From Thailand to Europe to Central America, Todd Pribanic has been all over the world living the cigar life. Pribanic, the owner and founder of Croatian Mafia Cigars, never intended to start a cigar company, but one fateful trip to Esteli, Nicaragua, changed all that. Pribanic is a passionate man. Passionate about family. Passionate about Cleveland Sports Team. And Passionate about cigars. He talked to Cigar Life Guy about his Croatian and Hungarian roots, the origin of the intriguing name he gave his company, and how everybody has a little gangster in them.
First Premium Cigar Experience
Cigar Life Guy: Tell me about your first premium cigar experience.
Todd Pribanic: That’s a good question. I don’t have a specific moment in my life where I said, “Hey, this is my first premium cigar and this is the moment I smoked it”, but I can tell you it was probably a Macanudo Portofino. That was my go-to for years. It’s a mild cigar and also comes in an aluminum tube. You could carry it around for weeks without damaging it. I’m sure it was either with my dad or my brother. I’ve smoked many cigars with my dad and brother. I smoked those while I was in the army as well. I’ve smoked those for 45 years.
Getting Started in the Cigar Business
Cigar Life Guy: You are a proud veteran. How did you get started in the cigar business?
Todd Pribanic: Yeah, I am a proud U.S. Army veteran. I served in the early to mid-1980s, and I was stationed in Germany. I do mention that I’m a veteran, but I’m cognizant not to overuse that and not base everything, “because you’re an entitled veteran”, right? Like I said, I’ve smoked for 45 years, and I do have an interesting story of how I got into this.
I didn’t have an epiphany to start a cigar company. I am passionate about cigars. I look at cigars like some people look at religion (laughs). I take an hour and a half or two hours to smoke. I don’t smoke every day, but I smoke a lot of days, and that’s my time to reflect. It’s time to look back and meditate and either have a good conversation or pair it with a beer, coffee, wine, bourbon, or scotch.
I play a weekly card game on Tuesdays at a cigar shop in Dallas called Cigar Warehouse. We were talking about our exploits during one of our card games, and one of the gentlemen who played said to me, “Hey, you ought to go to Esteli, Nicaragua”.Now I’ve been all over the world. I’ve been to Thailand three times. I’ve been to Colombia three times. I’ve been all over Central America and Europe – I lived in Europe for several years. I’ve lived in two countries, nine states, and 16 cities, but I never thought about that. Sixty percent of cigars come from there now, and all your big Nicaraguan factories are down there. That’s what I heard, so two weeks later I found myself in Esteli, Nicaragua.
I went down there as a cigar consumer. I thought it would be like wine-tasting in Sonoma and Napa. You taste some wine, and then decide what you want to buy. Well, I don’t know if you know, but Esteli, Nicaragua, is a trade-free zone. You can’t buy cigars off the street anywhere. I went to Drew Estate and took pictures outside, and I couldn’t get past security. Things don’t operate like that. Fortunately for me, the guy who recommended that I go down there was friends with a gentleman named Akhil, who worked with the Regius Brand. He brought me to Tabacalera Pichardo, where I met Eradio Pachardo Perez. As a consumer, I walked out of there with 300 cigars. I brought them back to the United States and started smoking them and giving them away to family members and friends. They all loved them and wanted to know where they came from. What were the blends? What’s the wrapper? What’s the binder? I liked them too. I’m an entrepreneurial guy and run several other businesses, so I started formulating ideas and I said, “I might have something here.” So I approached Eradio via WhatsApp. He doesn’t speak very good English and I don’t speak very good Spanish, but we managed to communicate. I coordinated another trip down there. I wanted to bring another 700 cigars back this time. I told him I wanted to bring back some blends and that I wanted to talk to him about his process to understand it better.
So I went down, and we agreed on some blends. I came back with five different blends and sizes that I thought would be appealing to a beginner or a non-aficionado. I brought those back- no bands, no boxes- and I started selling them and giving them away. I started testing the market, and all the feedback was great. From there, I said, “Let’s go.” I came up with a name -Croatian Mafia Cigars- a nickname given to my family based on my Croatian heritage. Then I took it a step further and involved the Italian mafia. I made every blend a different level of the mafia. I thought of a tagline, “Croatian Mafia Cigars: For the gangster in you.” My thought process was: “Everybody has a little gangster in them when needed”. This aligns with the branding. I formed an LLC, trademarked everything, and here I am today.
Challenges in the Cigar Industry
Cigar Life Guy: What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced starting out in the cigar industry?
Todd Pribanic: There are a lot of challenges. They’re all big, right (laughs), but nothing we’re not able to overcome or that we haven’t overcome. There isn’t just one that stands out. Some are unique to the cigar world, and some are business-related regardless of the industry or product. Some have to do with dealing with a product made in a foreign country and getting it here.
It’s always challenging starting a new business especially if you’re only familiar with that industry as a consumer. But I’ve started other businesses only knowing the consumer side. You make a lot of mistakes, but you have to learn from them and be able to pivot and adapt regardless of your business plan and market strategy. Mike Tyson has a quote: “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face”. Starting a new business as an outsider looking in was challenging from an operational standpoint. Dealing with another work culture in another country, specifically Nicaragua. As you know, there’s not a lot of automation in this industry. Everything is done by hand- the boxes, the bands. The boxes are made outside, and the weather can hold you up. My last order was held up because of cellophane (laughs). It’s the crazy things you can’t plan for.
Additionally, everything is done by cash transactions down there, so that can be challenging. The harvesting process, fermentation, and aging process can be challenging. Then, there is staying on top of the production process when you’re not actually living down there. You need to assure quality and consistency in the construction and the blends. I have people on my payroll who do that. Getting the goods into the country can be challenging. From a sales perspective, the challenge is brand recognition and getting your cigars out there. Besides having an interesting and unique branding concept, like we have, you have to have quality cigars. Otherwise, it’s one and done. With Croatian Mafia Cigars, we get a lot of initial interest due to our name, branding, logo, and the overall mystique of the brand. That gets customers in the door, but the quality keeps them in the house.
Croatian Roots, the Mafia, and Cigars
Cigar Life Guy: Tell us a little about your Croatian and Hungarian roots.
Todd Pribanic: My family on my father’s side, which is Croatian, initially came into the U.S. in the early 1900s from what was then Yugoslavia. They came through Ellis Island and eventually into McKeesport, PA, and from there on to the Cleveland, Ohio area actually Elyria-Lorain, Ohio areas, which is 30 miles East of Cleveland. Some of them went up to Minnesota, and I had a great uncle who worked for Al Capone and owned a mob hangout bar in Chicago.
Other family members had bars and restaurants, including my dad. Some of them worked in the steel industry. My father had pretty popular bars and restaurants along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
My father was a very proud Croatian and instilled a passion for our Croatian heritage early on. On my mom’s side, her family was Hungarian and had a similar background. They came into the country at the same time and settled in the same part of Ohio. They actually met in high school. We ate many Croatian and Hungarian food dishes, like Chicken Paprikash, which is Hungarian and involves paprika and sour cream. On the Croatian side, believe it or not, there’s a pig’s feet dish, which is pretty popular. My dad made it all the time.
Both of my grandfathers smoked. My mom’s dad smoked White Owls and Tampa Nuggets. I can remember getting into his car, and it always had a strong aroma and smell of cigars. My dad’s dad was a pipe smoker, so there was always the aroma of flavorful pipe tobacco either in his car or wherever he happened to be.
Cigar Life Guy: On your website, you remark, “Everyone has a little gangster in them”. What does this mean to you, and how do you want smokers to perceive the Croatian Mafia brand?
Todd Pribanic: Great question. I was on a podcast with Boston Jimmie from Stogie Press. In the first five minutes, he was asking about the name, and “What’s the deal with the mafia?” I said, “Jimmie, you just answered your own question, my man” (laughs). It’s intriguing and gets people thinking. At the PCA show, everybody wanted to know where the name came from. The Croatian heritage piece is in there, which I talked about earlier, but we all can be a little gangsta in us, right? We can all be tough, resilient, aggressive, and not take any BS, so to speak, when it is appropriate. When we need to be, we can turn into a gangster. Cigars have been associated with gangsters for the past 100 years or so, and there’s a certain mystique associated with gangsters, whether good or bad, in both the past and modern eras. I mean, some of the greatest movies of all time, both from a box office perspective and a critically acclaimed standpoint, were gangster movies – The Godfather, Scarface, Casino, Goodfellas, A Bronx Tale, The Sopranos. What are they doing? They’re smoking cigars, and cigars are associated with success and celebration.
So I wanted to capture the mystique of the Mafia in my brand, as well as incorporate some of my family heritage. The actual nickname was given to me and other family members when we lived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. We were affectionately called “The Croatian Mafia” due to our involvement in bars, restaurants, and gambling, which was passed down to us as part of our mostly Croatian family members.
We used to play poker. Sundays were big. Some people go to church. Some people do other things. We would have card games- moms, dads, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. There were many a night we would lose our allowances and it wasn’t given back. So Sunday dinners were a big thing for us, and after, there was usually a card game going on. Whether the adults were playing Pinochle or the kids playing poker.
What I want smokers to perceive, remember, or experience about the brand for themselves is that our cigars are high-quality, highly rated, premium hand-rolled Cigars from Esteli, Nicaragua, and are made in partnership with a fourth generation Cuban tobacco grower Eradio Perez Pichardo from Tabacalera Pichardo and exclusively made for Croatian Mafia Cigars.
Although we may have a catchy name and unique branding, that branding is backed up by great premium cigars at an affordable price point.
Whether you are a newcomer to the cigar world or an aficionado, we have unique blend options for both. These include, but are not limited to, wrappers, binders and fillers that are Cameroon, Mexican San Andres, Ecuadorian Sumatra, Habano Maduro, Connecticut, and Habano Rosado. They fall into the mild, medium, and full-bodied categories. Right now they’re rated from a 95 to an 89, which is very good to excellent to exceptional.
Cigar Life Guy: What is your favorite aspect of the cigar community and the cigar life? What makes cigar smokers so unique?
Todd Pribanic: This is probably the easiest question to answer. I tell people this all the time- inside and outside the cigar community- it really is the people and the interesting life stories. When you’re in a shop or lounge, wherever you may be, they’re taking one or two hours out of your day to sit back, relax, and reflect on something while enjoying a good smoke.
Cigars transcend all cultures, social statuses, political or religious affiliations, and demographics. You can be sitting next to a doctor, lawyer, construction worker, policeman, military veteran, school teacher, fireman, engineer, or dentist at any given time in any shop or lounge across the country.
Everyone has a story, and everyone can enjoy cigars in a multitude of ways. Whether it’s in a shop or lounge outside or on your patio, fishing, walking your dogs, on the golf course, at any outdoor event celebrating, or playing poker. Whatever it is, you can enjoy a cigar. You can pair it with a coffee. You can pair it with a beer. You can pair it with a scotch, a glass of wine, or whatever. I live that lifestyle. What I portray through my brand is actually what I live every day.
A Passion for Everything. A Passion for Cigars
Cigar Life Guy:. What is one of your passions outside of cigars? What would people not know about you?
Todd Pribanic: I touched on this earlier. I’m passionate about everything(laughs). I‘m passionate about cigars. I have two boys, a seven-year-old and an eleven-year-old. I am passionate about a lot of things in my life: my two boys, my pets, my family, music, movies, and comedy. I have a sense of humor, so I’m passionate about that. Basically, I’m passionate about being a good person, my sports teams. Everything Ohio. The Browns. The Guardians- good or bad. The Cavaliers. Ohio State. Then life in general. When I go in on something, I go all in! Just like with Croatian Mafia Cigars.
Follow Todd on Instagram and check out the latest from Croatian Mafia Cigars here.
Photo credit: Croatian Mafia Cigars