Rob Blumenthal has been living the cigar life since he started working at his family’s store (Tinderbox) when he was fifteen. A true brother of the leaf, he comes from five generations of cigar aficionados. Now, Blumenthal is building his own legacy with Tradecraft Cigars. He talked to Cigar Life Guy about the most expensive covert CIA mission ever conducted, how Tradecraft is a direct extension of his passion, and how cigar blending mixes art with science.
First Premium Cigar Experience
Cigar Life Guy: Tell me about your first premium cigar experience.
Rob Blumenthal: My first real premium cigar experience would have been when I was fifteen years old, when I started working at my store, the Tinderbox in Haverford. I was handed a Davidoff Grand Cru, and they said, “You know what? Try this”. It would have been 2002. That’s when I first had a revelatory smoke experience.
Cigar Life Guy: How did you get started in the cigar business? What did you do before you got involved, and how does it help inform what you do now?
Rob Blumenthal: My family owns the Tinderbox brand of cigar stores, so I’m fifth generation in the cigar business. I grew up surrounded by cigar men, whether it was dad or his uncle, Dan Blumenthal. Cigars have been an omnipresent force in my life. I started working in our family’s Tindercox store in Haverford when I was fifteen. I worked every summer, most of the way through college. I worked sales in the store at a pretty young age.
A Unique Way of Naming Cigars
Cigar Life Guy: Your blends pay homage to CIA missions and espionage. Where did you get that idea?
Rob Blumenthal: One of the blends of Tradecraft does. The brand identity and the brand name itself first and foremost pay respect and reverence to the craftsmanship of this trade. In addition, I’m tapping into some of the other things I’m passionate about and interested in, which are history and cultures throughout history, whether it’s the Roman Empire, from which the Gladius draws inspiration. The Azorian, which is my Habano, does indeed tap into and is a tip of the hat to the espionage and spycraft element.
Where did I get that? I like the blends to inform the naming. I don’t name a blend first. I go the other way around. When I smoke a cigar, they take on a personality and an identity. The Azorian, which is a medium-bodied Habano, is a very sweet, warming cigar. It has a ton of earth and natural brown sugar type notes and baking spices. When I smoke it, I feel warm. I feel like sunshine. I wanted to encapsulate that feeling in the name. I was watching a CIA series on Netflix, and the first episode that came on was Operation Azorian, one of the coolest, most expensive CIA covert missions ever conducted. I believe it was in 1975. It was a mission where the CIA captured a sunken Russian nuclear submarine from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. I thought the whole thing was so fucking cool (laughs). The name of the mission, “Azorian”, resonated with me. It came across as a very exotic kind of beachy type of word. It’s a word that induced a feeling in me, and it was the same feeling I got from the cigar. When you hear Azorian, you might think it sounds like a tropical island.
The Tradecraft Brand
Cigar Life Guy: What is the most important thing to convey about a brand? How do you want the cigar world to perceive Tradecraft Cigars?
Rob Blumenthal: Good question. I’m the living embodiment of this brand. The brand is a direct extension of me. As I mentioned before, I’m incredibly passionate, and my family has been incredibly passionate about cigars for generations. This brand means so much to our family. We’re back on the principal side. We also used to own Punch, Hoyo de Monterrey, Excalibur, El Rey de Mundo, and a bunch of major brands. We sold all of those to General Cigar in 1995 and 1996. Being on the brand ownership side and making cigars is nothing new to my family, and it was one of the greatest sources of pride and enjoyment. This is truly a labor of love. Tradecraft is what I want my legacy to be.
This brand is only about the cigars. I’m not one of these new brands who is trying to position the brand name and the identity to be some super luxury product. You see a lot of those out there. On the flip side, you see some brands that advertise as a “value” brand. Tradecraft is a cigar smoker’s cigar. The most expensive cigar is fifteen bucks. When you smoke a Tradecraft, you’re smoking something uniquely blended, totally to my palate and Wiber Ventura’s palate, who makes my cigars. When I say that, I mean we are not playing it safe. We’re not making vanilla ice cream. I’m not making a cigar that I hope to be embraced and considered pleasant by the masses. I’m making blends that are full-flavor expressions of what I love most in cigars. That is layers of complete flavor.
When I say that, I mean different tobaccos that provide different sensations in the palate that specifically trigger the different areas of your palate, whether it’s sweet, savory, or sour. When you have a cigar blend that triggers all those, that’s a complete blend. We’re all about full flavor, complexity, and balance over power. There are a lot of guys who absolutely love Tradecraft, and there are going to be some people who don’t. When people say, “That wasn’t for me,” I know I’m doing my job right. By virtue of our being extreme in our blending and in our flavor, you’re going to have people who don’t like it. If everybody said, “Yeah, that was decent”, I would be doing my job wrong. I would be Montecristo. Vanilla ice cream. There’s nothing wrong with that. There’s a place for that, but that’s not what I’m about. Tradecraft blends are full-flavor expressions of what I love most in that respective type of profile. They are for cigar people by cigar people. It’s not just for cigar snobs and the 1% top uber nerds. It’s for guys who want to have a special moment, take the time to enjoy the cigar, and contemplate the flavors they’re receiving from that smoke. There are plenty of cigars you can smoke on the golf course and smoke when you’re mowing the lawn. I’m a purveyor of moments through cigar form.
The Science & Art of Blending a Cigar
Cigar Life Guy: What should the average cigar smoker know about cigar blending? How can it help them appreciate a premium cigar?
Rob Blumenthal: That’s a good question. Cigar blending is an art mixed with science. The science of it is actually physical gastronomy. I work with guys like Wiber Ventura, who is like my brother, blender, and producer. He has an intimate understanding of the palate. As I mentioned before, you have different areas on your palate that interact with different flavor profiles. A lot of guys, especially in the United States, talk in flavors. This cigar tastes like “chocolate bars,” or “toffee,” or “bread,” or whatever. That’s not how we talk when we’re at the blending table. We talk about sensations. We talk about sweetness and savoriness or earthiness. We choose different tobaccos based on how they interact with the palate. Our blends are designed to activate and excite your palate. That’s why you don’t get tired. You don’t get dry mouth. You feel like you want to keep smoking them even when you’re finished. That’s the science of it.
The art of it is really the patience it takes. It takes a lot of smoking different cigars and the different types of tobacco varietals. Not only the varietal, but the different primings. You have seco, viso, and ligero, and with each one of those, you can have the same plant, but they provide a totally different smoke experience. Different flavor. Different sensation. Different combustion. So there is really a lot that goes into it behind the scenes. It’s not just give me some Corojo or give me some Criollo, throw on a Habano wrapper and call it a day. There are a lot of deliberate decisions and thoughts to get to that final product.
The Cigar Community and Passions Beyond
Cigar Life Guy: What is your favorite aspect of the cigar community?
Rob Blumenthal: It’s one of the last true relationship businesses. I’ve made some of my closest friends through this business. It’s a business that’s driven by passion and the common denominator of the love of the leaf. If you’re sitting in a lounge, you can have one guy pulling up in a Ferrari– a billionaire next to the guy who cuts lawns for a living and pulls up in a pick-up truck. All the ego and everything that comes in form outside gets left outside, and they just sit down and talk because that common thread – the common equalizer is the love of the cigar. Cigar guys love cigars, and they love being around passionate guys who share that passion. It’s an opportunity for people from all walks of life, races, creeds, and political views to come together and share something that’s truly a passion. I see it in my store. I see it all over. I think it’s an incredible thing. There aren’t many things that bring people together like that.
Cigar Life Guy: What is one of your passions outside of cigars? What would people not know about you?
Rob Blumenthal: I’m very into art and history, which helps inform my cigars. I collect antique weapons like Japanese swords. I’m into Japanese tattoos. I love food. I’m a big foodie. So those are my big things.
Follow Rob on Instagram and check out the latest from Tradecraft Cigars here.
photo credit: Tradecraft Cigars