Carlos Toraño Exodus 1959 50 Years Torpedo

     The Carlos Toraño Exodus 1959 50 Years, more commonly called the Exodus Copper for the striking band, is a cigar that quickly became one of my favorites.  The Copper was suggested to me by Luis at Habana Port Cigar Merchants over a year ago and It has earned a place in my regular cigar rotation.  From it's gorgeous Brizillian Arapiraca wraper to its complex  sweet and creamy flavors, the Carlos Toraño Exodus 1959 50 Years is a cigar that well worth its modest price tag. 

     The Exodus line was created as an anniversary cigar for the Toraño family, but not a happy one, 1959 was the year the Toraño family along with many other giants of tobacco creation left Cuba after the nationalization of the tobacco industry.   Cuba's loss was most certainly our gain.

Macanudo Vintage 1997 Maduro

     Macanudo has long had a reputation of producing mild cigars without much flavor complexity.  Over the last few years the company has made huge steps in changing that reputation.  With offerings such as the 1968 and the Cru Royale and now the Vintage Maduro they have a stable of medium to full flavored cigars.

    In a flash of marketing brilliance these vitolas are packaged not with a paper main band, but one of stainless steel.  While I rarely ever smoke a cigar with the band still in place, the stainless ring on this one made an excellent cigar holder.

Brickhouse Bash

Today is the Brickhouse Bash at Habanaport Cigar Merchants in Covington Louisiana.  Sadly, I am unable to attend, but I can still enjoy a fine Brickhouse Cigar from the J.C. Newman Cigar company.

Viaje White Label Project 50/50

   The day after Tropical Storm Lee had passed dawned bright and cool.  The perfect day to enjoy a fine cigar I thought.  And a fine cigar I had.  The Viaje While Label 50/50 was a rich flavorful smoke that enjoyed sitting outside in the gentle breeze.

   Viaje cigars are generally a bit over my modest cigar budget, but thankfully Habana Port Cigar Merchants had these great smokes for a reasonable enough to allow me to try them.  The White Label Project concept is to produce cigars of blends that they are working on at the Viaje factories in extremely limited quantities to get those blends in the hands of the everyday smoker and allow us an insight into upcoming production.

    If this example of upcoming Viaje products, I may have to make a little room in my budget.  The WLP 50/50 was a fantastic cigar.  Medium to full bodied and flavorful from start to finish.  A bit of a restrictive draw was the only drawback of this otherwise fantastic example of cigardom.  Due to the limited production and scarce availability, finding one of these cigars will be a challenge, but if you can find them, I highly recommend giving them a try.

Happy smoking,

Dan Law

 

  Thank you for visiting my little corner of the web.

  It has only been a few years since I discovered my love for fine cigars.  Since then I have been trying to educate myself and expose myself to as much of the cigar culture and industry as possible.  This is my attempt to document my cigar journey.

  The name of my site "Expedition: Vitola!" has two parts of course.  "Expedition" refers to what I feel is my educational journey and "Vitola" which is a term the cigar industry uses to denote a cigar's shape.

  I hope to be able to post my cigar related observations and rants as well as cigar reviews, my cigar photographs and industry news here on a regular basis but, please, if I do go quite some time between updates bear with me.  Sometimes the "real word" does intrude upon us all.

Happy smoking,

Dan Law