Daniel Lewis has been living the cigar life for 30 years, but didn’t join the industry until he saw the blending process up close on a trip to Panama. Woodstock Brown, whose name pays homage to Lewis’ Philadelphia roots, is not only a cigar line but a purveyor of coffee and spirits. Cigar Life Guy caught up with Lewis and discussed the unique origin of the brand’s name, his favorite cigar pairings, and the benefits and challenges of competition in the cigar world.
First Premium Cigar Experience
Cigar Life Guy: Tell me about your first premium cigar experience.
Daniel Lewis: I’ve been smoking for 30 years, so I have to go back a long way. I think my very first premium cigar was a White Label because that’s been my favorite for quite a while. It was one of the first cigars I smoked-the Montecristo. I believe I was at my house. I wasn’t a person who frequented cigar lounges until the past ten years or so. Most of the time that I smoked was in my house. I had my little humidor. I used to buy cigars occasionally at one of the local cigar stores in my area. I remember the guy suggesting a Montecristo. That might have been my first premium. Before that, I’d smoked a lot of the cheaper ones, and some of the house sticks just so I could have a few on hand. But if my memory serves me correctly, it was a Montecristo.
Becoming Part of the Cigar Industry
Cigar Life Guy: How did you get into the cigar industry? What did you do before, and how does it help inform what you do with Woodstock Brown Cigars?
Daniel Lewis: I got into the industry because my partner asked me to do it after I turned him down two or three times. He got me into the business. I always just smoked for fun and relaxation. He suggested we go to Panama because he had a condo there that he liked to go to for vacation and throughout the year for getaways. He invited me over. We were smoking cigars there, and he started to bring the cigars back. He was giving the cigars to his clients. I was smoking them and telling him what I liked. After going back a second or third time, we had an opportunity to speak with some people at their farms and facilities. I had a chance to actually look at some things being done, like rolling and blending. I smoked a couple that I actually took a part in blending, and it piqued my interest in the cigar world. The business started from there
The Woodstock Brown Story and Pairings
Cigar Life Guy: What does the cigar world need to know about Woodstock Brown Cigars? How do you want smokers to perceive your brand?
Daniel Lewis: I got the name Woodstock Brown from the street where I grew up. I grew up in North Philadelphia on a street called Woodstock. Back in those days, we used to have block parties, and we had a block captain who was the guy who went to the city to get the permits so they could close the street off and arrange the pony rides and things like that. Our block captain was Mr. Brown, who was a good friend of my dad. They used to sit outside and play checkers after work. In trying to come up with a catchy name, I thought Woodstock Brown fit. It almost sounds like a cigar name. That is the origin.
I want smokers to know that our cigars have a different flavor and profile. From what I’ve read and researched, Panamanian tobacco is used a lot, even in premium cigars, but it’s just not on the packaging. I’ve done the research and saw posts from cigar enthusiasts that verify that. I want the cigar world to take our cigars as something different. There’s a different flavor, profile, and taste compared to your Nicaraguan, Honduran, and Dominican cigars, and some of the more popular tobaccos people use in their cigars. I want them to just enjoy a different smoke. Not everything has to be better. Sometimes, different is better. That’s why people drink different kinds of soda or eat different flavors of potato chips. I want smokers to look at our brand as something different, pleasant, and enjoyable. I’m not trying to become their favorite cigar- although that wouldn’t be a bad thing (laughs). I just want them to know we have good smokes. I want our cigars to have a reputation for being a good, enjoyable smoke.
Cigar Life Guy: In addition to cigars, Woodstock Brown carries coffee and spirits. What are your favorite pairings?
Daniel Lewis: I drink a lot of the Geisha coffee that we import from Panama. That’s a very good coffee. I’m not as big a coffee drinker as I used to be, but when I do drink coffee, I drink the Geisha. With the Woodstock Brown line, if I were drinking coffee, I like to pair it with the de Avila-Habano, which has almost a vanilla, rum, and coffee essence to it. It’s mild to medium strength, where one doesn’t overpower the other. You still get your flavor from the coffee as well as the flavor from the tobacco and the cigar itself.
I like red wines from time to time. My wife likes to drink good red wine. So when I’m drinking wine, then I’ll move on to one of our newest cigars, which is the Bocas Del Toro. It’s a nice blend of Panama with a Mexican maduro wrapper, medium if not a little stronger than medium in strength. It’s excellent construction with a nice flavor to go with a good red wine, or if you’re a tequila or rum drinker, any milder liquor. I love brown liquor. I love my cognacs, a good whiskey, or bourbon, and with that, I have two cigars that I like to smoke. The Ambassador, which is a full-bodied 100% Panamanian Maduro, pairs very well. I also have one called the Chiriqui from the Chiriqui Province of Panama, which is a Habano wrapper, medium to bold, but it has a little spice to it. Very mildly peppery through the final third, and it’s only a four-inch cigar. It’s a very good cigar that pairs well with the heavier liquors like bourbon or cognac.
Being a Boutique Cigar Line & the Cigar Community
Cigar Life Guy: What is the biggest challenge you have faced as a boutique line?
Daniel Lewis: Shelf space. Being an independent business, we don’t have a major distribution company. We do a lot of that ourselves. We line up the advertisement ourselves online. A lot of foot traffic, hand-to-hand business meetings, and trial-and-error tastings. There are a lot of great new cigar companies vying for shelf space. I was at the PCA a couple of months ago and noticed quite a few cigar companies that are under five years old, which doesn’t even compare to some of the major ones, such as Placencia, My Father, Perdomo, and Gurkha. Those guys are older than me. The competition there is very real. You have a lot of cigar smokers, particularly older smokers, who are grounded in what they like. They won’t even go outside what they’ve been smoking for the past twenty years. Some guys go into the same cigar store or lounge, and they buy the same one or two sticks. That’s the challenge, although that’s been changing over the last few years. There are a lot of new cigar smokers. I’m at quite a few cigar events, a minimum of once a week. I’m noticing that when the 35-and-older smoker opens up their humidor, they may have seven or eight different cigars.
I have a few friends who are in cigar clubs, and they plan days that they call “hook” days, where they plan a huge cigar event for all cigar smokers from cigar clubs to come out and smoke, enjoy, network, and party a little bit. When I go to those kinds of events, the cigar smokers there have a minimum of four different cigars. That’s a good thing. The cigar world is growing, but on the other side of the business, very few smokers have one or two favorite cigars. So the competition is out there, and that’s the challenge.
Cigar Life Guy: What makes the cigar community so unique?
Daniel Lewis: That can vary. The cigar community, today, with the events I go to, may be a little bit different from those in the past. I think you have different cigar communities now. I was just mentioning that there are cigar clubs. They have one called the GTG, which stands for “Good Time Gang.” They have those in various cities, and those cities can have a few in different areas. In the Pennsylvania area, where I am, they have a Philadelphia Chapter, and then they have a county Chapter. They have a New Jersey Chapter, a Tampa Chapter, and a Rose City Chapter in Portland. They’re growing across the country. They have a huge GTG convention every December in Tampa, where the international team and GTG groups from all across the nation attend one huge party in Ybor City. They do that every year.
A friend of mine had their Chapter party about two weeks ago in a place called Hamburg, Pennsylvania, not too far from where I live. Twenty or twenty-five Chapters, from three or four different states, showed up to greet each other, network, meet, do business, and smoke. The communities are very different, but they’re all the same because the one thing I’ve learned about the cigar community is that everyone gets along. I haven’t been to a single event where anything hostile happened, and I’ve been to a lot of events.
Passions Beyond Cigars
Cigar Life Guy: What is one of your passions outside of cigars? What would people not know about you?
Daniel Lewis: I love to play chess. I’m a chess player. I’m a big family man. My family likes to get together all the time- my sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews, and kids. I love doing things with my family. I love playing chess, going on family outings, barbecuing, and doing anything with my family. I have a lovely, beautiful wife who I love to be with. She’s with me a lot when I’m at events. She’s by my side and understands the struggle of running a cigar business. I have a passion for those things, and I’m a huge sports fan. That might be the one thing my wife gets on me about (laughs). We tend to switch who hosts each week of the football season. She knows I’m either going over to one of the guys’ houses or they come over. I usually host the Washington games because I’m a Washington fan, and most of those guys are Eagles fans.
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photo credit: Daniel Lewis