Dutch type cigars

[Wildwood]

Hiya,

Seen a few posts with mention of European (Swiss or Dutch) machine made cigars...mainly Robusto and myself are the ones to have "come out". Does anyone else smoke them, even occasionally?

I tend to light one up as a stand-by between more significant smokes...and judged by their own standards, I think they are pretty good. Ideal for the brief (sometimes) period waiting for my daughter to arrive for her lift from work...:(

Some of them use pretty good tobacco...cuban, indonesian etc.

If you have, and you don't despise them utterly...what do you smoke?

Myself, I've tried a fair range...Meharis, Petit Noble, Villiger, Henry Wintermans, Cafe Creme and latterly, Panter Mignons. Still going through my box of Justus van Maurik tuitknaks, as per previous post.

I also have a weakness for the tins of course...again, it's the librarian side of me...:o

Having lowered the tone, I'll await your replies with interest... :)

Wildwood

[larrysputnik]

Robusto sent me some Villigers and I really enjoyed them. A short smoke for when you don't have a lot of time. I've never tried any other brands. What would you say is the best tasting brand?

[Montesmoke]

I have tried the villiger cigars, not too bad a smoke, but not really into them, i have 3 sealed packs if anyone interested?

Monte.

[larrysputnik]

I'll take them. how much?

[Wildwood]

Hi Larrysputnik...

Best tasting brand? Tends to be the one I'm smoking most recently...so at the moment, I'm quite enjoying the Panter Mignons. Villigers are pretty good I must admit.

I wouldn't particularly recommend the Cafe Creme, though they are about the biggest seller I believe. I also recently tried Gallaher's latest attempt to get into the market - Three Crowns...and they were pretty horrid imho.

Some are so short they are hardly worth it.

It's meant to be a very fast-growing sector of the total cigar market.

I note the big Cuban boys are also getting into the small cigar market - Punch, R&J, Montecristo...but obviously, these aren't really European cigars. Have you tried these? Are they worth it?

I've not really answered your question...perhaps someone else will come up with a recommendation.

Wildwood

[Renefatdude]

Hello, Dutch cigars are pretty good, we have a long tradition of making cigars.
After the U.S.A. Holland is the biggest cigar producing country in the world.

The best we don't export we smoke them our selves :D:

In my opinion the best Dutch cigars are Van der Donk (hand made)
Olifant and reasonable are Balmoral.

If anyone is interested I can send a few over.
The Van der Donks are a treat!

Rene

[Robusto]

I would be interested. How much do you want for your pain?

I quite like the twiglet-like Montecristos you can get for about ?7. Of course they don't satisfy like a phat one, but they do have the taste in a very short portion.

I 'bookmark' every garage for Villigers. I hate Hamlets, and Castellas (do they still exist?) were how I acted the big rebel in my teens. I will buy Cafe Creme if there's nothing else good in a shop.

In one band in Yorkshire, I took up cigarettes to fit in. This was Phoenix Nights territory. (Larry/Joe - look that up!). This was Barnsley. In one working men's club, it was a tradition for men to put their bollocks on the bar to see who had the biggest ones. I did it twice. If you refused, you were a fookin poofdah.

Can you see why I took up cigarettes?

Never got past five in a day, but one night on the M1 I threw the remaining fags out as it was a pointless exercise.

If I play a gig and don't have a cigar, I sometimes think about asking our sax player for a cigarette. I resist tho. That would be the end.

Here is the smoking habit of our band:

Singer - 100% anti-smoking and a health / fitness / diet fanatic. Decent guy, tho. Not a fascist towards the smokers.
Guitar - Likes a Hamlet on a night out. Won't listen when I say they are shite.
Bass - Big cigarette man.
Sax - Poor guy. Huge cigarette habit which he is desperate to stop. But can't. If given a Villiger, it's all sucked into the lungs.
Drums - Chews Nicorette 24/7. If he runs out of gum, he bums fags and smokes like a chimney.
Keys (me) - A cigar monger. A stogie craver. A lover of the leaf Havana. Smones 8 days out of 10 and loves it.

We are a heavy smoking band compared to our fellow players locally.

We played a great gig yesterday, so I placed a picture of us with me with a great one in my gob on a local musos' website. I wanted to say I'm really happy.

I actually invest a lot of importance to 'coming out' as a cigar man. I've addressed that a bit before on here. I sort of don't give a fuck now, and I think that's very healthy.

Please take no notice. It will pass.

[larrysputnik]

Hello, Dutch cigars are pretty good, we have a long tradition of making cigars.
After the U.S.A. Holland is the biggest cigar producing country in the world.

The best we don't export we smoke them our selves :D:

In my opinion the best Dutch cigars are Van der Donk (hand made)
Olifant and reasonable are Balmoral.

If anyone is interested I can send a few over.
The Van der Donks are a treat!

Rene

I'm interested in some of those Dutch cigars. Where is the tobacco grown that is used in these cigars? Let me know how much or if you would like a trade for some Nicaraguan or Dominican cigars.

[Renefatdude]

Most Dutch cigars are made of Indonesian (Java,Sumatra,Besuki and Vorstenlanden) tobacco, some of them use brasil as wel.
And trade is fine with me.

btw all Dutch cigars are short fillers.

Rene

[Willie1]

Hey Guys :)

My late father was a cigar smoker and a friend that he got to know on the CB Radio, would send him a box of 50 Willem Primo or a 50ct box of La Paz Wilde Havana cigars, unfortunately with only being 10/11 years old, I never did get to try any of the cigars myself, but they did have a nice aroma to them :)

I've tried a few various cigars from the Villager range and the Henri Wintermans range and they're a nice smoke on occasion, but they're not a smoke that I would prefer on a regular basis :)

Willie

[Kamron]

Very important question.
I have tried to use local cigars,it is not too bad a smoke but not really into them, i have 4 sealed packs if anyone interested?

[bfg84]

i really enjoy villager rio 6 cigars and much prefer them to any other small smokes ive tried.
tried monte minis the other day and wasnt impressed at all.

Dan

[Motormadj]

My experience with dutch/european cigars have generally not great, that said the villiger export [box pressed] are ok, if you like that sort of thing. They claim they contain cuban filler, im not sure how much though. lol.

[SmokeyDave]

I was starving for a smoke when in Oldenburg last year and came across a newsagent selling some villiger, I don't remember the exact size but they were sumatra and a pleasant surprise, so far in the UK I have failed to find any the same.

Like Dan I've also had a few Rio6 from Tesco which served as a wee filler during short car journeys.

[L_DOG]

Hi Larrysputnik...

Best tasting brand? Tends to be the one I'm smoking most recently...so at the moment, I'm quite enjoying the Panter Mignons. Villigers are pretty good I must admit.

I wouldn't particularly recommend the Cafe Creme, though they are about the biggest seller I believe. I also recently tried Gallaher's latest attempt to get into the market - Three Crowns...and they were pretty horrid imho.

Some are so short they are hardly worth it.

It's meant to be a very fast-growing sector of the total cigar market.

I note the big Cuban boys are also getting into the small cigar market - Punch, R&J, Montecristo...but obviously, these aren't really European cigars. Have you tried these? Are they worth it?

Wildwood

Hasn't Cohiba bought out some minis too? I have seen a few packets around.

The Cafe Cremes are not pleasant, or the Wintermans, well lets not go there!

[Nightwingvyse]

The larger of the Villagers are pretty good. Can't say the same about Henri Wintermans.

just wish they weren't all machine-made. Even the best ones are packed far too loose.

[T_montana]

wintermans are the worst smoke ever IMO

[omegar]

Once upon a time (about 40 years ago!) I worked for the UK importers of Wintermans as a sales rep and had unlimited supplies of cigars to hand out or smoke myself. (How's that for a job :tongue: ).

The larger cigars were OK, but to be honest, I really disliked the Cafe Creme. But they were, and still are, very popular.

Now I have more refined tastes, but I'm not averse to some of the Dutch cigars as an inexpensive smoke.
I would certainly like to try the Van der Donk, which sound to be a big step up from the other Dutch cigars?

Cheers
Rod

[7kingsguy]

I've had the Van Der Donk Subllimes, not as good as the Oud Kampen Classica's in my opinion. Be careful not to go too cheap though. I got a box of XXL Unbranded coronas while in amsterdam dirt cheap, but they are pretty rough. The odd one is smokeable, but some taste vile.

[Motormadj]

Yeah the really cheapies are seriously poor, for example the Henri wintermans that can be found in tesco etc, the half coronas etc are well, far from nice, but for the money, they are never going to be great.

Generally with cigars, I think you get what you pay for.

99% of the time I stick to Cubans but there are the odd nice NC to be found. [nicaraguan sticks are generally ok]