in common with the rest of Victor’s cigars, it was perfectly constructed, one of my favorite things is when you tap off the ash of a cigar and it’s burning perfectly flat. This speaks volumes to the care that goes into selecting tobaccos which happen to burn at exactly the same rate, no easy feat. This cigar competes favorable with cigars such as the Padrón 1964, it’s well balanced and very refined in flavor. That’s not to say it tastes like a Padrón at all,but was certainly on a par in terms of it’s overall performance. At about the half way point I got a curious exotic spice flavor that made me take notice, and that sensation went as quickly as it came. What a pleasant surprise, although I wasn’t surprised that this was as good as it was. I enjoy the heck out of the Tortuga line, and I was certain this amped up, maduro wrapped version would be right up my alley.
I dragged Victor into the humidor for a quick video for your enjoyment. I was hoping to get a scoop on The Cigar Authortiy, where Victor will be appearing on Saturday. Tune in to the show from 12-2 at ThCigarAuthority.com to watch and listen.
For tonight’s evening walk, I felt compelled to dig out a Tortuga 215 Reserva Alma which I had picked up last fall when I visited Two Guys Smoke Shop in New Hampshire. The Alma, which is probably not named after my paternal grandmother, is a box pressed 5″x54 robusto which is presented with a red ribbon on the foot. This ribbon must be removed before lighting, buy they way. Burning ribbon doesn’t taste good. As I’ve come to expect from this line, it was perfect in burn and flavor. It’s Nicaraguan, but without any rough edges at all. Just a smooth, well balanced smoke. I’m pretty sure I’d love this line even if I wasn’t friends with the maker, it’s a solid special occasion cigar, an ultra premium cigar that’s really quite special. I keep my meager supply buried in the humidor or I certainly would smoke them up and not have any left!!
Contest
I’m sure you remember Sunday’s contest. I’ve once again consulted the random number generator at Random.org and it gave me the number 2. By my count, that makes TriMarkC the winner of the two CAO Flathead tin signs and a four pack of the new CAO Flathead Piston. Mark has been a long time reader and while he has won once before, it’s been several years. I’m reminded that I need to update my winners page…I’ve been slacking…out of sight, out of mind, I guess. So Mark, send me your address so I can get these goodies to you!
That’s all I have for now, until the next time,
CigarCraig
Way to go Craig and Victor!!! Great video as well! Really cool stuff going on with Legacy Brands! Lots of new stuff on the horizon! Sooooooooo excited for whats to come. Viva Vitale!!!
Congratulations, Mark !!! Some guys have ALL of the luck !!! Craig, do you have any idea when that Tortuga with the Brazilian Mata Fina wrapper will hit the streets and where I could find it?
Dan, your first job is to find an appointed merchant in your area, which I think Victor has listed on his site. I’m sure the Coyote Negro will be available after the trade show in late July.
Thanks for the video, that was a treat to hear him. I look forward to trying the Legacy brand in the future.
Thanks Craig! The signs will look great hanging in my man cave. But the cigars will taste even better!
I love hanging out with Jenn and Craig, it’s always a great time! I’ll miss you guys this year at the big show but definitely see you next year in New Orleans hot hot hot!
Oh, almost forgot… The Cigar Mojo really is a great place and folks have been asking me about this interview and why I’m not selling to the Mojo yet.. The answer is very simple. I have existing Appointed Merchant’s across the USA, Canada and Europe. My model has always been to honor the art, culture and tradition of tobacco and TIME is one of the most important aspects of that model. In order to remain loyal to my model, there is a bottleneck process to steady the growth of my Legacy Brands Tortuga Reserva and Ora Vivo due to tobacco reserves. This basically means a waiting list but good news for Mojo, they’re on the list and it won’t be long now. I look forward to Appointing Mojo at the upcoming trade show this July. Take care everyone and thank you for smoking 🙂
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