Viva La Vida 5th Anniversary Jester Flat Belicoso 5.5×56

Artesano Del Tobacco, makers of the El Pulpo cigar and Viva La Vida, is celebrating their 5th Anniversary with two new blends! Last year, they released the El Pulpo, a dark San Andres Maduro blended at the AJ Fernandez factory in Nicaragua. With overwhelming success, including placement on the top ten cigars of Cigar Aficionado and OGT Cigars, they are returning this year with two new Maduros! To commemorate their achievement, they have blended the Viva La Vida 5th Anniversary Jester Flat Belicoso and the Viva La Vida 5th Anniversary Club 500 Sabroso. The Belicoso is a 5.5×56 ‘flat’ head and the Club 500 a 5.25×58 box pressed perfecto. Unlike the original blend, these cigars feature a unique and entirely new wrapper leaf!

In a recent press release at the launching of both cigars, Artesano said, “It has been 5 years since we launched The Viva La Vida Cigars and to celebrate it, we asked Abdel Fernandez to help us create a unique blend that celebrates the success of Viva La Vida line. Abdel was able to find a beautiful aged dark, oily Habano Connecticut Maduro wrapper that was grown here in the USA, and for that we chose our most famous selling 2 sizes of the Viva La Vida line.”

Both blends feature a Habano seed grown in Connecticut and fermented to be a dark Maduro. Underneath is a combination of a binder and fillers from Nicaragua. Easily, these cigars were some of my favorites from the recent PCA trade show. The Viva La Vida 5th Anniversary Jester Flat Belicoso delivers a heavy-hitting, full flavor whirlwind! With rich notes of dark chocolate, black pepper, dark earth, light caramel, toasted nuts, and port, the finish lingers between sweetness and spice! I would suggest a whiskey pairing on this, perhaps a bourbon or a Speyside scotch. Although, I think port would work too.

Both the Viva La Vida 5th Anniversary Jester Flat Belicoso and the Viva La Vida 5th Anniversary Club 500 Sabroso are presented in ten count boxes, much like the El Pulpo cigar. These magnificent Aniversarios are currently available at Oak Glen Tobacconist. I highly recommend anyone who has enjoyed the company’s releases to try these exceptional cigars. They are on another level. Congratulations to Artesano Del Tobacco and their recent milestone of five years! Light up a Viva La Vida 5th Anniversary Jester Flat Belicoso and say cheers!