Cigar Review | Viva Republica Edicion Limitada Culebra

When a press release came out last week about the Viva Republica Edition Limitada Culebra I literally smacked my head. No one buys these types of cigars or do they? Sure, they may be nice to have one in your humidor as a conversation piece but to smoke a mangled cigar that is under-filled (hey, they have to bend/twist them right?), is crazy.

For a history of the Culebra, our friend Doc Stogie Fresh, has a great article on the historical perspective. As far as these cigars go, according to literature  packaged with the cigars, “This limited-edition release is comprised of 1,000 coffins. shipped to authorized retailers in 5-pack units. The three pieces of this culler are three slightly different blends. the lightest wrapper is the Rapture Natural, The one featuring the slightly darker colored wrapper is Guerrilla Warfare. The darkest wrapper is the Rapture Maduro blend. 

Cigar: Viva Republica Culebra Edicion Limitada
Size: Culebra

	Rapture Nautral	Guerilla Warfare	Rapture Maduro
Wrapper	Ecuador HVA	Ecuador Sumatra	Mexico San Andreas
Binder	Dominican Republic	Dominican Republic Mexico	Dominican Republic
Filler	Brazil Dominican Republic Nicaragua Peru	Brazil Dominican Republic Nicaragua	Brazil Dominican Republic Nicaragua Peru

Strength: Medium to Full (Varies by Cigar)
Source: Miami Cigar & Company

The Look: While the individual boxing of the cigars seems nice, it feels as if the box made for this release is slightly over-sized. Also the cigar comes unbanded, and while many culebra cigars do it would have been nice to have the cigars held together with a band similar to that of the Partagas Cuban Culebra. Lastly, it would have been nice to have each coffin numbered. The cigars themselves look as you would expect them to look, although the Guerrilla Warfare has less of a bend and twist to it when compared to the other 2 cigars in my sample.

The Notes: Instead of breaking it down by thirds, I figured I would attack this by stick:

Rapture Natural: Sweet on the cold draw, once lit the Rapture Natural has a slightly floral appeal to it. The aroma of the cigar is inviting but the cigar burns slightly hot in the beginning and comes off as unbalanced in this format. Around the quarter way point the cigar starts to burn cooler and the cigar itself begins to balance out. There is a sweetness with notes of nuts and wood that close out the cigar that salvages itself from a poor start.

Guerilla Warfare: Perhaps my favorite in the Viva Republica line, I am blown away by the defined peanuts on the cold draw, roasted and still in their shell. It is totally enjoyable and it delays my lighting of the cigar for quite sometime as I get lost in the experience. Once lit the cigar has some cinnamon, nuts, and earth, with the cinnamon especially recognizable on the finish.

Raputre Maduro: The cold draw of the Rapture Maduro serves up notes of cocoa and earth. Once the cigar is lit the cocoa notes remain dominant with some coffee on the finish and plenty of pepper through the nose.

The Burn: The burn of the Rapture Natural was jagged, and the burn line was thick as evident from the picture below. Surprisingly the ash held on for almost half the stick. The other two cigars had nice even burns though the ash held for a half-inch at best. Despite the tough draw on the Natural which led to a hot burn in the beginning it opened and the cigars had a nice draw and they all remained lit throughout. Shockingly, none of the cigars were under-filled.

The Finish: Perhaps the original novelty, the culebra is a cigar I am not sure a review for is fair, as I would rather smoke a more traditional size. With that said and done, I think the cigar needs to be scored more from a collectors standpoint and here is where the cigar misses the boat. There are some things that could have been done to make it more of a collectible from being banded and having the boxes numbered. Simply put there isn’t much of a demand for this size and it needed to be a bit more attractive to be worthy of collecting. Now the Jailbreak on the other hand is definitely a cigar that is worthy of adding to you collection.

What are your thoughts on a Culebra?

Price: $18.00
Score: 85