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 first to see the market when it lands in mid-April.

“Guerrilla Warfare was conceived as a project to put together a flavorful short smoke that packs a little punch,” said Holly. “I personally love the smaller vitola as I move around from place to place when visiting retailers and I sometimes only have 20-30 minutes to spend on a smoke.”

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The Pennsylvania retailer cited other small cigars like the La Palina Kill Bill and Tatuaje Petite Cazadores as part of the inspiration for his cigar, but noted that Guerrilla Warfare would be different—it would be stronger, a lot stronger. To achieve this strength the Guerrilla Warfare uses a mixture of Brazilian, Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers underneath Dominican and Mexican binders and an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper. According to Holly, it took only three tries to get to the final blend.

“The purge grades of the Nicaraguan filler were fantastic, but when I tried the Dominican filler as a pure grade, it was incredible,” said Holly. “It shifted the perception I had that Nicaraguan tobacco had an edge when it comes to strength while maintaining flavor notes.”

The Guerrilla Warfare, like Viva Republica’s freshman release, will be made at La Aurora’s E. León Jimenes Tabacalera factory in the Dominican Republic. Holly worked alongside Guillermo León to create the Guerrilla Warfare which will be limited to an initial production run of 20,000 cigars divided between 50 count cabinets and packs of five.

Holly said the name is a tribute to the “small, but fierce outfits of freedom fighters that operated in Central and South America during the second half of the 20th Century.”

(Picture via Brooks Whittington/halfwheel.)

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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.