JC Newman

January 01, 2018

Viaje Holiday Blend Christmas Tree (4 x 60)









Video review HERE.


(Description taken from Cigar-Coop.com website)
The Viaje Holiday Blend Christmas Tree is returning for the first time in four years. The Christmas Tree is a 4 x 60 torpedo that made its debut in 2013.

As in 2013, the Viaje Holiday Blend Christmas Tree 2017 is shipping in place of the annual Viaje Holiday Blend release. The original 2013 Christmas Tree was a Nicaraguan puro. This cigar is also a 100% Nicaraguan puro using AGANORSA tobacco. Produced in one vitola a 4 x 60 short torpedo. 


The cigar is short and fat. The torpedo shape makes it nice to hold in your mouth. It is quite dense feeling. 





I took just the minimum from the tip and the test draw was very good. The initial flavors were a tangy cedar, nutmeg, sweet chocolate, and black coffee. The cigar has a lot of sweetness from the tangy notes and the chocolate. The black pepper was rated at a 7 (above average). 




About 3/4 inch in (22 minutes) I was already at the lower Christmas Tree band and had to remove it. The flavor notes at this point were about like they were initially. For a brief time I lost the tangy notes but they quickly returned. The cigar is dark noted with plenty of sweetness. There was a touch of brown sugar noted. The cigar is medium bodied and has the feeling it will move up. At this point I would rate the cigar an 87 for the first third.




Somewhere around the midpoint (50 minutes) I lost the tangy cedar and brown sugar. I had a lot of chocolate notes that were not sweet any more and a lot of black coffee notes, along with the nutmeg notes. The cigar is even darker noted now without any sweeter flavors. The cigar is a low level medium to full bodied. Due to the loss of sweet notes I am down rating the cigar to an 86 at the midpoint.




The cigar lasted 1 hour 12 minutes. Quite a time for a 4" cigar. The tangy cedar came back in a lesser amount than the initial assessment but it was a good amount. You still had the chocolate notes and their sweetness came back also. And, there were plenty of nutmeg and black coffee notes. The pepper stayed fairly level throughout. The finish was a chocolate/cedar combination with a nice amount of lingering black pepper. The cigar ended at a legitimate medium to full bodied. With the reemergence of the sweeter notes I am bumping the final third rating back up to an 87


Final score: 87
(under the old scoring system this would equate to a 91)

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