Villiger Cigars
Turn to Villiger when you’re craving quality and consistency for dirt-cheap, down-and-dirty discounts. Despite racking up a recent pair of 93-ratings for Villiger Flor de Ynclan and Villiger San’Doro Colorado in Cigar Aficionado, we’ve permanently slashed every MSRP in the entire Villiger portfolio. Bargain hunters who never shop outside the Blowout Bin have come to rely on boxes and bundles of Villiger when they need to top off the coolerdor with ultra-cheap utility smokes for mowing the lawn or shoveling the driveway. Villiger is the perfect brand to keep on hand when you want to impress cigar-ransacking pals who invade your humidor on poker night. Stockpile Villiger’s finest for the absolute lowest prices in the entire country.
CIGARS
Villiger 125 Habano
Price Per Cigar:$2.49 - $3.244 options availableStrength: MediumCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Ecuador Habano15 Reviewsread more
Villiger 1888
Price Per Cigar:$4.24 - $4.743 options availableStrength: Mild-MediumCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: Ecuador Connecticut3 Reviewsread more
Villiger Cuellar Black Forest
Price Per Cigar:$4.74 - $5.244 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: San Andres22 Reviewsread more
Villiger Cuellar Kreme
Price Per Cigar:$4.49 - $4.994 options availableStrength: Mild-MediumCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: Ecuador Connecticut83 Reviewsread more
Villiger Do Brasil Claro
Price Per Cigar:$5.24 - $5.492 options availableStrength: MediumCountry: BrazilWrapper: Brazilian4 Reviewsread more
Villiger Do Brasil Maduro
Price Per Cigar:$5.24 - $5.492 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: BrazilWrapper: Brazilian1 Reviewread more
Villiger Exclusivo USA
Price Per Cigar:$3.99 - $4.993 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Nicaraguan6 Reviewsread more
Villiger Export
Price Per Cigar:Only $1.293 options availableStrength: MildCountry: SwitzerlandWrapper: Varies37 Reviewsread more
Villiger La Capitana
Price Per Cigar:$2.74 - $2.992 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Habano63 Reviewsread more
Villiger La Flor de Ynclan
Price Per Cigar:$5.99 - $6.393 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: Ecuador Connecticut10 Reviewsread more
Villiger La Vencedora
Price Per Cigar:$4.39 - $4.993 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Nicaraguan17 Reviewsread more
Villiger San'Doro Claro
Price Per Cigar:$5.49 - $5.993 options availableStrength: MediumCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Ecuador Connecticut5 Reviewsread more
Villiger San'Doro Colorado
Price Per Cigar:$5.49 - $5.993 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Ecuador Habano15 Reviewsread more
Villiger Selecto Connecticut
Price Per Cigar:$2.49 - $3.244 options availableStrength: Mild-MediumCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Ecuador Connecticut42 Reviewsread more
Villiger Selecto Maduro
Price Per Cigar:$2.49 - $3.244 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: San Andres17 Reviewsread more
Villiger White Forest
Price Per Cigar:$3.49 - $4.495 options availableStrength: Mild-MediumCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: Connecticut Shade7 Reviewsread more
SAMPLERS
ACCESSORIES
VILLIGER BRAND HISTORY
The Villiger brand is a well-known, family-owned European tobacco conglomerate that was founded in 1888 by Jean and Louise Villiger in the town of Pfeffikon in Lucerne, Switzerland. The company specializes in producing small-format, machine-made cigars, most notably Villiger Export and Villiger-Kiel. In recent years, the brand has introduced a handful of premium, handmade cigars, as well.
In 1902, Louise Villiger assumed responsibility for heading the company following the untimely passing of her husband, Jean. Her sons, Max and Hans Villiger, took over in 1918 and grew the company with a hearty degree of success. However, it was in 1954 when modern family patriarch Heinrich Villiger began leading the company that the brand initiated a formidable trajectory of expansion.
Having just completed high school in 1950, young Heinrich immersed himself in the world of tobacco. He traveled to numerous key tobacco-producing regions around the world and gained an intimate acquaintance with tobacco procurement. Throughout this period, Villiger is exclusively a maker of machine-made cigarillos in both short and longer formats. The trade embargo enacted by the United States against Cuba in the early 1960s paved the way for a tremendous influx of Cuban tobacco to reach the European market, which previously had been consumed by the voracious appetite for Cuban cigars in the States.
In conjunction with increasing production, Heinrich was entirely fixated on modernizing his cigarillo factories with the most technologically advanced equipment. A series of engineers was consulted to design custom machines to optimize the production process. Villiger began to absorb a number of competitors, as well. Roughly a dozen cigar factories in Switzerland and another dozen in Germany were consolidated into the Villiger portfolio over the decades. The company was able to compete at scale with other large machine-made brands based in France, The Netherlands, and Germany.
Today, the company employs around 1,500 people and produces 1.5 billion cigars per year. This includes an expansive 800-employee complex in Indonesia which opened in 1999. The company’s machine-made portfolio accounts for the lion’s share of production. Only in recent years has the brand begun to develop a premium, handmade division with the premiere of Villiger of North America, the company’s subsidiary tasked with positioning its products in the premium U.S. market.
VILLIGER BRAND OVERVIEW
It’s common to come across a number of machine-made Villiger cigars in any smokeshop that carries a nice selection of cigarillos. Villiger Export, Villiger Sumatra, Braniff, and Villiger-Kiel are some of the brand’s more prominent lines. Villger’s machine-made portfolio is mass-produced using a number of multinational tobaccos from the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Brazil, Italy, Indonesia and more. There’s even Villiger-Krumme, shaped in a Culebra, which is Spanish for “snake.”
A Culebra is typically 3 individual long and thin cigars that have been braided into a single unit and are tied or fastened at the ends. A number stories exist around the emergence of the Culebra, though none are technically definitive. The most common is that Culebras were invented to restrict the personal consumption of cigar-rollers in the factories, as the visually distinct shape is easy to spot and monitor when a roller is smoking one. However, this seems unlikely as it would be terribly inefficient for any factory to produce such a specialized shape solely for the workers to enjoy, especially when a number of factory rejects are regularly on hand for them to smoke. In any case, a machine-made Culebra adds an extra dimension of novelty and we believe Villiger has the market cornered in that respect. Try one sometime if you spot them on a store shelf.
When it comes to premium, handmade cigars, cornering the market has been a much larger challenge for Villiger. The premium market is a far different class from machine-made cigars and the brand has encountered a tremendous degree of difficulty since launching its handcrafted division back in 2008. A handful of ineffective marketing campaigns failed to register with consumers who were already hesitant to accept prices that approach $10 per cigar from a manufacturer of cigarillos.
However, the brand continues to pick up momentum. Villiger Flor de Ynclan received a 93-point rating from Cigar Aficionado and was included in the publication’s ‘Top 10 Cigars of the Year’ for 2017. The cigar’s original debut was all but unnoticed by consumers. Heinrich Villiger went back to the drawing board and had the cigar reblended and repackaged from start to finish. Its medium to full-bodied profile is drafted from an Ecuador Connecticut wrapper leaf over Dominican and Nicaraguan long-fillers that show off notes of rawhide, molasses, walnuts and coffee beans.
The brand has abandoned a handful of its other initial premium offerings, in favor of chasing the value-buyer with a sound menu of inexpensive bundles and boxes you can indulge in at heavily discounted, closeout prices. Deploying a value-based strategy has produced a noticeable surge in demand for a number of blends in the Villiger portfolio.
Villiger 1888 commemorates the year of the company’s founding with a Dominican-made, medium-bodied profile of nuts, white pepper and toast. An Ecuador Connecticut wrapper conceals a core of tobaccos from the Dominican Republic and San Andrés. It’s a steal for under $50 per box of 25 cigars.
Named for a tropical beach in the Dominican Republic, Villiger Cabarete delivers balanced spices and notes of dark chocolate with a Nicaraguan wrapper leaf and tasteful core of handcrafted long-fillers that start at less than $2 per cigar every day of the week.
Continuing a similar sea-faring theme as Carbarete, Villiger La Capitana is named for a sunken Spanish galleon from 300 years ago. The blend is drafted from a Cuban-seed wrapper leaf and an all-Nicaraguan interior. La Capitana enjoys a growing audience as it appeals to the bundle buyer on a budget, as well as cigar lovers who appreciate a complex transition of flavors.
Villiger Trill is also a great, highly rated bundle that we frequently feature in a number of recurring deals. A creamy Habano wrapper leaf conceals a well-matched combination of Cuban-seed long-fillers with notes of red peppers, coffee beans, and cocoa in a velvety finish. Villiger Trill boasts rave reviews from some of our best customers.
Whether you want an inexpensive brand for the golf course or you need to top off the coolerdor in time for your next herf, turn to Villiger and explore a tasteful portfolio that won’t break the bank. We’ve received a number of revealing reviews on Villiger cigars when you feel like consulting the masses for where to begin.
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