Viaje C-4 (Prerelease)

In late June of 2010, Viaje released the TNT, a 6 1/4 x 54 cigar that was made to look like a stick of TNT. It has been known that the TNT would be released around the same time every year, as are most of Viaje’s various lines, but what was not known until recently is that there would be a companion cigar released at the same time in the same vein.

The Viaje C-4 is double triple capped, the second time this specific rolling effect has been used by Viaje, following the recently released Zombie. It’s box-pressed and a band that is placed in the exact middle of the cigar, making it look more like a block of C-4.

Like this year’s incarnation of the TNT, the C-4 will a fairly limited release with only 50 crates containing 75 cigars being released. According to Viaje, all Viaje retailers will get one or both the TNT and C-4 this year.

• Cigar Reviewed: Viaje C-4
• Country of Origin: Honduras
• Factory: Fabrica de Tabacos Raíces Cubanas S. de R.L. (Raíces Cubanas)
• Wrapper: Nicaragua (Corojo 99)
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Nicaragua
• Size: 5 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 56
• Vitola: N/A
• MSRP: $10.65 (Crates of 75, $798.75)
• Release Date: June 2011
• Number of Cigars Released: 50 Crates of 75 Cigars (3,750 Total Cigars)
• Number of Cigars Smoked for Review: 2

The cigar has a very dark espresso brown wrapper that is quite rough to the touch, albeit seamless and a bit of oil present. The band is simple, black and white, placed in the middle of the cigar. It is very hard when squeezed, just short of rock hard. The wrapper smells strongly of coffee, leather, cedar and pepper.

The first third starts out with a bit of spice on the tongue, and flavors of sweet leather and generic wood. Both sweet caramel and spice fade in and out of the early stages, although the latter starts increasing in strength by the end.

The spice is almost totally gone as the second third begins, now just a background note, and the sweetness is still in and out. Flavors of caramel, leather, dark chocolate, oak and a bit of earthiness emerge. It’s a nice combination, but I wish there was more spice to compliment the flavors.

The final third mellows out considerably. The profile gets muddled with no flavors really coming to the forefront. It’s not bad, just nothing very distinct.

Final Notes

• The first two thirds of this cigar were by far the best, flavor-wise. Around the start of the last third, the flavors got muddled enough that I could not distinguish notes very easily. Not a horrible ending by any means, but it was enough of a change to easily notice.
• If you smoke one of these, do yourself a favor and do not smoke it too fast. When I started puffing faster, the (great) caramel note basically disappeared, only to reappear when I slowed down.
• As with most of Viaje’s cigars, the strength started fairly strong, and only got stronger. By the end of the smoke, this was firmly in the full category.
• I wonder how hard it would be to roll a square cap. If both ends of the cigar were square instead of round, it would really complete the look of what they were going for.
• The burn and draw were both very good on both samples. 
• This was a very slow burner, the final smoking time was one hour and 40 minutes.