halfwheel

Review: Viva Republica Rapture Maduro Revel (Prerelease)

Back in July, Brooks reviewed a cigar that he came across “tucked inside the La Aurora booth at IPCPR 2012” from a company who had been sending out letters to retailers and media outlets (including halfwheel) announcing Projekt Rapture. The company? Viva Republica. The cigar? The Rapture, which promised “intense flavor with a medium-to-full body.” [...]

Review: Viva Republica Guerrilla Warfare (Prerelease)

Viva Republica is a fairly new brand produced out of La Aurora’s E. León Jimenes Tabacalera factory in the Dominican Republic. Its first release, the Rapture, was launched at the IPCPR show in 2012 and the company has quite a few more blends in the pipeline for release in 2013. We broke the news on Guerrilla [...]

News: Viva Republica Guerrilla Warfare Slated for April

Jason Holly of Viva Republica will be the latest to enter the small and full market when his latest cigar, Guerrilla Warfare, lands in retailers in mid-April. The 4 x 41 Petit Corona and the Rapture Maduro are only two of the handful of products Holly is working on, the former will likely be the [...]

Press Release: Miami Cigar & Company Announces Nestor Miranda 70th Birthday LE

January 7, 2013 (Miami, FL) – For Nestor Miranda’s 70th birthday on Valentine’s Day 2/14/13 the most interesting man in the cigar business is set to release a commemorative cigar for this historic milestone in his life. The “Nestor Miranda 70th LE” will be released as a lancero cigar from the two factories that Nestor [...]

Review: La Aurora Preferidos Maduro Lancero (2012)

The La Aurora Preferidos Maduro Lancero up for review traces its roots back to a similar cigar made for W. Curtis Draper’s 123rd anniversary back in May 2010. That cigar caught the attention of David Mogilner, vice-president of Racine & Laramie in San Diego, who wanted to have some made for his store. According to [...]

Redux: Para Japón by La Aurora

Shortly after a massive 8.9–magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck Japan in March 2011, a group of online cigar media were visiting La Aurora’s facilities in the Dominican Republic. In that group was Mario Takeyama of Cigar Explorer, who was born in Japan and felt the call to do something as an industry member to [...]

Review: La Aurora Preferidos Diamond (Prerelease)

Announced in April and introduced at IPCPR 2012 in August, the La Aurora Preferidos Diamond is the latest expansion in the Preferidos line. Charlie posted the details of this back in July: La Aurora has confirmed its newest Preferido will be one with a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper. The cigar, which will be known as Preferidos [...]

Redux: La Aurora 107 Salomon

Back in January, I reviewed the La Aurora 107 Puro Vintage, which at the time was a cigar that was only available at Buckhead Cigar Club’s tweet-up in December of 2011. However, Miami Cigar & Co. had just announced it would be making 1,000 boxes of the blend, which were released last month. While the size [...]

Review: Viva Republica Rapture Harasha (Prerelease)

Tucked inside the La Aurora booth at IPCPR 2012 will be a new brand, Viva Republica. The company is owned by Jason Holly and over the last few years he has been working on bringing Viva Republica to life—something that will come to fruition at IPCPR. Charlie broke the news on most the details last [...]

Redux: La Aurora 107 Lancero

About two years ago, myself and others went to Twitter to convince Guillermo León and José Blanco that the popular La Aurora 107 blend needed to be made in a Lancero. Eventually, after some persistence and retailer commitments, the La Aurora 107 Lancero came to life. Oddly, I chronicled the history in an editorial, which [...]