Brand News

CAO Hommage to Nicaragua from STG

Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) has created CAO Hommage to Nicaragua, a limited edition 58 ring gauge by 6 inch Gran Toro with a unique blend for select international markets. The cigar will be released in late 2019 in select countries.

The cigar is made at Scandinavian Tobacco Group Estelí in Nicaragua, utilizing a filler blend that includes tobaccos from three major Nicaraguan growing areas— Jalapa, Condega, and Estelí—along with Honduran filler, Connecticut broadleaf binder, and Ecuadorian Habano wrapper.

Custom packaging was also created for this limited edition, including a oneof-a-kind ring, foot band, and sleek matte white boxes of 10 cigars.

According to Scandinavian Tobacco Group, the cigar will be available in The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, and Spain as well as select Asian markets. Scandinavian Tobacco Group, Ltd., Denmark, Web: caocigars.com.

Villiger Cristal Premium Filtered Cigarillos

Villiger Cristal Original Blend

Villiger Cristal Special Blend

The House of Villiger presents Villiger Cristal, a new brand created to deliver “pleasure in a class of its own.” Company chairman Heinrich Villiger spent a lot of time refining and sampling until he had the perfect tobacco mixture, the Swiss company explains. The result: two exquisite filter cigarillos made from the best tobaccos, distinctive through their unique taste and quality. Two varieties are offered.

Villiger Cristal Original Blend, in its blue shoulder box, targets consumers who like the taste of pure tobacco, with top-grade filler made from Cuban tobaccos.

Villiger Cristal Special Blend, with its magenta-colored package, is dedicated to lovers of flavored cigarillos. Its “exquisite” aroma promises an “extraordinary” smoking experience.

To accompany these luxury cigarillos —which are highlighted by laser designs at the cigarillo’s filter end—Villiger created premium 20-count shoulder boxes featuring sparkling highlights. Suggested retail, 7.50€.

In promotional materials, Villiger tempts consumers to “make a conscious decision for extravagance and elevate your smoking experience to the next level. Spoil yourself with a Villiger Cristal, sit back, and let your mind wander. Life is too short to postpone indulgence.”

Villiger Söhne AG, Pfeffikon, Switzerland, Web: villigercigars.com.

Davidoff’s Camacho Connecticut Distillery Edition

This fall, Davidoff is bringing one of its new Camacho Distillery Edition cigars to European markets.

Camacho Connecticut Distillery Edition is a variation of one of Camacho’s best-selling core blends expressed in a deeper, more complex and unique flavor profile by aging the company’s proprietary Corojo tobacco from Honduras in charred bourbon barrels for a minimum of six months. The blend is represented in a 50 x 6 Toro format.

“This is boldness meets balance, with a bourbon influence,” the company explains. “We put a complex spin on an old classic.” The bourbon barrel-aged Corojo tobacco is then combined with Aleman Ligero from Honduras and Nicaragua, Honduran Corojo binder, and Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper to create this special variation of the Camacho Connecticut blend. The cigars are presented in 20-count lacquered boxes.

Davidoff says the Camacho Ecuador Distillery Edition is “new school” bold with a vintage twist, a powerful blend offering a wide variety of complex flavors. It’s a smoke that looks as good as it tastes.”

Oettinger Davidoff AG, Basel, Switzerland, Web: oettingerdavidoff.com.

Royal Agio Cigars Releases Ernest-Perez Carrillo Collaboration, Dueto, in Europe

Royal Agio Cigars has brought its Balmoral Serie Signatura Dueto, the firsthandmade cigar blend released under its collaboration-based Balmoral “Signature Series” platform, to Europe following its US launch last year. For this first release, Royal Agio Cigars CEO Boris Wintermans teamed up with the legendary Dominican Republic cigar maker Ernesto Pérez-Carrillo to deliver a special, one-of-a-kind sensorial experience.

Blended by Pérez-Carrillo at his Tabacalera La Alianza factory in the Dominican Republic to “excite the senses,” Dueto captures the complex intersection of two distinct premium cigar blending signatures. Incorporating each cigar makers’ hand-selected, preferred tobaccos, this cigar blend delivers the signature elegant robustness of Pérez-Carrillo cigars and the signature balance of sophisticated complexity and smoothness of Wintermans’ Balmoral handmade cigars.

“I want to push the boundaries of what can be discovered in premium cigar blending, and it is this desire that inspired the creation of the Balmoral Serie Signaturas and initial conversations with Ernesto,” said Wintermans.

Added Pérez-Carrillo, “For the both of us, it’s never been about big volume. It’s just the opposite. It’s always been about the underlying passion that drives us to create new and unique cigar blends that will inspire cigar smokers.”

Balmoral Serie Signatura Dueto showcases extensively aged Nicaraguan and exclusive, stalk-cut Brazilian Mata Norte fillers; an Estelí, Nicaragua binder, and a robust, yet elegant Nicaraguan wrapper from Jalapa. The line, which is now available in Europe, is presented in five vitolas, packaged in 10-count boxes—Robusto 5 x 50; Ovación (Figurado) 5 1/2 x 50; Gran Toro 6 x 52; Gordo 6 x 60; and Churchill 7 x 49.

Royal Agio Cigars, Duizel, The Netherlands, Web: agiocigars.com.