Azulejo | CigarCraig's Blog

Tag Archives: Azulejo

by Craig Vanderslice | January 26, 2025 · 10:12 am

Some Viaje Cigars, an HVC and an Espinosa Rerun

I try to include new (to me, or actually new) cigars in my Sunday posts, if nothing else but to create a searchable database of sorts for myself. This is a blog, with is short for “Web Log”, and I write it for my own benefit and it’s a happy accident that other people choose to spend their time reading it. This is something for which I am grateful, by the way! Once in a while I smoke a cigar that I’ve written about in the past that I feel deserves mentioning again. In this case it was the Espinosa Laranja Azulejo. This week I smoked both the Robusto Extra (5½” x 52) and the Gordo (6″ x 60) and enjoyed them very much! This has a sungrown Sumatra wrapper, a Brazilian Arapiraca Binder and Nicaraguan fillers and is made at the San Lotano factory in Ocotal, Nicaragua. I smoked this back in 2021, and loved it, a recent mention somewhere put it back on my radar, and I picked up a few when I visited a shop in the area that has some Espinosa cigars. Oddly, not a lot of my local shops have them for some reason. Anyway, I smoked the robusto in the shop on Monday evening, one of the friendliest visits I’ve had to that particular shop in quite some time, and it was an excellent smoke. I picked up the Gordo on the way out because I was so impressed. The gordo is box pressed, so it smoked more like a toro, both shapes have deep, rich espresso and spice flavors, all my favorite flavors. This is a supre good cigar, if you like the cigars I like, you’ll like this one.

On to the “new to me” cigars! On that same visit to a shop on Monday I picked up a Viaje Birthday Blend Collector’s Edition. This shop has a pretty “classic” selection, it was hard for me to find a cigar I hadn’t smoked before. By the way, Viaje’s website sucks, it’s just a landing page with rudimentary contact info. I got information from Cigara, which is owned by Scandinavian Tobacco. This is a 6¼” x 52 classic torpedo, which comes with a birthday wrapping paper sleeve. I admit that I don’t know what year this cigar is from, they seem to change every year, and I am not familiar enough with Viaje to know to look. I’m guessing it’s the latest, based on wrapper color and flavor alone, which is Criollo, not one of my favorite tobaccos. Anyway, I found this to be an interesting cigar, with some mild spice and a somewhat floral quality. It performed very well and while I wouldn’t seek this out again (unless I find myself in the same shop in the near future and can go look at the box!), but I wouldn’t pass one up if offered.

Smoking the Viaje prompted me to visit Cigar Mojo close to home here knowing that they had some Viaje cigars in stock. I selected a Satori Nirvana, which is the 6″ x 50 toro in the line. When I see “Satori” I’m reminded of a song off one of my favorite albums, King Crimson’s Beat from 1982, “Sartori in Tangier”. I know, Satori is different from SaNtori, but my mind goes there. This has a rather ugly, mottled wrapper, bu that usually means it’s going to taste great. It’s listed as San Andrés wrapper with Nicaraguan binder and filler, made at the Raices Cubanas factory in Honduras. There were some earthy flavors and some chocolaty flavors, and I rather enjoyed the cigar. They had a couple other Viaje cigars at Mojo, but they were on the smaller side, maybe I’ll pick them up for the future.

Finally, I got around to picking up an HVC Hotcakes Golden Age in the Laguito No 5 vitola, 6″x 54. I probably have passed this by in the past because it’s Connecticut wrapped, but I think I’ve worked my way through the HVC line, and had to try this one. I’ve heard good things. This reportedly has some “Corojo 2006 Maduro” in the Nicaraguan filler blend. This cigar combines the bready, sweet grassy Connecticut Shade flavors with some gutsy sweetness from the fillers. I like this, and it was very nice smoking this on the porch watching a movie last night, amongst my favorite activities (or lack thereof).

I’m not sure what next Sunday’s post will be, it will probably be TPE heavy, as that’s where I’ll be Wednesday thru Friday. So, until the next time,

CigarCraig

😃+

Oscar Valladares McFly, Espinosa Laranja Azulejo and Crema de Laranja Cigars

First order of business: if you haven’t already, go back to the post before this one and enter to contest! Last Tuesday I took a day off and found myself running and errand that ended up in the Mushroom Capital of the World, Kennett Square, PA, which is in the southern part of the same county where I live. A few doors down from where I was going there happened to be a cigar shop, Living My Best Cigar Life, of course I stopped in. It’s a nice little shop on the main drag in Kennett, with a nice walk in humidor, a knowledgeable shopkeeper, and a small lounge. The selection was adequate, but on the sparse side, I was to find out that they had just opened a new store a few miles away. I picked up a couple of the Oscar Valladares McFly Toros, which I have been meaning to try, and headed home. Since the new location was more or less on my way home, I decided to stop in and check it out. The Glen Mills location is actually on a property that has a sentimental meaning to me. The lounge where I played my last professional gigs as a drummer back in the 80’s was located there. Weird, right? Anyway, the shop was previously a bank, and they’ve retrofitted two former offices as the humidors. The lounge is in the back, and they will have membership with 24 hour access through the back. It’s all very clean and sharp in design. The selection is decent, it’s a new shop, but it wouldn’t be hard for someone to find something to smoke there. I came out with a Romeo by AJ I hadn’t tried. It’s on Rt 202 between Rt 1 and the Delaware state line, for those familiar with the area. It’s a long name for a cigar shop, I wish them well! I smoked the McFly when I got home and thought it was very good. It’s a 6″ x 52 with a San Andrés wrapper, Honduran binder and fillers from Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and Honduras. It was rich and earthy and pretty much what I expect from that blend, with a little spice. I liked it, very nice.

Wednesday I found myself at Son’s Cigars again, this time in the company of Jack Toraño of Espinosa Cigars. Jack is coming up on his three year anniversary with Espinosa in a couple weeks. He was recalling that he was with Toranño cigars for three years, and General for three years…I think we are all hoping that this gig is going to break that pattern for Jack. I’ve known Jack for a long time, and it’s always a treat to catch up with him. Mark Weissenberger, the broker that handles Espinosa, ironically from Kennett, dragged Jack out earlier than expected, and I offered to give him a ride back to his hotel, but I’m afraid he thought he wouldn’t fit in my car. I had been looking forward to smoking the Laranja Azulejo, which translates to orange blue tile in Portuguese, the best I can figure. I picked up a couple of the box pressed 6″ x 60 Gordo size. These are made at AJ Fernandez’ San Lotano factory for Espinosa. This cigar has an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, Brazilian Arapiraca binder and Nicaraguan fillers, and boy is it tasty. I like Sumatra, and Brazilian, and of course, Nicaraguan, and this is delicious blend of flavors. It’s got some sweetness, and some coffee and cocoa and some spice. I enjoyed it so much I smoked another one last night. Now I need to get more. I also had a great time hanging out with Craig the Breadman at Son’s!

Jack (and Vince) gave me an event cigar, the Crema de Laranja, which is a barber pole which is a mashup of the Laranja and the Crema cigars. It shares blend components of the two cigars, and has both the shade wrapper from the Crema (which I’ve never smoked), and the Brazilian “Laranja” wrapper. Jack likes milder cigars, I can see him liking this one. Last week I smoked the Back in Black from the same factory, and it’s apparent that La Zona knows how to make a good barber pole cigar. This is kinda the opposite of that Back in Black, though, it’s on the milder side, creamy and tangy. Certainly a nice change from the heavier, darker flavored cigars. Quite nice. I recommend going to an event where Erik, Jack, or one of the other guys is attending, and buy enough cigars to merit receiving one of these, it’s a good one.