The Hammer and Sickle event at Corona Cigar Company

If you have never had the opportunity to talk to a cigar maker, do yourself a favor go to an event and say Hi. I have now been to 2 events and in both case I had the opportunity to speak with the people who run the companies. I spent several hours over 2 days conversing with Victor Vitale. We talked about a lot of different things but mostly cigars. This was a Hammer and Sickle event and Victor blends 3 cigars to go with the Hammer and Sickle Vodka label. The unique part of the Hammer and Sickle brand is the packaging.

The Hammer and Sickle comes in 4 sizes the Churchill, the Toro, the Robusto and the Torpedo. They are wrapped in a Dominican premium wrapper that has been aged 5 years with a Dominican binder and filler. The Hammer and Sickle is a very nice cigar, it has a smooth and creamy flavor throughout the cigar with an interesting complexity of flavors, which is hard to imagine with a mild to medium background. I liked the Hammer and Sickle it was a nice cigar but it was too mild for my tastes. Even though I am a newbie my tastes tend to run to the medium or full body flavors. The question then is would I buy a box, No I wouldn't. Would I buy a 5 pack, yes if I had a golf outing with some people who didn't normally smoke cigars and wanted the experience of a good tasting, always smooth, cigar this would be perfect.

The Berlin Wall is a medium cigar that has 6 year aged Honduran Criollo wrapper, 4 year aged Honduran Habano binder , 3 year aged Dominican filler. This is a beautiful cigar with a metal wrapper. The Berlin Wall comes in 3 sizes the Churchill, the Toro, And the Robusto. I smoked the Churchill. This cigar lasted almost an hour and a half and I truly enjoyed every minute of it. The draw on this cigar was very interesting because you take a draw and don't really feel like you  got any smoke until you let it go and found yourself engulfed in wonderful billowing smoke. The mixture of tastes on the Berlin wall were creamy and delightful. I have a hard time knowing exactly the flavors I am tasting and the ability to tell you if it was a particular spice or nut. What I can tell you is I liked the Berlin Wall very much. From my research I am reading that the Berlin Wall is a limited supply Cigar and if that is true do yourself a favor and grab one I promise you will not be disappointed Now I have read several other reviews on this cigar and they talk about how they are like a pre-embargo Cuban Cigar unfortunately for me I don't know that. What I do know is I would buy a box, and I have already bought 5 and gave away cigars to make room for them. 

Hammer and Sickle also have the Moscow city. I have not yet had a chance to try it so I won't be able to offer an opinion other than to say again this is a beautiful cigar with great packaging and if it is anything like the other 2 it's going to be a great smoke. The Moscow City cigars have a well aged maduro broad-leaf wrapper that is wrapped around a peppery secret blend of Nicaraguan and Dominican ligero long-fillers.






Victor was very gracious with me trying to explain the process of developing a cigar and matching it with a market, that even though I become a part of it, is shrinking. We discussed numbers of how many cigars are being imported, and new boutique brands, which he agrees the Hammer and Sickle line is. Victor, Brian, and I were discussing cigars as a whole and they wanted to hear what I liked, what I felt was good and why. Victor then gave me a project and that is to find out why a certain cigar maker is so prominent in the market when I have not yet found one of their cigars I like. I have not tried them all, but  I am not sure I want to spend my money on a brand that I have smoked 5 cigars and would never buy another one. Then we got to discussing cigars I had tried that didn't like and why. One that came to mind was the C A O CX2 I had recently smoked it and told them I might as well have smoked my grandfather's Phillie from my youth. It was now my turn and I asked them what they smoked when they weren't testing there next blend or smoking their own cigars. They  both took me to the davidoff row and picked out a Davidoff Anniversary No.3. This cigar was $20 and not in my normal price range. The next one since I had another bad Cigar experience from another maker, picked one from them that is supposed to be good, I'll let you know after I try it. Next one they picked for me was the La Aroma Mi Amor robusto.  One last one was a Tatuaje 7th Cape Especial. I now have more cigars to try and evaluate. I am looking forward to smoking all the different cigars in my boxes now. I gave away 9 different cigars that were either duplicates or throw ins from a sampler ,that I didn't care either way if I smoked them or not. I finished off the second evening of cigar smoking, and conversation with an E P Carillo short run I will let you know my thoughts on that one later. Enjoy the pictures of the fun night we had.

It was a busy night and we all had a lot of fun

                     That's Victor with the name tag on

 Victor, Tommy of Corona Cigar Company, and Eric of Hammer and Sickle Vodka, putting together a box for a customer.

         Eric answering questions about the cigars

 Victor having a nice conversation with customers

The Hammer and Sickle display

                                                 The Berlin walls they are really good

This is the piece of the wall

This the other side it was interesting to imagine it coming down in one big piece like that.

That's the Berlin wall I was loving and again I finished up with the EP Carillo Short Run another nice cigar


Thank you again for stopping in and reading about my quest.


The Newbie