Villiger Do Brasil Maduro and Claro Cigars

I brought home samples of the new Villiger Do Brasil cigars from the TPE show, then a week later a pair showed up in my mailbox, so I’ve had a couple of each in the humidor now for several weeks resting. I had the opportunity to try the cigars at the show, Villiger hosted an excellent party at the TPE with some great food and entertainment that meandered between brilliant and not so much, all the while being entertaining one way or the other. Since I was there communing with friends, I smoked a more familiar cigar, the Cuellar Black Forest, which I really like. I spent a very nice evening catching up with my friends Will Cooper, Aaron Loomis and Jiunn Liu as well as seeing a bunch of other cigar industry folks. Good times.

Both of the Villiger Do Brasil blends, from what I can divine, are Brazilian puros. The Maduro is the one I smoked first, which surprises no one, I’m sure. This has an Arapiraca wrapper, it’s nice and dark, with light oil, and had a rustic appearance. Villiger uses a lot of Brazilian tobacco in a lot of their cigars, so it’s not surprising that they would make Brazilian puro premium cigars. This cigar was well made, and was one that came from the TPE gift bag. It had a split in the cap, but that wasn’t a big deal since I clipped it off. I’ve been using the ScrewPop MagPulse cutter almost exclusively, by the way, and it continues to me an absolutely amazing cutter. The cigar had a dark, savory flavor, not a sweet maduro. I really enjoyed it, it was quite a bit different than most other maduro cigars I smoke.

The Claro is wrapped in a Connecticut wrapper grown in Brazil, I assume under shade. It looks much like any other Connecticut shade wrapper, it’s light tan, finely veined and really quite beautiful. I’m really not sure which sample I chose, the one I received in the mail, or the one from the TPE, I checked it with the Humidimeter and it was right where I like to see the reading at the foot, 62%. I probed the head of the cigar and it was 67%, which is pretty consistent with my findings. I find that most cigars smoke well if they read under 65% at the foot, and there’s usually a 5% different from the foot to the head. My humidors are typically around 67% RH give or take a point. Anyway, the Claro was a flavorful shade cigar, nothing remarkable, unfortunately, but a solid, tasty, shade cigar. Both samples I smoked were the 5″ x 50 Robusto, and both were very good cigars.

I had to run out twice over the last few days some supplies and it’s surreal. Sunday it was to Home Depot to buy a replacement thermostat, as I mentioned in Sunday’s post. Oddly, Home Depot was pretty busy. People buying stuff for their yards and whatnot. It was almost like a normal Sunday. Here I am trying not to touch the touchscreen self checkout, and employees are a foot away from people having conversations like nothing is going on. It was a little disturbing. I feel like my visit was justified as a necessity, I mean, technically I do have the time to hold the wires together whiles the house heats up periodically…but the thermostat is a convenience we’ve become accustomed to. Yesterday I had to pick up prescriptions and some groceries. The pharmacy at Walmart sprayed down everything with 70% isopropyl alcohol right after it was touched and Walmart wasn’t that crowded. They have “social distance” marks on the floor. The local supermarket still has bare shelves, there was a few things I couldn’t get, but I managed and got most of what I needed.  It was exhausting and I felt oddly relieved to get home! I’ve been out of work since last October, so I’m used to being home, but it’s an odd situation now. We have a number of cases in our county, and we are under state mandated lockdown. I can’t wait until things get back to normal and I can find a damn job! 

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

CigarCraig