I was going through some of the newer cigars I have and realized there was one I hadn’t written about yet, but more on that in a bit. I want to start off talking about the new Villiger TAA Exclusive for 2022. This 
cigar is interesting for a couple reasons. Foremost, it’s made at Espinosa’s La Zona factory. Villiger has been making cigars with a lot of different companies, Joya de Nicaragua comes to mind, as well as having their own factory in Brazil. I suppose logistics would make it less favorable to make the cigars in Brazil, but I would think they’d want to highlight that operation. Villiger is still not very well known in the premium market, and may still suffer from the abysmal way that they handled changing their outside sales model (stranding reps on the road around the holidays isn’t a very nice way to sever ties!). I’ll tell you this, I’ve always enjoyed their premium cigars, and have had a good relationship with them for a decade or so, through various regimes. This TAA exclusive is a good cigar. It has a San Andrés maduro wrapper with NIcaraguan binder and fillers. It’s a box pressed 6″ x 52, and is priced at $10. Honestly, it tastes like a cigar with that blend should taste, and I liked it. Does it have any overly distinctive flavors? Not really, but it’s a good, solid Mexican maduro, and if you like those, you’ll enjoy this. Of course, that;s m take, and someone with a more refined palate will have a different take.
I made plans to be in Las Vegas for the weekend of the PCA show, although I have no plans to get into the show. There are a couple avenues I could take to get in if I wanted to, but I’m on the fence as to whether I want to do that or catch up with people after hours. I neither want to waste the trip, nor compromise my position on media being admitted to the show (I want to do it the right way, their version of that is selling me a membership which gets me nothing but entry to the show, my version is the media being invited to promote the show). I still have some things to work out. Anyway, I smoked the newest cigar from Punch this 
week, The People’s Champ. The blend on this was basically crowd-sourced. Apparently there’s a “Punch Brotherhood” group of Punch enthusiasts that were polled on what they wanted in a cigar, and this is what they came up with. I maintain that this is rarely a good idea, and cigar making should be left to the experts. The blend is a Honduran Talanga Habano wrapper, San Andrés binder and fillers from the DR, Brazil, and Nicaragua. There’s a lot going on there. These will be in 5 and 10 packs and will SRP for $6.49 for a 5″ x 50 robusto, so at least it’s not an expensive cigar. I found the flavor to be very pungent, with some spice, which could be confused for acidity, I suppose. I’m guess some age will do these a lot of good. I put this down for a while while running an errand, and came back to it a few hours later and finished it and it was a little better. I am hopeful that the enthusiasts who suggested this blend enjoy it, it wasn’t for me.
I realized that I hadn’t yet mentioned the Partagas Añejo Petit Robusto here yet, and thought I’d fix that. 
This s a cool little cigar, available in two 4½” sizes, one with a 49 ring (Partagas has a thing for 49 ring robustos historically), and 60 ring. This cigar is unique in that it is a barber pole presentation, with Cameroon and Connecticut shade wrappers, with the CAmeroon being from 1998. Something makes me think I saw bales of Cameroon tobacco from 1998 when I was at the factory in 2011, it sticks in my head because Skip Martin was trying to buy them. I could be wrong. This is a cool little cigar. It has the nuttyness of the Cameroon, tempered by both age and the Connecticut. Some Mexican leaf in the filler blend, along with Dominican, adds some body. I liked it, it smoked well and tasted great. If you want to be entertained, Kaplowitz did a twelve part review series on this cigar, which is quite creative. Start HERE. It would have been nice if he had linked his table of contents to the actual articles, but he’s kinda lazy. He puts the burden on the reader to use the search feature, I’m a nice guy, I’ll do it for you (HERE). I think the takeaway here is I’m a nice guy, and that Kaplowitz character…he’s creative, give him a read.
That’s all for today. This week is the Battleship, Beef and Bourbon for the Ship Red Meat Lovers Club event. Don’t forget to check out www.battleshipbeef.com and come out and join the fun. I’ll be there with Kevin and Jess from Cigar Prop, and Saka and a few other people. I can’t wait to have a cigar on the deck of the ship! Until the next time,
CigarCraig
