Having tried a handful of different candela cigars in the past, I was never able to develop a desired flavor profile out of the ones I had smoked. So I’ve always steered clear of them since. Decided to take a crack at one of these with the thought of maybe some age might aid in the enjoyment and was caught off guard on how tasty this cigar was.

Little history about AYC, before they were founded as a company they had Cuban ties starting off around 1879. Then was founded as a company in 1888 out of Cayan, Puerto Rico. To meet the demands for a more affordable mass produced cigar at time of great demand this brand took off in New York in massive strides.

For instance this candela cigar, AYC had mastered the flash curing process that aids in chlorophyll retention using a high temperature method which halts fermentation at an early stage. AYC also uses Cuban seed blends to create these tasty masterpieces at affordable rates in comparison to hand rolled lengthy traditional aging fermentation processed cigars.

The difference in trying one of these candelas was a significant eye opener off the beaten path of cigars. I personally will be adding these to my rotation, it also pairs well with a green teas. Also was pretty excited to find out AYC company is still in existence! That tells me they take pride in consistency and the product is solid.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, thank you Vintage Cigar Store for the opportunity to step back in time and try a 62 year old cigar out. It amazes me that these vintage sticks are still out there and how the flavors are mind blowing.

Looking forward to the next treasure hunt down the vintage cigar highway!

Notes: pre-punched machine rolled and ready to smoke, ultra smooth, light to medium in strength, light peppery burn on the retrohale, be careful handling as candelas have thin wrappers and can damage easily, burn was nice and even with effortless draw, took my time with this smoke lasted a bit longer than I thought it would, no touch-ups needed.

These Tampa Needles made their way out of the Antonio company of Tampa, AKA Antonio Santaella factory in the heart of Ybor City. Sometime just before 1955 as the company was sold to universal cigar corp. The A. Santaella company was easily one of the largest factories at the time dating back to 1904.

The Santaella family were Spanish immigrants from Seville, Andalusia. They relocated to Cuba in the 1870’s where Antonio honed in on his skills for the cigar game. In 1880 they moved to key west and continued mastering his craft. In 1891 established a partnership with Sol Hamburger out of New York, all while producing cigars out of Key West up until 1904 as they moved to Tampa and opened the A. Santaella Factory.

Here they produced massive names such as Optimo, Flor Mia, Alluro, El Capitan General, Centropolis, Best of the Best and many more. Some of the big-named customers of theirs which include Winston Churchill and Babe Ruth. For years during spring training, the great Bambino would come to Tampa and stock up on his favorite cigar, Best of the Best. He always made time for photos and autographs for the locals when he came to the factory.

The company also had other smaller factories in the area. They produced over 45 million cigars during their time in business. The building still stands till this day at 1906 N. Armenia Tampa Florida. In 2007 the upper floors were converted into lofts for the W. Tampa Center for the arts, the rest is used as a warehouse and furniture center. Throughout the building the Ellis-Van Pelt family displays cigar artifacts that came with the building when they had purchased.

Can you imagine being in Ybor city’s Prime cigar crushing years? Also, without having the embargo limitations and what cigar blends that manifested during such an era. It was quite the experience smoking this cigar and thoroughly enjoyed it while thinking how times were back then.

If I were you, would suggest taking a crack at one of these pre-embargo cigars as they are just impossible to find. Thank you VCS for such a rare opportunity at smoking this piece of history. Puff on my Dudes!

La Tabacalera Incorporada is Asia’s oldest cigar factory dating back to 1881. The factories original name was General de Tabácos de Filipinas. Tobacco was first introduced to the Philippines back in 1592. Where Cuban seed was brought to the Cagayan valley in the province of Isabella which is said to be equivalent to Cuba’s Vuelta Abajo’s climate in comparison.

When Antonio Lopez started this company, it took the Philippines economy to a whole other level. Having the pleasure to of had a few other blends from La Tabacalera, I can easily say this company is a top shelf experience in my opinion. Their abilities to create such extraordinary flavor profiles is mind boggling to me.

The Flor de la Isabela cigar and the Alambria was the first few I was to try some years back and can honestly say I was all in on Filipino cigars. Totally looking forward to future opportunities to try more from this company and maybe visit the area some day.

This is definitely one of those sticks that will leave its mark on your Vintage cigar highway experience. And big thanks to VCS for providing these for us to try.

If there are any of you vintage cigar collectors out there, who are after those extremely rare cigars that are merely impossible to find, Luckily for you have stumbled onto the only box left as far as my search engines will take me in this vintage cigar journey. You can still find a decent empty box on eBay every now and then in various conditions, but the cigars themselves are left if desired in an unobtainable state unfortunately.

The honorable Fendrich Family in 1833 from Magraviate of Baden, Holy Roman empire, a.k.a. Germany nowadays, Started their adventure to Baltimore, Maryland. Having obtained over the years and extensive family history of cigar making. There were five brothers of the Fendrich family who came together with not only just a cigar business, but would also heavily distribute Kentucky leaf plug tobacco via horse and buggy, steamboat river, transportation, and railroad deliveries at the time with Telegraph communications.

Their business would later survive both world wars, factory fires, and the Great Depression. The Indiana factory location was the largest out of 600+ competing companies. They Had a reputation of taking extremely good care of their employees. They also had factories in Wisconsin, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

During war times out of the goodness of their hearts would take 30% of production with special designed wooden boxes with waterproof liners to be able to be dropped In bad weather or on remote islands, where there were no harbor facilities. Also the Fendrich machine shops would convert and produce precision parts for the war effort.

The Tampa cub cigars themselves were produced starting around 1950’s up until 1969 when Parodi cigar corporation in PA purchased the company and decided to not carry over Fendrich brands in there catalog. With the rarity factor involved with these Tampa Cubs, the clock is for sure ticking for availability and would suggest taking a crack at a few as IMO were every bit of scrumptious. I wish you good luck on your journey down the vintage cigar highway.

Puff on and Cheers to you All!

With a name like Tamboril, Which is arguably considered by many to be the cigar capital of the world. And a cigar named after such a city of world renown tobacco growers it should not come up short. And I can easily say that wasn’t the case with this tasty piece of work, having aged in its cedar box which was made in house for a round 26 years now it really took on Pronounced cedar notes and other flavors touch and go listed above.

Pulling off the cello on this well aged cigar and seeing the color is always an experience in itself. It has a golden Dominican Connecticut shade wrapper, Dominican piloto cubano long filler, and a Olor binder. The cigar was well constructed, drew perfectly, had a few touchups from slight uneven burn which could have been the genius who lit it…

The man who deserves the credit for this cigar is Abraham Shafir the original creator who decided to work towards taking a Crack at the cigar industry in the mid 90s right smack in the middle of the cigar boom for small boutique brands. Mr. Shafir obviously noticed the extremely high demand for smaller Limited production Mom and Pop type outfits.

While conveniently Stumbling onto his opportunity with an empty warehouse and obvious dreams he pursued and capitalized accordingly with roughly five solid years of dedication to the cigar industry with a level of success. His cigar adventure Started around 1996 and ended roughly in the 2000s.

These cigars are definitely getting harder to find these days. Shafir also produced cigar lines under the Cordova and Fore Brand names as well. Definitely suggest putting this as a notch in your journey through the Vintage Cigar Highway.

Smoke hard friends!

So after smoking this stick I am obsessed with trying more cigars from the Philippines. I have smoked three of these Isabella’s and each time they are ultra consistent. The flavors listed above touch and go throughout the burn session as well with the intensities. There is also some notes in this thing that I can’t quite pinpoint and are so very pleasant and it’s part of why I dig this thing so much. It’s like discovering something new.

But all I can do is compare it to what I am familiar with which is toasted marshmallows with what is super weird to me, shoe polish.. which I haven’t smelled shoe polish since I was a kid back when I would pass the polish stations in airports and was always drawn to the aroma. I can’t get enough of it.

I’ve smoked 3 of these and they all are so consistently pleasing. I’ve picked up a handful more of these for special occasions and they are on my top shelf of the humidor. These cigars are cedar wrapped, and I did use the cedar wrap to light the cigar.

The wrapper itself is mostly a Colorado color and there are bits of maduro throughout. The picture I feel doesn’t do it any justice. You would have to see it with your own eyes. It also lasted over an hour and a half!!

I set it down once to go check on something for maybe a minute or two and came back and it was still lit without having to drag it back to life or an assisted relight. I did have to touch up a few times in the session but was easy to catch it once it started to walk on me because of the steady slow burn pace.

There are currently four of these cigars left on VCS. I thought long and hard about it, If I should be a selfish ass and just buy the rest of them or give potentially 4 lucky souls that are on the vintage cigar highway a chance to try them. And these are four cigars that you will probably never see on any cigar website ever again.

Good luck and I hope you love it as much as I do.

When I hear the name “Macanudo” There is one word that comes to mind, Solidity. Macanudo has etched its name as one of the top selling cigars in the nation at one time for 30 years straight. I mean who else can say that? And if they can say that it sure isn’t but a very few.

From the 1960s to the 1990s it was THE cigar. All the celebrations, special moments, and memories that this Cigar has been a part of is mind-boggling. Macanudo is Spanish slang for Extraordinary or synonyms like. King Edward VIII a well known cigar fanatic had become accustomed to the word while playing polo in Argentina, and when the Jamaicans caught wind of that, they ran with it.

When I pulled off the rapper to get ready to light this thing up, it gave me chills, seeing the age and color of the cello. Whoever owned this box Obviously cherished and had taken great care of it over the years. And here I am getting a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience it.

After staring at it like an idiot for a while, went ahead and cut it and lit into it. After the first draw, I could not get enough of this thing there were notes that stayed consistent throughout its entirety and notes that danced in and out periodically listed above. The draw was effortless and produced thick creamy clouds of pure happiness 🙂 The strength of the cigar was not more than a medium with buttery plethoric notes on the retro. This was one of those cigars that will stand out having tried looking back on the VCS vintage highway.

Thanks again VCS.

All right, so not the greatest day at work right? Came home still rainy and windy out and needed something to turn the tide. Picked up this Stick, which was the last of a vintage flight I got here on VCS and after the first couple drags, it felt like the weight on my shoulders melted away.

I had never dabbled in vintage cigars much because your average online cigar store just doesn’t have them or they have cigar manufacturers breathing down their necks to sell the newest current cigar blends. They also have quotas to meet and if they don’t, they go to some other online store that they think can make the numbers. Sorry, got off track there, anyways. I just think it’s cool to have this one of a kind ultra rare vintage option to choose from without the usual cigars you see on every other site.

All cigars I’ve had on here have been off the beaten path and have been extremely satisfying and this one was no different. This stick was pre-cut, light to medium and strength, had one touch up at the start of the 2nd 3rd, the draw was on point and it lasted about 35 minutes.

I also like to read up a bit about the factory when I light one of these relics up. It can be hard to find at times, but this company had its hands on tobacco back in 1774! Carl Ludwig Lotzbeck founded a snuff factory in Lahr, Rhine Valley before It was even part of Germany.

By the 1850’s snuff and pipe had been overtaken via demand of cigars and up until the 60’s and 70’s when cigarettes became the new fad and squashed the cigar demand. There is currently a tobacco museum in Mahlberg on all the history of such.

Thanks again VCS for the opportunity to try one of these Soon to be unobtainable relics.

Having smoked the Havana bouquet version of the cigar, which I would say is three times the size of this Cigarillo, the flavor resemblance is all there. I took my time with it and was able to get just over 20 minutes out of it. It could easily be a 15 minute smoke or less, perfect for when you need a smoke at work during a break to get you through the rest of your day.

It was pre-cut from the factory, had an even burn, Easy to draw from light to medium in strength and every bit of a flavor bomb with no touchups needed. I absolutely love this blend.

In 1852 cigar manufacturer Luis Ormond founded Ormond & Cie. By the 1960s this company already had over 100 years of cigar blending experience and it does a fine job of representing that. In the 1930s Luis Ormond out of Vevey, Switzerland merged to form Rinzor & Ormond and stayed in the tobacco industry up until 1992.

I recommend getting your hands on some of these soon, your opportunity is fading fast as they are extremely rare and good luck ever finding them again.