Tag Archives: Victor Vitale

by CigarCraig | July 6, 2016 · 8:33 pm

Ora Vivo Armand Assante World Edition Cigar

I was digging around the humidor tonight, thinking that I really hadn’t prepared anything for tonight’s post. I came across an Ora Vivo Armand Assante World Edition Toro (6″x56) that looked lonely, so I decided to put it out of its misery and skip my midweek post. Then it occurred to me that I wrote an article about this cigar for the November/December 2014 Issue of Prime Living Magazine, and decided it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to post Â it. This, as well as the rest of my articles, can be found on the Prime-Living.com website in the Gentlemen’s Room. It can also be found in print in Prime Living Magazine, available in Barnes and Noble stores in Texas, and by subscription. If your browser doesn’t support the embedded article below, it can be found here:Â http://prime-living.com/gentlemens-room/the-ora-vivo-armand-assante/

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That was easy! I have yet to see a comment on one of my articles on the Prime Living site, challenge dropped! That’s all for now, until the next time,

CigarCraig

3 Comments

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Tagged as Armand Asante, cigar, cigars, Ora Vivo, Prime Living, Victor Vitale

by CigarCraig | June 18, 2014 · 9:19 pm

In the Cigar Mojo Humidor with Victor Vitale of Legacy Brands

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

8 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review, Video

Tagged as cigar, Cigar Mojo, cigars, Contest, Tortuga, Victor Vitale

by CigarCraig | April 16, 2014 · 10:06 pm

Three Toros: Gurkha, Nica Rustica and Tortuga Cigars

The weather here in PA is all over the place! Sunday it was darned near 80, and today it snowed in some places and the temps didn’t get too far out of the 40s. This didn’t stop me from smoking what used to be considered larger cigars. The Toro has been among my favorite sizes since I started smoking cigars in the 90s. Six inches by 50, 52 or 56 is in the ballpark, not as fat as the 60 ring gauge cigars, nor as long as a Churchill or double corona. They are usually good for an hour to an hour and a half. I like Robustos too, but the Toro is a great size.

The first toro I smoked this week was a Gurkha Ghost Asura, at 6″ x 54. I bought a couple of these at a shop in New Jersey, and they’ve taken some time to grow on me, the first few I smoked I didn’t quite get. I figured I should like this cigar, it has a maduro Brazilian Arapiraca wrapper (interestingly mispelled on the Gurkha website), and I usually like that wrapper. Eventually, I’ve come to enjoy this cigar, it’s on the rustic side, appearance wise, and it’s got a nice, fairly heavy flavor of dark roast coffee that I like. This one burned well with a dark grey ash that hung on pretty well. Lots of people think Gurkha cigars are all hype, but they have a bunch of cigars that are really very good.

Last night I grabbed a Drew Estate Nica Rustica El Brujito for my evening walk. This 6″ x 52 toro has a closed foot so you get a nice blast of flavor from the Connecticut Broadleaf maduro wrapper. the fist time I tried this it was a pre-release sample from the factory, and it had a half a leaf of a “wild” Esteli tobacco that added a real special little zing to the blend. I suppose the availability of this tobacco wasn’t in keeping with the idea to make an affordable and sustainable blend, so it was replaced with something more available. The cigar is still a winner, it’s got some strength and good, hearty flavor. The reason I grabbed this was that I was thinking about the recent earthquakes in Nicaragua. I happened to see a comment on a cigar makers post asking for positive thoughts and prayers for the Nicaraguan people and someone responded with something along the lines of “keep the cigars safe”, which I thought was about the most selfish comment. Really? Losing a few cigars is more important that people dying? We all love cigars, but are they more important than lives? I don’t think so. I haven’t heard anything more about the earthquakes, except they were preparing for “the big one”, like the one in 1972 that pretty much leveled Managua. Let’s hope that the seismic activity settles down in that part of the world, they have it bad enough. Anyway, the El Brujito is one of my favorite new cigars in the last year. For around $6, if you like stronger cigars these are worth a try.

A sign from the elevators in the Crown Plaza Hotel in Managua

Tonight I dug deep into one of the coolers and selected a Tortuga 215 Edición Limitada 2011 Toro. This is a 6″ x 50 traditional toro that’s made in the Dominican Republic with Dominican and Nicaraguan tobaccos. This is from a ten count box that was a generous gift from Victor Vitale a few years ago. These are aging very nicely. It’s a cigar with a lot of balance and class. Where the Ghost and the Nica Rustica are pretty brash, in your face kind of cigars, this one is loaded with flavors that are delicate and refined. It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Victor Vitale‘s cigars, and I only have a few of these left, which I’ll savor slowly because I don’t think there’s many of these left in the market. I know I have one enormous double corona that was a gift from a great friend in New York State that will be a great pool cigar this summer! Keep up the great work Victor!

That’s all for now, until the next time,

CigarCraig

5 Comments

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, drew estate, El Brujito, Ghost, Gurkha, Nica Rustica, Tortuga, Victor Vitale

by CigarCraig | April 9, 2014 · 9:20 pm

A Hex From Sindicato and an Ora Vivo from Legacy Brands

It seems like only yesterday I was posting about smoking that enormous 7” x 70 Asylum 13 Ogre, and here it is Wednesday already and I find myself with little to report! Yesterday I revisited the Hex from Sindicato Cigars in the Figurado (5¼” x52) size. Honestly, I wasn’t certain what I wanted to smoke, and this was on the top of the humidor and I grabbed it and lit it up. This is from a batch I bought on National Hex Day back in January. These are made at the Ortez factory in Condega, Nicaragua, and use a dark, almost maduro, Ecuador Habano wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and filler. What they ended up with was a really sweet, rich smoke that is very satisfying. When I smoked this on Hex Day the example I smoked was on the wet side, and wasn’t the best representation of the blend. After some humidor time, it was a really tasty, well behaved smoke. The perfecto shape and the curly-cue pigtail cap are visually appealing details. I like these, and I look forward to trying their new eponymous line (called Sindicato) in the near future.

Tonight I selected an Ora Vivo 5 x 54 that I got at the Ora Vivo dinner I attended last fall in New Jersey (story here). I only have one or two left, and I would have had a box of them, but at the event they were only taking cash and I came woefully unprepared. Helpful hint for those hosting cigar events where cigars are for sale, if you can’t accept credit cards remotely, please let people know before hand that you are only taking cash so we can be prepared! Anyway, I’ve smoked several of these cigars and find them to be exceptional cigars. These are made in Honduras by Victor Vitale’s Legacy Brands, but are Nicaraguan puros. This certainly isn’t a powerful cigar, it’s refined, smooth and well balanced. This is a cigar that’s on a par with the best out there. It’s not an inexpensive cigar, I think I paid $9 for one when I bought one on my New Hampshire trip last fall. It’s a cigar that’s not heavy on the palate, you could, theoretically, smoke these one after the other. One of the reasons I had this cigar on my mind was that Armand Assante was a guest on The Cigar Authority last Saturday. If you have a podcast habit, like I do, give it a listen.

Getting a late post out on Sunday and skipping my evening cigar on Monday for various reasons makes for a short installment tonight, my apologies. I’ll endeavor to do better in the future. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, Hex, Ora Vivo Armand Assante, Sindicato, Victor Vitale

by CigarCraig | December 16, 2013 · 6:44 am

CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways 2013 Day 5: Legacy Brands

Once again a nice turnout for the chance to win a box of Leccia Black Petite Rothschilds and a Leccia Tobacco t-shirt worn by Sam himself! (just kidding!). Thanks again to Sam and Jack Toraño for this spectacular present! JScott is going to be out of his mind excited to have won! Joel is a long time reader, and I might have his address around here somewhere but please send it anyway so I make sure I have it right! Maybe share one with your buddy Commish if you want! Also, Saturday’s winner has yet to e-mail, chekk12 please send your address! Of course, the bad news for both of you is that you aren’t eligible to win again until Jan 1 when I reset everything. You won, quit your whining :-). On with something very special for Day 5!

It’s Day 5 already and things are moving along nicely! Today we have more cigars of exceptional quality from Victor Vitale of Legacy Brands. Victor launched his new Tortuga 215 line at this years IPCPR trade show. It’s very exclusive as it’s on;y available at appointed merchants (BestCigarPrices.com happens to be one of them). These are made from high priming Nicaraguan tobaccos and are really, really good smokes. There’s a Four-pack of the Tortuga 215 Reserva Robustos along with a two cigar sampler containing another Tortuga 215 Reserva and an Ora Vivo Armand Assante Robusto, which is the second cigar line in the Legacy Brands stable. the Ora Vivo is a very tasty cigar as well. You may have read about it here in the last several months.

There you have it, a spectacular bunch of smokes from Victor Vitale and Legacy Brands. Many thanks to Victor for sharing these cigars with one of my lucky readers, I know I’ve enjoyed a few of both lines. You know what to do! Leave a comment to enter and check back tomorrow to see if you won.

Rules

Here’s how you enter: leave a comment. That’s it, plain and simple. Tweets don’t count, but feel free to spread the word, only comments on this page count as an entry. Each day there will be a different prize and the winner will be drawn from that day’s comments. The winner will be announced on the next day’s post. The contest is open to everyone, even if you’ve won one of my contests in the past six months, but once you’ve won, you are ineligible to win again in this series of contests. All prizes will be mailed as soon as I get a chance to go to the post office, or whenever the sponsor decides to ship, whichever is the case, so don’t make me chase down your address! If you are the winner, please e-mail your contact information to craig@cigarcraig.com as soon as possible! That’s it, leave a comment to enter and good luck. Check back tomorrow to see if you won and enter tomorrow’s contest!

Until Tomorrow,

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