US: Viva Republica Cigar for Troops

Source from:  Cigar Aficionado 11/10/2014

Jason Holly, who owns the small Viva Republica cigar brand, has created a special cigar to benefit members of the U.S. military who are serving overseas. The Miami Cigar & Co., operating in conjunction with nonprofit organization Operation: Cigars for Warriors, is coming out with a $6 smoke and proceeds from the cigar will go to organization. The limited-edition run of 2,000 cigars will ship to stores on Tuesday, which is Veteran's Day.

"This release was inspired by my older brother Joseph who is an Iraqi War combat veteran," said Holly. The cigar, called Viva Republica C4W V-Day Limited Edition Charitable Release, measures 5 1/8 inches by 42 ring gauge and combines Nicaraguan, Brazilian and Dominican leaves. The wrapper, Nicaraguan Habano, is from Jalapa.

"The blend is fairly different from everything in the core/regular production Viva Republica portfolio," Holly said. "The other releases have used Educadoran and Brazilian wrappers so this is the first for Nicaragua. I anticipated it to dramatically change the flavor profile and it did."

"The support of Viva Republica could not have come at a better time," said Storm Boen, chairman of the Board for Operation: Cigars for Warriors. "Every month we have more requests from active duty troops than our all-volunteer organization can fill and the donation from the sale of Viva's cigars will be used to defray our shipping costs when sending cigars to troops overseas." Enditem