Vato Cigars will celebrate its seventh anniversary later this month and there will be a new cigar.

It’s called F5, a nod to the classification for the strongest tornadoes, and it’s based on the company’s Twister cigar, though the F5 is stronger. Like the Twister, it will be a barberpole using a Connecticut shade and a darker Ecuadorian wrapper over a blend of tobaccos from the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras and Nicaragua.

The F5 is offered in a single 6 x 52 torpedo size with a half-inch of the foot left uncovered.

“When my mother passed away her friend told the origin story of the nick name (Texas Tornado) at the burial,” said Sarah Vato to halfwheel.

“As she finished the story a giant funnel cloud traversed our family farm and twirled directly to the cemetery. Those who were present felt it was my Mom’s spirit acknowledging us. I know it was. It’s a deeply personal event which is how I feel about my cigars. I wanted to dedicate our most beautiful and complex cigar to my mother who raised me by herself, was a professor, scholar and the best Mama in the world. So that’s how the Twister was named.”

The Vato F5 will be released on May 28.

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Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.