Villiger’s small, machine made cigars have been a favorite of mine for many years. The little “Export” cigars that come in boxes of five are perfect quickies and are very convenient. Unwrapping the paper and finding a perfect little box pressed cigar is like unwrapping a chocolate bar! Given my love for these, I was pleasantly surprised last year when Anne Dinkens at Villiger (then Villiger Stokkebye, now Villiger Cigars North America) contacted me to try some of their premium cigars. They also were very generous in taking part in my 12 Days of Contests last December. I was looking forward to visiting them at the IPCPR show this year, and made an appointment to speak with Roy MacLaren, the new president of the company. Roy was generous with his time and information and I recorded an interview with him where he explains his background, as well as their new offerings. The video appears below.
I had the opportunity to sample the two new cigars, the Talanga and the Colorado over the last could days (in truth, I’m smoking the Colorado while typing this!) The Talanga is a tasty smoke, with a light colored Connecticut seed wrapper from Jalapa. The cigar burned perfectly and had an equally perfect draw. I found it to be well balanced and satisfying with interesting flavors that distinguished it from so many other cigars. The Colorado has the same outstanding 
construction, but has a little less sweetness and a little more savoriness. The Habano wrapper may have something to do with this, but it also has a double binder, one leaf of which is from the Nicaraguan island of Ometepe. Both of these cigars have some of the Ometepe leaf in the blend, perhaps that’s what gives them that little something extra special that got my attention. The Colorado is a very rich smoke, decadent and delicious! Both samples were the Double Robusto size, which measure 5½” x 54, which is a nice size.
One thing that amused me while I was waiting to speak with Roy was talking with a couple of the European executives in the booth. As we were talking about how tasty the Export series were to me, one of the gentlemen was saying that Havana tobacco has a distinctive flavor and was kind of doing a “wink wink, nudge nudge” sort of thing. Now, do I believe that Villiger Exports, or any of their machine made products in the USA contain Cuban tobacco? I don’t see how that could be done legally, but I guess is a few leaves of Havana fell into the mix, who would know? There is something a little special about those little Exports, and I have some of the maduros that came out a few years ago to try that I haven’t gotten around to sampling yet. Another item of note was that they added a secondary band to their La Capitana line where the original band didn’t have the name on it. You can see my take on that cigar here. Many thanks to Anne, Roy and the folks at Villiger for their hospitality and support.
That’s it for now, when you see the Villiger Talanga or Colorado in the stores, give them a try! Until the next time,
CigarCraig
