Rauchvergnügen German Engineered Cigar

A German engineered cigar? It’s true, and I’ve smoked it.  Rauchvergnügen is the first-ever German Engineered Cigar, made at InterCigar S.A. in Santiago, Dominican Republic. The first production was limited to 1000 two count boxes, and they seem to be only available in Germany at this time, something we may have to get used to with the FDA regulations! Please note the warning labels on the packaging, something else we’ll be seeing in the not too distant future, I’m afraid. The manufacturer notes that the engineering, which Germans are famous for, is in the flavor, but the construction was excellent in the sample I smoked, which had been resting in the humidor for several weeks, as is my custom. Oddly, I was unable to find dimensions listed on this cigar, which is called #42, and notes on the band and packaging that the number refers to the cubic capacity (42cm³), and if I were smarter I might be able to deduce the size from that. I did measure the length with a Vernier caliper, and came up with 5.020″ and it seemed to just about fit the 54 hole in my ring gauge. We should probably just call it a 5″ x 54 in layman’s terms.  Also absent is any blend info, but thanks to Will at Cigar-Coop.com, I found out that it has an Ecuadorian Hybrid wrapper, Dominican Criollo 98 binder and fillers of Dominican Piloto Cubano, Nicaraguan, Pennsylvania. The wrapper is flawless, as is the burn and draw. I found it to be a pleasing medium bodied smoke, with some nice  savory flavors along with a bit of spice. It was a pleasure to smoke this cigar, the quality is what one would expect from German engineering. Of course, it comes off as gimmicky, and certainly it is, but there have been far more gimmicky cigars that don’t live up to the gimmick, and this one does. I hope the FDA regs don’t keep this from the US market, but there are retailers listed on the Rauchvergnügen site who will ship. If you come across these, give them a shot!

Vielen Dank to Oliver, Joe and Klaas for sharing samples of their interesting cigar with me. If you wondered, Rauchvergnügen translates to “smoking pleasure”, and is a spin on Volkswagon’s Fahrvergnügen advertising campaign from the ’90s. I agree with the name, it did provide quite a bit of smoking pleasure for me.

That’s all for now, until the next time,

CigarCraig