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Juan Lugo of Don Doroteo Cigars is Reviving a Legacy

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Many people grow up around cigars, but it takes a special person to revive a legacy which is exactly what Juan Lugo of Don Doroteo Cigars did. He smoked his first “intentional” cigar while deployed in Iraq, but he took the seed of his idea back to his roots in the Dominican Republic. Lugo talked to Cigar Life Guy about how he met his partner through investing in cryptocurrency, the beauty of harvesting tobacco, and why giving back is his primary goal in the cigar industry.

First Premium Cigar Experience

Cigar Life Guy: Tell me about your first premium cigar experience.

Juan Lugo: The first official cigar that I intended on smoking- I say “intended” because having cigars in my family since birth I was always around it. So the first time I actually smoked as an adult was when I was deployed in the United States Air Force. I was military police and I was in Iraq in 2009. It was a dry base so you couldn’t drink alcohol which was my vice of choice at the time, but they did have tobacco. So you could chew tobacco, you could smoke cigars, you could smoke cigarettes. I went straight for cigars. When I saw it in this little shop I immediately felt nostalgic. So I gravitated towards the cigars. At the time I wasn’t really an aficionado or connoisseur.  So I just grabbed some Montecristos from Cuba. I wound up smoking some gems because there was no embargo like here in the States.

I was nineteen years old. I had one day off a week- usually on Sundays. I would go into this abandoned hut. It was a bunker, but we turned it into a hangout spot. The base was called Al-Assad and it was one of Sadaam Hussein’s primary bases in Iraq. We found this abandoned bunker, took some lawn chairs, and set them up in a circle. That was our go-to spot. We played dominos. We couldn’t drink any alcohol. However, we had non-alcoholic beer- just for the ritual of it- and we would smoke cigars.

Merging New With Cigar Tradition

Cigar Life Guy: You were the lone family member interested in returning to the cigar business. Tell us a little about your decision and partnership with Brandon Dallman and Jeff Moss.

Juan Lugo: After the military, I went into tech. I was stationed in California. I used my GI Bill and got a degree in Business at San Jose State. I gravitated towards the entrepreneurial spirit and mindset. I picked up a gig in cyber security and then worked with AI (Artificial Intelligence) before it was a buzzword. I had no idea what it really was to be honest (laughs) even when I was working with it. Conceptualizing it was kind of nuts back then. I kept hearing other buzzwords- cryptocurrency, Bitcoin- so I wound up dipping my toe into that in late 2017. I worked numerous side jobs, so I could invest in the stock market and crypto in particular. It took a few years but in 2020 I finally started making some money. In the midst of the pandemic, I really had a great year investing. Investing led me to random chat rooms and forums like Telegram, Whatsapp, and Discord. I met a lot of interesting individuals – random investors, one of which was my future cigar partner Brandon Dallman.

It wasn’t until 2021 after we had made some great gains that a few of us were like, “Can we finally meet up in person and not be weird internet chat room people?” (laughs). So we decided to meet in San Juan Puerto Rico at a little beachfront hotel. The group had business there, but we figured we might as well have a little fun. I had no idea that anyone in the group even liked cigars. I was expecting a bunch of typical nerdy-type basement dwellers, but it was a great group of guys from all different walks of life. Brandon, a good old boy from Nebraska, walks out with a box of cigars. He sits next to me and hands out cigars. No one in the group knew cigar etiquette, so I was quick to help with cutting and lighting. Brandon and I got to talking and then he asked if I had any ties to the cigar industry. And I said, “Do I?” I told him my grandfather’s story about how he’d been growing tobacco since 1936 and his connection to La Aurora.

We talked about what was next for us. Did we want to continue the investing game? It’s kind of a soulless industry. I made some great relationships in investing but it wasn’t fulfilling other than the monetary side. It’s the polar opposite of what the cigar industry is. So I decided I did want to make a change. I told him I had been working on a business plan to revive my grandfather’s legacy, and we spent the entirety of that trip smoking cigars talking about what things would look like.

When I got home to my wife, who was pregnant with twins, I told her I thought it was time to make the plunge and quit my secure career in tech. I was going to walk away from the “golden handcuffs” as they call them and pursue the journey of an entrepreneur.

That was the beginning of Don Doroteo. The first thing I told Brandon was that we needed to make sure we were honoring my grandfather and his legacy. It wasn’t cigar-making. It was tobacco harvesting. Harvesting and selling to La Aurora exclusively was what my grandfather did and what I wanted to do. So the cigars were just a byproduct of being in that industry.

Nine months after that trip to Puerto Rico we had our first harvest.

Cigar Life Guy: Tell us how you merge tradition with creating new blends.

Juan Lugo: In other words, what’s your differentiator from a business standpoint? Obviously, there’s passion behind creating a business in this industry especially when you have family ties, but then you have to ask yourself the real tough questions. Is it a viable venture? That is the world Brandon and I came from. We had to assess and vet a lot of companies we were potentially going to invest in. What is the viability of this company? What’s their product? What’s their differentiator? Entering the cigar industry we looked at it with that lens. As much as it was a passion product, we also had to make sure we weren’t just throwing our money into a dumpster fire.

Having talked to a lot of boutique owners and other folks in the industry we didn’t want to come in looking for a blueprint. A lot of people stop where they feel like “this is the road to success. I need to have five different blends.” I think that’s the mindset of the average aficionado who wants to take this on. I didn’t care about the cigar part initially. I wanted to grow tobacco. I’m a city boy from New York (laughs). So it was the next challenge I wanted to take on. I really fell in love with working in the soil and working with the people there. Building something tangible.

When you talk about the fruits of your labor, in the investor world it’s all 1’s and 0’s. There’s no human connection. Whereas in the cigar world, it’s 100% the opposite. There’s so much fulfillment from the harvest. Then the big day is when the buyer from La Aurora shows up and they have to qualify all of your tobacco. You’re just crossing your fingers that you have tobacco in there that makes the cut for binder and if you’re lucky enough you get some for the wrapper-which is easier said than done. We haven’t been able to do that yet, but I’m proud to say that since our first harvest, most of it has been binder quality. That was a feather in our cap immediately. We wanted to make sure we were bringing forth everything we could.

Any schmuck with a wallet can go into a factory and say “Hey I want to make a cigar for my ego and put my name on it”. Any factory will give you numerous blends. It’s business. But I was really serious about this. Putting my grandfather’s name on it held a lot of weight.

Cigar Life Guy: You take pride in doing things the right way. What is the most important aspect of creating a cigar from seed that every cigar smoker should know?

Juan Lugo: The Salt of the Earth took a long time in the storming phase with the team. This is where  Jeff Moss comes in. We started looking online thinking about what the award-winning cigar looks like. Who is the right person to hire for our team? We had no idea, so we started searching online. That led us to a page with a hodgepodge of boxes and ring designs. It turned out to be the award-winning Jeff Moss from Alec Bradley. We just cold-called this guy. We talked for about an hour and he told me flat out, “I don’t make rings. I build brands”. I wanted him to come visit the farm. I brought him there for the harvest in February of 2022 and he took one look and said, “You built this in nine months?”. At that moment, he said, “I’m in. Let’s go.”. He was at a crossroads himself. His contract with Alec Bradley was ending and he was thinking of moving on.

So when it came to the brainstorming phase of what this should look like. It was really like building a brand. Building a story from scratch. Brandon and Jeff would be there alongside me working on the variations of tobacco we wanted to use, but aside from that it was more so what’s the story you want to tell? That’s where Salt of the Earth comes from. Salt of the Earth is what I think of when I think of the type of man my grandfather was. That’s the type of man I am.  That’s the type of man I want to be known as. I don’t want to veer away from his teachings and my upbringing.  So that was the name. That’s the brand. But then I thought now what’s the blend?

I wanted to dig deep into the Dominican roots. One thing that was near and dear was the Andullo. My grandfather used to harvest tobacco and used to process it into Andullo. The beautiful part is, to get a final product you have to let it sit for a couple of years. The typical farmer in the Dominican Republic will probably do it for a year and a half and then they’ll sell them at any local grocery store. That’s what the common man smokes in the Dominican Republic. They chew it as well. So it’s pipe tobacco and chewing tobacco. That’s what my grandfather produced his entire life. In the 50’s he opened up a farmer’s market in Santiago and it’s still there today. Alongside tobacco, he had dairy products, eggs, and produce. My first actual cigar I ever smoked had Andullo tobacco.  My grandfather used to walk around with a little pipe filled with Andullo tobacco and he used to roll his own box-pressed cigars with Andullo.

It’s not a delicacy there. I learned to look at Andullo tobacco in a new way. I never saw it at a PCA. It was never sold to the American consumer in a way that was appealing. I wanted to reinvent that.

We landed on two blends that eventually became the Salt of the Earth: the Cameroon, Piedra Viva, and the Corojo Piedra Angular.

When it comes to blending cigars, we’re not trying to do anything trendy. One of the things Jeff Moss, as creative director, has focused on is making sure we don’t lose that legacy within the brand. So all the visuals, the ring, the booth at PCA, and the advertisements in the magazines all have to resemble the legacy and tradition but with a modern twist.

I don’t want to be a boutique company that feels that it needs to come out with the latest and greatest every year. There are only so many ways to roll a cigar. If we’re here to make money,  we’re here for the wrong reasons. If I wanted to just make money, I’d go back to crypto. This is a passion project for me. I want to make sure that we’re putting everything into every blend. We’re making what we love.

Cigar Farm and the Fair Distribution of Profits

Cigar Life Guy: You take pride in the fair distribution of profits. Can you explain what that looks like?

Juan Lugo: I can say with some confidence that most cigar manufacturers don’t own their farm and don’t harvest their own tobacco. This may sound controversial but you go into these countries, and people can get away with a lot more than they can in the United States. So being merged between both worlds- being a veteran and a citizen of the U.S., but also having close ties to my heritage in the Dominican Republic- we do a couple of things that are a little different. First and foremost, aside from having a fully working farm year-round, we don’t just hire people seasonally. This is something that might be a little controversial with a lot of tobacco manufacturers that have plants in Nicaragua, the Dominican, and Mexico. We hire people year-round. We don’t fire people because the season’s over and let people fend for themselves and their families for six months. I don’t think that’s right.

What I decided to do was farm to fork. We had this extremely fertile land in the Dominican Republic. As it is, we can’t grow tobacco year-round. Mother Nature doesn’t permit it, but crop rotation is good for the nutrients in the soil. So we rotate crops, keep the soil rich, and it also allows me to keep my folks employed. We have been growing squash. I hired my cousin as the director of operations at the farm and he talked to local supermarkets to find out what produce was needed most- something that was not going to disturb the nutrients in the soil for tobacco. We’re on our third harvest of squash. We do our tobacco harvest usually in February.  I have a big ceremonial event. I invite all the local workers. We sit together, throw a feast, and we party. There’s music, food, and obviously cigars. Then we do it again when we have our squash harvest in August. We invite all the families. Our company is a family in and of itself. We have a big cookout with a traditional Dominican stew called Sancocho that incorporates a lot of squash. That’s the first step.

This is something that hasn’t come up with some of these cigar-related interviews, but one of my personal goals is to give back to the community. That’s important to me.  Keeping people employed full-time year-round is step two. Step three is setting up ways that we can help kids in impoverished countries get access to the things that are foundational in the United States, but are not foundational in other places. Everything from auxiliary English to  STEM. Anything that’s related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. I’m passionate about it because I’ve seen the difference it makes. I want to do that through our company.

Passions Beyond Cigars

Cigar Life Guy: What is one of your passions outside of cigars? What would people not know about you?

Juan Lugo: I think I just answered a lot of that in the last question(laughs)! I’m pretty open on social media, so you’ll see all of my announcements there. Shooting a bow or shooting guns- some of the fun things I learned in the military. As it pertains to business, it’s kind of difficult to go into PCA as a boutique guy and make major dents in the universe.  For me, it’s about giving back to my community in the Dominican and family. I was finally able to take my kids to the farm. My twins were born at the same time the company was born. It’s been kind of symbolic of how the company went from its infancy to its crawling phase. I had this dream to take my wife and kids to the farm and have them walk to their grandparents’ house which is just a three-minute walk from the farm. Over the summer we were able to do that. Seeing it in action was so great. That’s what it’s about for me. I truly love the country and giving back.  That’s what our company is about.

Follow Juan on Instagram  and check out the latest from Don Doroteo Cigars here.

photo credit: Juan Lugo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nestor Miranda Keeps on Smoking

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Nestor Miranda’s life and cigar journey began in Cuba. What he lacked in formal education he more than made up for with hard work, perseverance, and business savvy.  His work in sales eventually led him to joining his wife at Miami Cigar & Company, fulfilling the American Dream, and becoming a titan in the cigar industry. A true legend, Miranda talked with Cigar Life Guy about hard work, family, and why it’s a great time to be a cigar smoker

First Premium Cigar Experience

Cigar Life Guy: Tell me about your first premium cigar experience.

Nestor Miranda: My cigar smoking experience began in my hometown of Holguin, Cuba. I used to take my grandfather’s cigars and go smoke them in the park near my house. They were Churchill-sized and I remember always getting sick. But it never stopped me from smoking because all the girls would look at me like I was the man!

Starting in Sales and the Miami Cigar Company

Cigar Life Guy: You worked for Southern Wine and Spirits before working full-time at Miami Cigar Company. Tell us what you brought to the Miami Cigar Company back in 1995.

Nestor Miranda: Southern Wine gave me a great training into what it took to be a great salesman. From the moment I started there, I knew that sales was for me. It was in my blood! There was nothing more enjoyable than making that big sale and returning to the office to let everyone know who the man is! All of my accounts knew that when Nestor Miranda walked into the door they were in trouble! (Laughs) I actually couldn’t have done it without them, the relationships that I formed in the liquor industry helped me when we moved forward to the cigar industry.

Cigar Life Guy: You are a legend in the cigar industry. What is your greatest accomplishment and why?

Nestor Miranda: I would say my greatest accomplishment was being able to come from Cuba to the United States with limited education and zero English and live the American Dream. It wasn’t easy, but that’s ok. It makes me appreciate what I have been able to do even more knowing that it took everything I had to make it happen.

Cigar Life Guy: What advice would you give to some of the upstart companies who are looking to make a name in the cigar industry?

Nestor Miranda: You need to find the hardest worker in the industry and out-work them! There is no replacement for hard work in this business. Many people say that they have it in them but when the time comes to do it, only the strong survive, brother!

Challenges in the Cigar Industry

Cigar Life Guy: What are the biggest challenges in the cigar industry and how does it differ from a few decades ago?

Nestor Miranda: The biggest challenge is keeping up with the consumer’s ever-changing palate. We try our best to provide the consumers with what they are looking for but it’s not easy when you have an amazing group of competitors like we do in this industry. They say that iron sharpens iron and this is so true! It is a great time to be a cigar smoker because everyone is constantly innovating and coming out with new wonderful products for the consumer.

Family and Tradition

Cigar Life Guy: Miami Cigar Company is a family business. Your son took on an integral role in the company before he passed away, and now you work with your daughter and son-in-law, Jason. Why is tradition so important to the cigar industry and your company?

Nestor Miranda: Family is the reason we do what we do! At the end of the day when your time is over on this planet, you want to rest easy knowing that you did everything possible to position your family to be successful in the future.

Cigar Life Guy: Your company’s slogan, “It’s not just cigars. It’s a lifestyle.” What is your favorite aspect of the cigar lifestyle

Nestor Miranda: “One Life” is a slogan that we live by here at Miami Cigar. It basically means that in this world you are given one life and it is up to you to decide what you make of it. My wife and I arrived in the United States with nothing and we decided to put in the blood, sweat and tears necessary to be successful and live the American Dream. Now it is up to my daughter and son-in-law to continue this for their children.

Beyond Cigars

Cigar Life Guy: What is one of your passions outside of cigars? What would people not know about you?

Nestor Miranda: I am an outdoors-man. Fishing and hunting are the things I like to do—while smoking a cigar, of course!

One thing that people do not know about me is that I was enlisted in the US Army and was training for the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.

Follow Nestor and Miami Cigar & Company on Instagram and keep up with latest at Miami Cigar & Company

photo credit: Miami Cigar & Co.

 

 

Reinier Lorenzo holding a cigar

Reinier Lorenzo of HVC Cigars is Always Learning

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Growing up in Cuba, there is probably no avoiding the cigar culture, but Reinier Lorenzo, founder of HVC Cigars, studied medicine before he studied cigars. After nearly twenty years in the cigar business, Lorenzo continues to create new blends and pay homage to Havana City. He spoke to Cigar Life Guy about getting his start, the recipe of a perfect cigar, and his plans to keep HVC Cigars selling like pan caliente.

Reinier Lorenzo: First Premium Cigar Experience

Cigar Life Guy: Tell me about your first premium cigar experience.

Reinier Lorenzo: I was living in Havana, Cuba. I was probably around eighteen or nineteen, and it was the Cohiba Siglo VI. I wasn’t in the cigar business when I was in Cuba — I was in medical school. It was at a family friend’s party. The Cohiba Siglo VI came out around 2004, and a guy passed a box around. I knew nothing about cigars, but when I smoked it, I was like, “That feels good”! (laughs)

Cigar Culture and Blending the Perfect Cigar

Cigar Life Guy: You are originally from Cuba, so there was probably no escaping cigar culture, but tell us how you got your start and what drew you to the cigar industry and culture.

Reinier Lorenzo: When I left Cuba in 2008, my family worked for Tropical Tobacco in Miami. In 2009, the owner of Aganorsa (Eduardo Fernandez) invited me to Nicaragua. He showed me the process and what they do with the cigars from start to finish. That was the moment that grabbed me. When something makes you say,  “This is incredible.” Little by little, you have something inside of you. I stopped and said, ”I must do something because I enjoy this so much.” That’s when I started my business, HVC Cigars, in 2011.

Cigar Life Guy: What should the average cigar smoker know about blending? How can it help them appreciate a premium cigar?

Reinier Lorenzo: People have to know. For example, I love to cook, right? When you cook, you have a recipe. If you don’t have a recipe, making a really good dish would be impossible. Cigars are the same thing. It’s a recipe. It’s not just putting in tobacco because you want to put in tobacco. You have to know the family and the leaf. You have to know what farm gives you more flavor. When you have the perfect recipe for a cigar, you get a cigar that’s really, really good. When you know the tobacco for a blend, you get a winner. You have to know tobacco, and that takes years. I was blessed and fortunate to be around guys with much experience. I was always learning.

Keeping Cigar Tradition Alive

Cigar Life Guy: Why is keeping the cigar tradition alive vital, and how do you merge it with new ideas and blends?

Reinier Lorenzo: When you think about cigars, they are relaxing. Cigars are my business, but it’s really a leisurely thing you want to share with friends. You want to sit down. You want to have a drink, and you want to have a cigar. Let me relax. Let me have a conversation. That’s why I’ve never smoked a cigarette in my life. When I started smoking, I started smoking cigars. It’s also the culture around cigars. Let me share it with friends. It’s a beautiful thing.

For the blending process– I don’t blend cigars for people. I blend cigars for myself. What I mean is when I blend a cigar, I’m looking for four things: flavor, balance, construction, and a clean finish. If you give me a cigar with those four characteristics, I will love it. How can I create something I don’t love? I always want to share something that I really enjoy. We came out with new packaging in the last year and a half. We were thinking about how to gain more attention in the humidors -humidors are like real estate.  The packaging is a minor detail for us as a new cigar company on the way up. You can have the best packaging in the world, but if the cigar is no good, people won’t rebuy it.

Reinier Lorenzo and HVC Cigars

Cigar Life Guy: Tell us about the HVC portfolio.

Reinier Lorenzo: We’ve been around for thirteen years now. Our cigars had to be attached to where I come from, Havana City. You can’t find a really mild cigar with our blends. Everything is medium or medium-full-bodied, rich with a lot of flavor- that’s the most important thing for me. It’s flavor. You give me something with flavor, I’ll be smoking all day long.

With our portfolio, many people said, “You’re crazy! How can you come out with ‘Hot Cake’?”. I said, “What do you mean? It’s going to be a hit”. That cigar got made because we owned the name “Pan Caliente.” When a product sells really fast in Cuba, they say, “That sells like pan Caliente (hot cake)”- selling like hot cakes. When I trademarked the Pan Caliente, we trademarked “Hot Cake” as well. That’s the best-selling cigar in our portfolio. People love it.

The other crazy product that we have is Black Friday. In 2015, I called my lawyer and asked if I could trademark “Black Friday.” The concept behind Black Friday is that I give you a unique product every year. We never replicate those blends.  It’s always a new blend in a new size. We sell that blend for less than ten dollars. So what does that mean? That’s my way of saying thank you to all the consumers and retailers who have supported us. It’s something so unique and so special at a great price point.

Reinier Lorenzo: Favorite Part of Cigar Life

Cigar Life Guy: What is your favorite aspect of cigar life?

Reinier Lorenzo: That’s a really good question. The most essential part of cigar life is the people around you- those with whom you share cigars. But sometimes I want to be by myself. I want to be intimate with the cigar. Just yesterday, I was smoking a Hot Cake Robusto by myself. I was enjoying that moment. It was a moment with just me and the cigar. I was paying attention to all of the flavors. All the beauty of making a cigar was there, right? There was nothing but me and the cigar.

As I said before, the other part is when I am with friends, conversing and sharing a cigar. It’s a beautiful moment as well.

The Future of HVC Cigars and Reinier Lorenzo

Cigar Life Guy: Anything else the cigar world should know, and what can we expect from HVC in the future?

Reinier Lorenzo: We are always working. There’s a new blend that we’re testing out, and we want to bring it out soon. For us, it’s always about working and improving. We try to put out the best we have. It’s a family business. When people buy HVC Cigars and say, “Hey, I love your blends,” To me, that’s the jackpot.

Follow Reinier and HVC Cigars on Instagram

Photo credit: HVC Cigars

Dr. Gaby Kafie seated behind a desk and holding a cigar

Small Business Champion Dr. Gaby Kafie

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Dr. Gaby Kafie has been living the cigar life since he smoked his first cigar as a teen. He is also the founder of the Boutique Cigar Association and Kafie Cigars and Coffee. Since then, he has been advocating for family-run cigar businesses. Kafie spoke with Cigar Life Guy about the reflective aspects of a good cigar. He spoke of cigar-smoking traditions and rituals. And he spoke of his ongoing efforts to promote and protect the rights of small cigar lines.

Gaby Kafie: First Premium Cigar Experience

Cigar Life Guy: Tell me about your first premium cigar experience.

Dr. Gaby Kafie: My first premium cigar experience is a cherished memory that dates back to the summer of my 18th year, spent in Honduras with family. On a particularly memorable weekend, we gathered at a beach house owned by relatives on the Pacific coast. It was a perfect setting for a family rendezvous filled with food, drinks, and games to make the most of our time together.

During this gathering, I was with my father, my brother, and a cousin who was an avid cigar aficionado. Early in the evening, as everyone was preparing for a poker game, he gifted me one of his favorite cigars. I felt a unique sense of inclusion, as if I were now part of the adult circle. Although, my shyness around my father led me to seek a more private spot to enjoy the cigar. I wandered down the boardwalk to a secluded patch of sand atop a hill, where I could relax undisturbed.

This being my first cigar, I carefully bit off the cap and lit it with matches I had taken from the poker table, taking my time to fully ignite it. The cigar was a Hoya de Monterrey Honduras edition, highly popular then and a favorite of my cousin’s. Smoking it was an incredible experience. The flavors were rich and relaxing. The serene backdrop of the Pacific Ocean under a moonlit sky enhanced the moment immeasurably. The setting was so captivating it felt almost surreal.

About 20 to 30 minutes into the experience, I began to feel dizzy, prompting me to slow down and savor the moment more gently, or “put it in cruise control,” as the saying goes. There was no rush — just the enjoyment of a truly splendid weekend. It’s an evening I’ll never forget, marked by a significant rite of passage surrounded by family and the tranquil beauty of nature.

Cigar Culture

Cigar Life Guy: You are a retired physician. The medical and cigar worlds don’t always go together. What drew you to the cigar culture?

Dr. Gaby Kafie: This question is thought-provoking, as medicine and cigars don’t typically overlap. Interestingly, during my time in medical school, I first noticed how many of my colleagues sought relaxation through various means, including indulging in cigars and spirits, to decompress from the high stresses of our profession.

On a more serious note, it’s essential to acknowledge that premium cigars have historically not been a significant concern within the medical community, mainly when used in moderation. Many intellectuals and professionals appreciate the refined pleasure of a premium cigar or the enjoyment of finely aged pipe tobacco, neither of which are intended to be inhaled.

For me, cigars offered a unique form of solace during my medical training. On those quiet nights, when everyone else was asleep, and I faced hours of complex medical texts, enjoying a premium cigar provided not just a company but also improved my focus and concentration. The ritual of smoking, the flavors, and the very act of taking a break helped me digest the dense information more effectively.

Throughout my career as a physician and later as a premium cigar manufacturer, I’ve spent considerable time researching the effects of moderate cigar smoking on the human body. My findings align with the broader consensus that, when not abused and enjoyed in moderation, the risks associated with occasional cigar smoking are minimal to none.

Thus, my draw to cigar culture was not just about the cigars themselves but about the ritual, history, and camaraderie accompanying this ancient tradition. It’s about moderation and appreciation of the craft, which can enhance moments of reflection and relaxation when respected.

The Benefits of a Good Cigar

Cigar Life Guy: What is your take on cigars and their potential benefits?

Dr. Gaby Kafie: This question invites a nuanced comparison that spans various indulgences, like premium cigars, chocolates, or wines, each bringing its form of pleasure and potential benefits, albeit not always in the health sense.

Much like a fine glass of wine or a particular type of Swiss chocolate, premium cigars are part of a lifestyle. Those who appreciate the finer aspects of life and the freedom to engage in a storied tradition embrace them.

The history of cigar smoking, which traces back over generations, reflects a personal choice and a cultural heritage. For instance, in the early 1900s, there were over 6,000 cigar shops in the United States, a testament to its popularity and integration into social norms.

While the industry is heavily regulated (or under threat), including stringent age verification, the essence of cigar culture endures. For many, including myself, cigars represent more than just smoking; they are a conduit for social interaction, fostering conversations and camaraderie across generations. Sitting down to enjoy a cigar can open the door to dialogue. It can also offer a moment of relaxation, and build connections beyond the immediate experience.

As for potential benefits, it’s important to clarify that while cigars are not a health product, they offer psychological and social benefits. Engaging in a thoughtful, leisurely smoke can provide a break from the stresses of daily life, allowing for moments of reflection and a sense of communal bonding. These aspects are often overlooked when discussing cigars, but they play a significant role in why many people cherish this tradition.

Like any adult indulgence, the key to cigars is moderation and understanding. Cigars, when enjoyed responsibly, can enhance social gatherings, facilitate deep conversations, and serve as a cherished ritual that enriches one’s lifestyle.

Gaby Kafie: Tradition and the Cigar Industry

Cigar Life Guy: Your family has a long history in Central America. So why is tradition so important in the cigar industry?

Dr. Gaby Kafie: Tradition is deeply ingrained in the cigar industry, and its importance can’t be overstated. In many ways, it is the very foundation on which the industry has been built and continues to thrive.

For my family, the Kafie family, tradition is not just a concept but a guiding principle that dictates how we conduct ourselves in business and life.

We are deeply rooted in Central America, a region rich in history and culture, which has significantly shaped the values we cherish and pass down through generations.

Tradition in our family goes beyond preserving customs. Tradition is about upholding a legacy of integrity, hard work, and commitment to excellence. These values have been imbued in us from generation to generation, ensuring that every family member strives to contribute positively to our legacy and the world.

Our commitment to tradition reflects how we approach our businesses, including the cigar industry. Much like our family, the premium cigar industry thrives on the strength of its traditions. It is an industry largely driven by families who have persevered through centuries, maintaining high standards and a dedication to craftsmanship passed down through generations.

Each product we create, whether cigars or coffee, carries our family name— a symbol of quality and trust. This is not just a mark of ownership but a promise of the integrity and the hard-earned reputation that comes with it. In this industry, a name is not just a brand- it’s a representation of history, culture, and continuity.

Thus, tradition in the cigar industry is crucial. It connects the past with the present and paves the way for future generations. It embodies the values, ethics, and principles that have sustained these great families, including ours, enabling us to produce products that people enjoy and trust. This deep respect for tradition is one of the primary reasons I was drawn to the premium cigar industry. It remains a passion deeply integrated into my life and legacy.

The Boutique Cigar Association.

Cigar Life Guy: You are the founder of the Boutique Cigar Association. Tell us about this organization and what it does. Particularly, we’d love to know how it supports and defends the rights of small cigar lines against FDA regulations.

Dr. Gaby Kafie: As the founder of the Boutique Cigar Association (BCA) in 2016, I saw a need to fill a significant gap in the premium cigar industry. This gap concerned disseminating knowledge essential for starting and sustaining a successful cigar company. It was a knowledge base traditionally held closely by a few established families. Recognizing the importance of sharing this wealth of information, I felt a profound responsibility to help others who aspire to make their mark in this industry.

The BCA was established to support, educate, and uplift small cigar companies. We have successfully created a platform where emerging businesses can access crucial industry knowledge through a structured curriculum. That includes regular seminars featuring experts. These experts discuss important topics like trademark law, cigar importation, licensing, and distribution agreements. All these topics are vital for navigating the complexities of the cigar business.

One of our most significant achievements is the establishment of the Boutique Cigar Pavilion at the PCA Trade Show. This initiative provides our member companies with a fantastic opportunity for exposure at one of the world’s largest gatherings for premium cigars. This pavilion has become a permanent fixture at the show, greatly benefiting our members with increased visibility.

The BCA has grown to include over 35 member companies on the advocacy front. That allowing us to form a unified voice that actively participates in legislative discussions. This collective effort is crucial for protecting the interests of boutique cigar businesses against often stringent FDA regulations. By collaborating with the Premium Cigar Association and Cigar Rights of America, we can better defend and promote the rights of small cigar lines at both state and federal levels.

Starting and leading the Boutique Cigar Association has not been an easy journey. The fulfillment I derive from seeing small, family-owned businesses flourish in this competitive environment makes all the challenges worthwhile. My joy and contentment come from serving these passionate entrepreneurs. I also enjoy helping them achieve their dreams within the premium cigar industry.

Cigar Industry Challenges Dr. Gaby Kafie Faces

Cigar Life Guy: What is the cigar industry’s biggest challenge today?

Dr. Gaby Kafie: The biggest challenge facing the premium cigar industry today, as I see it, is the presence of significant barriers to entry for new brands, often perpetuated by an industry that, at times, is resistant to welcoming new players. And this is a critical issue. The vitality and innovation of our industry depend on the continuous influx of new ideas and participants.

In my experience within this industry, I’ve observed a certain isolationism from established players who seldom reach out to help or support newcomers. So, this is paradoxical considering the communal and familial ethos that cigars traditionally symbolize.

At the Boutique Cigar Association, we deliberate on how we can better support family-owned businesses. We help them gain market share and succeed. Our goal is not just to thrive individually but to foster an environment where every industry member, new or old, feels welcomed and supported.

Another significant challenge is navigating the regulatory landscape set by the FDA. It’s not a question of if but when and how we will be regulated. The key is ensuring these regulations are fair and navigable, not punitive measures. It’s important they not drive small players out of business. It’s crucial for companies, whether big or small, family-owned or multinational, to unite and advocate for reasonable and manageable regulatory frameworks.

For the premium cigar industry to flourish, it must cultivate an inclusive and mutually supportive environment. It must also ensuring all stakeholders, especially the newcomers, have the resources and guidance needed to thrive.

Next Up for Dr. Gaby Kafie and the Kafie 1901

Cigar Life Guy: What’s next for you and Kafie 1901?

Dr. Gaby Kafie: Thank you for this engaging question! At Kafie 1901, we are continuously inspired by our rich family heritage. That includes over 100 entrepreneurial and professional members across Honduras, Central America, and the United States. This legacy drives our commitment to excellence and innovation in everything we do.

We’re currently at an exciting juncture, having recently acquired the domain www.kafie.com. Over the next few months, we plan to develop this website into a comprehensive portal representing The Kafie Companies.

This platform will showcase our diverse ventures and testify to our family’s enduring entrepreneurial spirit. Our approach is to create something enduring. We design every project to last a decade and easily transition to the next generation.

Specifically for Kafie 1901, we are embarking on a few key initiatives. First, rebranding of our coffee products.  We are rebranding our coffee line, with the refreshed products expected to be available by mid-summer. This rebranding will align our coffee offerings more closely with our core brand values and aesthetics. Next comes the development of a new premium cigar blend.

We have meticulously worked on a new cigar blend for the past two years. So, we craft this blend with the utmost care to meet the high standards our customers expect from Kafie 1901. We anticipate launching this new premium cigar product early in 2025.

We are thrilled about the future and are deeply grateful for the opportunity to discuss our journey. Thank you for your interest and support.

 

Follow Dr. Kafie on Instagram and check out the latest from Kafie Cigars here.

Photo credit: Kafie 1901

James Vita

James “Boston Jimmie” Vita Loves Cigars and Talking about Cigars

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James “Boston Jimmie” Vita has lived the cigar life for five decades. A true brother of the leaf, he tried his hand at print magazines before eventually creating the online giant Stogie Press. Vita has been reviewing cigars and sharing his knowledge ever since. Newly retired, Vita discussed his early start in the cigar world, the beauty of the cigar community, and his latest endeavor- PERILOUS, a cigar trivia game show.

James Vita: First Premium Cigar Experience

Cigar Life Guy: Tell me about your first premium cigar experience.

Jimmie Vita: I started enjoying cigars in the late 1970s. I did not know much about cigars or premium vs whatever. Eventually, I tried different cigars — there were not as many on the market then — and found some that pleased my palate. I remember seriously enjoying the Hoya de Monterrey Excalibur and Arturo Fuente Double Chateau. But for some reason, I recall my game-changing cigar was a Punch Double Corona that I received from an engineering subcontractor I was working with after a big dinner. I smoked that cigar for over two hours with my fellow engineering friend. We looked at each other and said, “Wow, we must keep trying more cigars.” I have smoked and reviewed thousands of different cigars over my life. Some were not to my liking. Many were just fine, and some were simply outstanding.

Starting Stogie Press

Cigar Life Guy: How did you get into the cigar industry? What did you do before, and what inspired you to start Stogie Press?

Jimmie Vita: I was an Aerospace Engineer and have enjoyed cigars since I was a freshman in college. In the early 1990s, a fellow engineer and I created a local cigar magazine called Central Florida Cigar Smoke Magazine (CFCS). We had everything ready to go except advertising. We’re not salesmen, and we were an unknown entity, so it was difficult. And we also needed financial support to start it, as it was print-based, not web-based. The project failed, so we shelved it.

We kept smoking cigars and helping others understand cigars whenever we went to shops. Speeding the film up to 2013, I was on a short-term assignment in the dead of winter in Dearborn, Michigan, where I stumbled into a local cigar shop (Don Yeyo’s). I met a young man, Ryan Gallimore, who managed the shop. By this time, my wife (website designer) and I had just launched a web version of the cigar magazine Space Coast Cigars. Ryan and I hit it off, and he asked, “Why do you have a regional name for a website when cigars are global?” He was right. So we searched various names and came upon StogiePress.com. I immediately secured the website, and my wife moved the small content from Space Coast Cigars to the new Stogie Press, and we were off to the races.

James Vita: Educating the Cigar World

Cigar Life Guy: You started Stogie Press, providing news, lifestyle articles, and product reviews. Why is it important to educate the cigar world and describe the joy you get sharing your knowledge of something you love?

Jimmie Vita: The cigar lifestyle is special. It is not just about smoking cigars. It is the camaraderie of fellow men and women cigar enthusiasts sharing their love of the leaf. The industry offers numerous events throughout the year where consumers can gather in larger groups beyond shops and celebrate the lifestyle. I have always enjoyed sharing my experiences of these festivals with my readership. The more educated the consumer, the better the consumer.

I recall one time I was at Don Kiki’s in Daytona Beach, FL, where I sat with a group of enthusiasts I just met. An older gentleman told me he read my reviews constantly but needed to get the notes I discussed. All he got was smoke. I chuckled and said hold on. I bought a handful of cigars and passed them out to the group, and we embarked on an educational tasting session. In the end, the older gentleman was getting notes from pre-light to end. He also learned to smoke slower. That made me feel good as I helped someone better enjoy cigars.

Retirement and the Generous Cigar Community

Cigar Life Guy: What is your favorite aspect of the cigar community?

Jimmie Vita: The people. They are some of the most generous people I know. When there is a charity or someone in need, they rally behind the cause and help. For example, Stogie Press raised over $10,000 last year for Autism Speaks when my son and I climbed Mt Fuji. It was a fantastic experience with a satisfying outcome. Most of that money was raised directly from the cigar community.

Cigar Life Guy: You recently retired from your 9-to-5 job. How is retirement, and are you smoking more cigars?

Jimmie Vita: Retirement is awesome. I just returned from a long weekend in the Smoky Mountains with a few lifetime friends who also just retired. Operating on my own schedule and focusing on cigars and fun is nice. I smoke about the same, maybe even less, as I have more time to devote to Stogie Press articles during the day and spend more time with my wife in the evening.

PERILOUS: The Cigar Game Show

Cigar Life Guy: Tell us about your latest project, PERILOUS, a game show designed to be “informative and perilous.”

Jimmie Vita: Ah, PERILOUS!! Yes, this is something I have wanted to do for many years. However, with my day job, I needed more time to make it happen. PERILOUS is a new and engaging game show that will help educate cigar enthusiasts. We designed the game to be informative and perilous to play. It is informative for the players as well as anyone watching. We will have questions ranging in levels of difficulty and category. It is perilous because you have to wage points and if you get something wrong you create a more perilous climb to catch a fellow contestant. Contestants compete to win prizes and gift certificates for shops and lounges to purchase products of their choice. Each PERILOUS season will consist of at least 16 regular episodes followed by a bracketed tournament of champions made up of the top 16 players in the season.

There are two rounds in the PERILOUS Cigar Trivia game. Round one is the competitive round, where three competitors compete against each other. Each player starts with 100 points and can wager up to the total points, and there are five levels of questions in round one. Players will get their individual questions to answer for each level. If they get the question right, their point wager will be multiplied by the level number (1X, 2X, 3X, 4X, 5X) and added to their total points.

The point wager will then be deducted from their score if they get the question wrong. Players wager before the questions are presented. They have one chance to increase or decrease their wager before the questions start for the level. At the end of round one, the player with the most points moves to round two. Additionally, the winner of round one will receive a monetary gift certificate. All players will also receive a PERILOUS branded Xikar cutter for participating.

Round two is the champion round. Here, the winner from round 1 will compete against themself. Again, there will be five levels of questions with increasing difficulty. This time, the player will be presented with a prize package of SWAG and a Monetary gift certificate. The player can either go for the prize for that level or stop the game and keep what they have won. So, if they choose to go for the next higher prize, they forfeit the previous award. They can stop the game at any level. If the player goes for a higher-level question and gets it wrong, they bust out of the game and only receive the prize they won from round one.

A Look Ahead: James Vita and Stogie Press

Cigar Life Guy: What else can we expect from you and Stogie Press in the future?

Jimmie Vita: Stogie Press is entering its second decade this year, along with a weekly talk show — Taking It To The Nub. We have added PERILOUS to the content to kick off our second decade and will be growing that through the year. I am also considering running a Space Coast Cigar Festival in 2025. That will take more planning and coordination to make it happen. You will also see me at more lounges now that I have more free time, so expect more lounge reviews. I may even run PERILOUS shows at specific lounges.

 

Follow James Vita on Instagram and check out the latest reviews, articles, and episodes of Taking it to the Nub at Stogie Press.

Photo credit: James Vita

Rick Rodriguez pictured next to several boxes of premium cigars.

Rick Rodriguez from West Tampa Tobacco Company Talks His Wild Ride with Cigars

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Rick Rodriguez worked at General Cigar for 25 years. He trained under Benji Menendez before starting West Tampa Tobacco Company in 2022 with Gus Martinez.

While Rodriguez has built an extensive and impressive (cigar life) resume, he didn’t smoke his first cigar until he was forty. He talked with Cigar Life Guy about that first-smoke experience, the importance of keeping stories and tradition alive, and why he isn’t worried about cigar life ending any time soon.

 

Rick Rodriguez First Premium Cigar Experience

Cigar Life Guy: Tell me about your first premium cigar experience.

Rick Rodriguez: That’s a great question. I have been interviewed a thousand times, and one of the questions I’ve always thought about is, “When did you smoke your first cigar?” Amazingly, no one asked that question. Therefore, I had my first cigar the day I interviewed to work for General Cigar.

Dave Bullock, now the president of sales for Rocky Patel, interviewed me. He heard my story about my grandmother and grandfather coming from Cuba to Tampa to roll cigars. He worked for Nestle and said, “Hey, you need to sell candy bars for us.” And I said, “I’m not selling candy bars. I’m happy with the carpet business.“

He called me back two years later and said, “I’m working for General Cigar now.” But I had yet to learn what or who General Cigar was. I had been in a tobacco shop maybe twice when I was thirteen. So I said, “Perfect, we’ll have dinner.”

We had dinner, and he explained he worked for General Cigar and that my territory would be in Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville. And I said, “You know what? You got your guy. I’ll take the job.”

After dinner, we took a walk. We were in Ybor City, and we saw a cigar shop. I walked in and bought two cigars: a Macanudo Hyde Park and an 858 from Fuente. 

I gave him the Macanudo because he was a cigarette smoker, and he asked what I was smoking, and I told him, Fuente. He said, “In the future, only smoke their product when you get the job.” And I said, “I didn’t see any General Cigar.” Then he told me they own Macanudo, Cohiba, Hoya, Punch, and all these brands.

I knew all the brands he spoke of, but I thought they were all individual. So, my first cigar was an 858 in Ybor City, and I choked through that cigar. (Laughs).

Thank God I had felt a cold coming on at dinner, so I blamed my choking on the cold. He said, “It’s okay; you’re hired!” I received my first box of sample cigars the following Monday, and that’s the long story. I smoked my first cigar when I was forty years old.

 

Traditions in the Cigar Business

Cigar Life Guy: You worked for General Cigar Co. for 25 years. What’s it like starting your line?

Rick Rodriguez: Fascinating and very scary. I was very nervous about it. We knew what we were doing.

General Cigar teaches you everything about cigars. Without working for them for 25 years, there’s no way in hell I would have started West Tampa.

Because of their training, we knew we’d have a starting chance. Doors opened for us the day I announced, on May 2, 2022. We celebrated our second year this May.

I remember calling my first account and telling them I left General Cigar, and no questions were asked. It was, “Ricky, we’re in.” So, having that history and that trust was an asset. So it was terrifying, but we knew we had an upper hand.

 

A Look Back at Cigar Variety Evolution

Cigar Life Guy: You have been in the tobacco industry for a long time. What is your favorite aspect of the cigar business, and how has it changed over the years?

Rick Rodriguez: People. Travel is tiring, but when you can connect with people that is my favorite aspect. That has not changed.

If you look at cigars, there are many types, each varying in body, size, and brand, and I’ve seen that grow. But what I enjoy the most about cigar life is the people I meet, the people I have been friends with for twenty-five years, and the opportunities to share our stories.

 

Rick Rodriguez’s Biggest Cigar Industry Challenges

Cigar Life Guy: What is the cigar industry’s biggest challenge today?

Rick Rodriguez: Individual state taxes and the struggles with what we have to do with warning labels. Those are the scary things. As far as people enjoying cigars? The market is likely going to continue to grow. So, I see many younger people coming.

Tax and smoking bans in restaurants, bars, and sometimes shops… Those are the struggles I worry about. Other than that, I have no worries about tobacco, manufacturing, or consumers. I would not get Sara (Rogriguez’s daughter) into this business if I didn’t think it would be around for the next twenty years.

 

Building a Friendship

Cigar Life Guy: You partnered with Gus Martinez, another General Cigar Co. employee. What was that like, and how is it different being on the ownership end of the business?

Rick Rodriguez: I think we’re lucky. We grew not only a business relationship but a friendship along the way. We both worked at General Cigars but only had a little one-on-one communication. He was in the marketing, and I had my marketing guy.

When I saw Gus, we talked more about our families than we did cigars or business, so the friendship grew. When he said, “I would love to partner with you,” we knew the partnership would be magical because his kind of training was behind the scenes.

He can do the business and marketing sides; my side is the entertaining, the storytelling, the blending, and working with the factory. The perfect combination — a kind of yin and yang of a business partner worked for us.

 

Cigar Tradition and the Circle of Life

Cigar Life Guy: Your grandparents came to Tampa from Cuba in the 1950s as cigar rollers. What do you want the cigar world to know about this legacy, tradition, and its connection to your new line of cigars?

Rick Rodriguez: Don’t forget the stories. Once I finished training, I remember Benji Menendez said, “You think your job is to sell cigars for General? It isn’t. That’s the job of the salesman who will work with you. Your job is to keep these stories alive. Tell them about the history of General Cigars. Tell them the history of your family, your connection to Cuba, and why they moved to Tampa. Those stories connect to that cigar and connect to that fanbase.” You have no prayer if you have a cigar without a believable story.

Benji Menendez, who owned the H. Upmann Factory in Cuba, trained me. He sold cigars to Kennedy, so I understood the value of that.

Furthermore, these cigars are hand-rolled. So, there are no machines. As a result, the process is not something like seeing a car being put together in a factory by machines. So, connecting the stories, sharing those stories, and keeping the memory alive is so important.

 

Looking Forward with Rick Rodriguez

Cigar Life Guy: You introduced the Black, White, and Red cigars in your first year. What’s next for West Tampa Tobacco Company?

Rick Rodriguez: Circle of Life. We just introduced the new full-time line. We’ve been working on this project with Ernesto Perez-Carillo (EPC) for about six months. We need to ship it at the beginning of June. And we are very proud of this because it connects my kind of history, my story, and my journey in my tobacco life.

We chose Ernesto because he was the first person in the Hall of Fame to train me. I was trained by four Hall of Famers, but he was the first who took the time to train, and that’s why we connected.

He loved the story. There are three typical sizes that people will love: the Robusto, the Toro, and a 6×50. They range in price—without taxes—between 13 and 15 dollars.

 

The Final Wrap with Rick Rodriguez

Cigar Life Guy: Have we missed anything? Please tell us anything else you’d like the cigar world to know.

Rick Rodriguez: If you enjoy cigars, try our cigars! Enjoy our cigars. Even if you don’t smoke our cigars, please keep smoking cigars and loving this community of cigar smokers. It’s one of the only things you can do today in your life that will connect you to people.

You can go to restaurants or bars and meet one person, but go to any cigar shop and try not to meet five, six, or seven people. Our connection is impressive.

 

Follow Rick Rodriguez and West Tampa Tobacco Company on Instagram. Then, check out the latest from West Tampa Tobacco Company.

Photo Credit: WTTC

Freemason and Hiram & Solomon Cigars founder, Fouad Kashouty with his wife, Romy.

How Fouad Kashouty Crafts Freemason Identity Through Cigars

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Crafting Freemason identity through cigars began as a way to raise money for a scholarship. Ten years later, Fouad Kashouty and his wife Romy aim to make Hiram & Solomon Cigars a household name. Although he’d been smoking cigars for a long time, Kashouty had no connection to the cigar industry other than knowing what he liked to smoke. He talked to Cigar Life Guy about his start in the cigar business, Freemasonry’s best-kept secret, and how cigar life and Freemasonry go perfectly together.

First Premium Cigar Experience

Cigar Life Guy: Tell me about your first premium cigar experience.

Fouad Kashouty: My first cigar was over forty-two years ago when I graduated high school. My uncle handed me a Romeo and Juliet Churchill, I believe- a Cuban cigar. That was my first encounter with a cigar and first love. 

Cigar Life Guy: Tell us how you got started in the cigar industry. What did you do before, and how does it help inform what you do with your current business?

Fouad Kashouty: I used to be in the retail business- convenience stores and gas stations—which I still own. I had no connection to the cigar industry besides smoking cigars and knowing what I liked and didn’t like. The idea came out in the Masonic lodge I belong to, and that’s why the emblem has a Masonic theme. We needed money for a scholarship, and I came up with the idea to roll a thousand cigars, put our logo on it, and sell it to the brethren. So we grew from there to be where we are right now. This year, we celebrated our tenth anniversary, and we’re in over 800 lounges in the United States and 30 countries worldwide.

Freemason Secrets

Cigar Life Guy: Your company’s origin comes from the Brotherhood of Freemasons. Why a Freemason cigar?

Fouad Kashouty: The idea came to fund a scholarship at our Masonic lodge—to give back to the community. As Masons, we always love stuff that carries our symbols, whether pin, sword, or hat. The market had no cigars that carried our symbols, so we thought it was a good idea. A premium cigar that matches the caliber of the brethren within the fraternity and carries our symbol- something that we could smoke with pride when we exchanged ideas.

If we go into Freemason history in the Middle Ages, the 1700s, and the 1800s, only the rich and powerful joined the Freemasons. That’s not the case at the moment. Back then, the powerful and the rich smoked cigars and drank cognac, so that tradition entwined with the masonic tradition and carried on. We always say we didn’t invent Masonry; we didn’t invent the cigar, but as a company, Hiram & Solomon Cigars has mastered combining them.

Cigar Life Guy: The Freemasons are known for being secretive. What are some common misconceptions about the Freemasons, and what do you want the world to know about the Freemasons?

Fouad Kashouty: Our biggest secret is we have no secrets (laughs). Our secret only comes with how we recognize each other by what degree (of Mason) we are. From the beginning, Freemasons elected not to respond to conspiracy theories, which in one way made it more secretive, but I assure you there are no secrets. It’s a fraternal organization that always has community service in mind. Let’s remember the Shriners Hospitals. There are over 22 hospitals that are free for anybody who cannot pay. Shriners are Masons. You have to belong to what we call a Blue Lodge, where you earn your first degrees and then become a Shriner if you elect to do so. So it’s a lot of charitable work. It’s about personal growth. We build our temples day by day. There are no secrets.

Freemason Camaraderie in Cigars

Cigar Life Guy: The Freemasons are exclusive to men, but you work closely with your wife. What has that collaboration been like, and how does that help your company include female smokers?

Fouad Kashouty: When we started this company, many people were afraid of smoking our cigars because they assumed a secretiveness about the Freemasons, including women and even men who were not Freemasons. I used to get calls where people asked, “Am I allowed to smoke this cigar if I am not a Freemason”? Some people were either anti-masons or didn’t want to touch the cigar out of respect or lack of understanding of what the Masons were. They felt like they needed permission to smoke it. So we came up with the slogan, “Everyone’s Cigar.” We use two slogans in our company: “Everyone’s Cigar” and “Discover Our Secret.”

My wife and I met through the cigar world. She helped to grow the cigars’ popularity among female smokers. In addition, it would bring the non-masons to the cigar. It’s a cigar with a Masonic theme, but it’s “every level for everyone.“  Whether it’s Shriner Hospital, community events, or the Coast Guard, part of the proceeds from our cigars go to charity. The last charitable project that we did was Cigars for Warriors. We were the first company to have the logo on our cigar, and we donated 100% of the proceeds from that cigar to Cigars for Warriors.

Cigar Life Guy: The Masons are about community and brotherhood, much like the cigar world. What is your favorite aspect of the cigar community, and how does it connect to the Freemasons?

Fouad Kashouty: Both of them have brotherhood and sisterhood in mind. People who belong to the Freemasons and the cigar community are highly educated, and I don’t mean formal education like college. I mean more enlightened. They are more receptive to learning new things. Most of them are self-made. I  enjoy the self-discipline of both worlds. They go perfectly together.

Hiram & Solomon Cigars

Cigar Life Guy: You moved your production from Nicaragua to the Dominican. What was the reason for the change, and how are Hiram & Solomon Cigars different?

Fouad Kashouty: It was mostly logistical. We used to roll our cigars at the Plasencia factory, but due to logistical issues, they couldn’t keep up with the production of our cigars.

We moved our production to the Dominican Republic to make it easier for us, especially with the production of the boxes and bands. The cigars we copied 100% from the cigars we made in Nicaragua. Plasencia released all the blends and tried to improve them. We believe we did. We changed the look of the boxes and the bands to show the new way we were going.

Cigar Life Guy: What’s next for Hiram & Solomon Cigars?

Fouad Kashouty: We plan to offer cigar blends that satisfy most smokers. You can’t satisfy everybody. Instead, be creative. Be accessories. We want to become a household brand for cigars.

Cigar Life Guy: Have we missed anything? Please tell us anything else you’d like the cigar world to know.

Fouad Kashouty: Enjoy cigars! Not only from our brand. There are so many beautiful cigars in the world. Enjoy all of them. But avoid getting stuck with one brand or one size. Instead, try all of them.

 

Follow Fouad on Facebook and Twitter and check out the latest from Hiram & Solomon Cigars here.

Photo credit: Hiram & Solomon Cigars

Luis Cuevas, of Casa Cuevas, smoking a cigar.

Luis Cuevas of Casa Cuevas Talks Family and More

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From Spain to Cuba to the Dominican, the Cuevas family has been making cigars for over a century. Luis Cuevas of Casa Cuevas has proudly carried on the family tradition. He spoke to Cigar Life Guy about the pleasure of working with his father and son, the work that goes into the blending process, and the camaraderie that comes with living the cigar life.

First Premium Cigar

Cigar Life Guy: Tell me about your first premium cigar experience.

Luis Cuevas: My first premium cigar experience was in 1997 when the boom took off. Oddly enough, it wasn’t one of my cigars. It wasn’t a cigar that I was producing at the time. I didn’t have a brand, but my dad had the factory. We were producing for other people. So, I picked up a Macanudo Connecticut, the cigar to smoke back then. I was with friends who had been smoking cigars before I began smoking cigars-even though my dad had the factory. I should have smoked something that my father smoked (laughs), but I went to a shop and bought a Macanudo. We were hanging out, and after that, I kept on going. Look where I am now.

Casa Cuevas Cigars Are a Family Tradition

Cigar Life Guy: You come from four generations of cigar makers. What is it like following in your father and grandfather’s footsteps?

Luis Cuevas: Huge, huge shoes to fill. It’s a privilege, with my dad running the factory and my son helping out locally. It’s a blessing. How many people can say they work with their father and their son? I am super thrilled and super blessed. We try to keep business separate from family, so we don’t discuss business when we get together. We set aside time for it. For example, my dad is flying in tomorrow, and we won’t be able to discuss anything until Sunday morning. We’ll take about an hour or two and then be done. It’s regular family talk. We don’t try to mix the two. We keep things less job-like.

Merging Tradition with New Blends

Cigar Life Guy: Your family went from Spain to Cuba and eventually the Dominican Republic. Tell us how you merge the long cigar-making tradition with creating new blends.

Luis Cuevas:  My great-grandfather emigrated from Spain to Cuba. My great-grandfather left the northern part of Spain, where he was a farmer, and went to Pinar del Rio, Cuba, a tobacco country. Since he had been a farmer in Spain, he became a farmer in Cuba, and the crop of choice was tobacco. So he kind of fell into it. Then, my grandfather took over and did very well.

Then, 1959 happened. By ’61, everything was confiscated, and he wound up going to the States in 1970. In 1983, my dad and my uncle decided to revisit the family business and opened up a factory in the Dominican Republic, and it’s been back and forth ever since. My uncle is no longer with us. My dad and I now have the factory. That’s the way it worked out. It came full circle. What my great-grandfather started in Cuba was reborn in the Dominican Republic.

New blends have been a lot of fun because my son is involved in the blending. As a younger palate, he has smoked a lot – a greater variety of cigars than I have. Because he worked at a major cigar retailer, he could smoke many different brands, and we incorporated that into the blending process.

The blending process is a lot of fun, but after a while, it becomes a lot of work because you go through ten or fifteen blends before you come out with something you like. If you smoke that much during a week, we’re talking a lot of cigars. It’s not a single malt. It’s not a puro. Let’s say the wrapper is from Ecuador or Mexico, and then the filler is anywhere from Columbia to Peru, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Pennsylvania. Everything is put together, like when you’re cooking. They’re ingredients. So we put them all together and create what we think the rest of the public will like. Keep our fingers crossed, and we will launch it. The transition wasn’t that tough because we had access to many different tobaccos from around the world and the factory and we just played around with the flavors.

A Little About the Casa Cueva Portfolio

Cigar Life Guy: You use tobacco from all over the world. Tell us a little about your factory process and the Casa Cueva portfolio.

Luis Cuevas: We initially started with a Connecticut, a Maduro, and a Habano. The Maduro is from Mexico. The Connecticut and Habano are from Ecuador. We started with those three wrappers because they were the best-selling in the United States. After that, we expanded into a couple of different vitolas. The Flaco 7×43. A shag foot 6×52. Eventually, we moved on to using Corojo, which we used for our Patrimonio. Then, last year, we launched our Cameroon, my son’s blend- Sangre Nueva- which means “new blood” because he’s the new blood from the family. (laughs). So, little by little, we’ve tried to use different wrappers to change the flavor profiles and to give the consumer various choices — a variety. You want to smoke a Connecticut? We’ve got it. You want to smoke a Cameroon? We’ve got it. You want to smoke a Maduro? We’ve got it — that kind of thing.

The Cigar Community

Cigar Life Guy: What is your favorite aspect of the cigar community?

Luis Cuevas: The camaraderie. Anywhere you go throughout the United States, and even the world, when you go to a lounge, they greet you like your family. They’ll say hello. They’ll always have a conversation. You sit around and talk to different people and get to know them; they come from all walks of life. You may be sitting next to a retired millionaire. Another guy is a student, and another guy is a dishwasher, and the one thing that brings everybody together is what you’re smoking.

If you want to level the playing field, just take off the band. That way, if a guy is smoking a house cigar because that’s what’s affordable to him and the other guy is smoking a fifty-dollar cigar, whatever that may be, once you take the band off, you’re just smoking a cigar. We’re breaking bread, so to speak. That’s my favorite part.

Any lounge we go to, everyone says hi. That’s the custom. If you’re by yourself, someone might call you over. I’m not talking about it as a brand owner but as a cigar smoker. We were in London at Fox’s, and they didn’t carry my cigar there. They had no idea who I was, but my wife and I went upstairs and conversed. It’s a unique type of thing. You don’t get it at a bar. You certainly don’t get it at a restaurant, but look at a cigar lounge, and you get that camaraderie.

Casa Cuevas Labor Challenges and The Sledgehammer

Cigar Life Guy: What is the cigar industry’s biggest challenge today?

Luis Cuevas: Well, it’s nice to know the FDA has stepped back a bit from crowding us. For a while, it got a little scary with all the rules and regulations. So that’s gone. The biggest challenge right now is rollers, which may surprise everyone. There needs to be more rollers for the Dominican, where we are, and Nicaragua and Honduras. So labor has become a challenge, specifically rollers. They work in pairs. One individual rolls the cigar, and the other puts the wrapper on, but both aspects have been a challenge the last year, and this year is not any better.

The Future for Casa Cuevas

Cigar Life Guy: What’s next for Casa Cuevas Cigars?

Luis Cuevas: Next, we are launching the Mandarria Oscuro, our 6×52. It means “sledgehammer”. The original one we launched in 2019 was a Habano. That cigar was born because we had a break-in at our local office here in Miami. They took a sledgehammer, broke into the back wall, cut into the humidor, and wiped us out. We tried to make light of it by coming out with a cigar that made fun of it when we went to the trade show that year in 2019. It was supposed to be a one-and-done, limited edition, but it took off and was no longer a limited edition; it was full-on production. This year, we came out with a Maduro version of it, an Oscuro. That’s the newest thing. We’re receiving our first shipment on Tuesday and will distribute it afterward. We’re excited about that project.

Cigar Life Guy: Have we missed anything? Please tell us anything else you’d like the cigar world to know.

Luis Cuevas: It’s an industry built on passion. It’s a kind industry. Everyone is here to help; we couldn’t do it without the consumers. When you see someone smoking your cigar, or they get to know you and say, “Hey, I like your cigars,” it’s a privilege. It’s an incredible privilege to be a part of someone’s humidor. There are a lot of choices out there, so if we’re just something they go to on occasion, it’s a privilege. It’s a people industry that’s what it’s all about.

 

Follow Luis on Instagram and check out the latest from Casa Cuevas here.

Photo credit: Casa Cuevas

Aric Bey of Black Star Line Cigars

Black Star Line Cigars and Aric Bey: Interview

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Aric Bey, the former Chicago firefighter and owner of Black Star Line, began his cigar journey as many do through camaraderie and conversation. Approaching its fifth year, Black Star Line is gaining steam as a brand. Bey talks about the importance of history, connecting with customers, and appreciating the conversations that come with living the cigar life.

The First Premium Smoke

Cigar Life Guy: Tell me about your first premium cigar experience. (When was it? Who were you with? Where was it? What was the occasion? )

Aric Bey: I started smoking infused cigars and quickly graduated to Drew Estates cigars. My palate changed when I began smoking DE, and I never returned to smoking infused cigars. I have been smoking for roughly seven years. I mostly smoked DE, then branched out to smoking all different brands, which is how I developed my palate fast.

The Cigar Business

Cigar Life Guy: You have an MBA in finance, a Master’s degree in Public Health, and have been a Chicago Firefighter. Your path to the cigar industry is often “unconventional.” Tell us what drew you into the industry and how you got started.

Aric Bey: I grew the love of the leaf smoking in the firehouse. That’s when I decided I would enjoy being in the industry. I enjoyed the conversations and good times while having a cigar with friends. My most memorable bonding experiences recently involved hanging out and smoking a cigar.

Cigar Life Guy: What is your favorite aspect of the cigar business?

Aric Bey:  My favorite aspect of the business is meeting new customers. I love meeting new customers because I can learn about their backgrounds and where they are from. It’s like gaining a new friend I can smoke with whenever I am in their town or country. It also lets me get live feedback from new and existing customers about my cigars.

Cigar Life Guy: What is the cigar industry’s biggest challenge today?

Aric Bey: My biggest challenge is getting our name out there so it is easily recognized. There are thousands of cigars to smoke, so you have to find a way to make your brand stand out amongst all the others. That is why we work so hard and travel often to get the brand recognition I seek.

Political Activism and Black Star Line

Cigar Life Guy: You named your company, Black Star Line, after Marcus Garvey’s steamship company. Tell us a little more about your reason for honoring a political activist and founder of the UNIA.

Aric Bey: Many have yet to learn who Marcus Garvey is, so I wanted to pay homage to him and his company. His idea was to ship goods internationally. I want to do the same with my cigars. I am big on history and those that came before us. If we don’t keep talking about history, we will lose the stories and potentially relive some of the issues that have happened in the past.

Black Star Line: History and Diversity

Cigar Life Guy: How has the cigar industry embraced various lines from owners with diverse backgrounds?

Aric Bey: The cigar industry has embraced people of different backgrounds because it’s all about the love of the leaf. When smoking a cigar, your gender, bank account, or background don’t matter. It’s all about great convos and the love of the leaf. I always say if everyone drank whiskey and smoked cigars, there wouldn’t be any hatred or racism. Everyone would be relaxed and enjoying a cigar and each other’s company.

Cigar Life Guy: Tell us the stories behind your recently released Mr. Fahrenheit and the Rosewood 1923.

Aric Bey: Rosewood 1923 pays homage to the victims of the Rosewood Florida race riot, and it pays homage to my late frat brother John Singleton. I am a member of the “Greater” Beta Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Inc., and John made a movie about Rosewood in the early 90s. We rolled the cigar at James Brown’s factory, Oveja Negra. It was great working with James because he works differently than the folks over at Aganorsa and Tabacalera La Isla.

I look forward to doing another project with Oveja Negra.

The Future of Black Star Line Cigars

Cigar Life Guy: You have introduced a line of coffee — War Witch — What’s next for Black Star Line?

Aric Bey: I’m unsure if we will introduce any more coffee now. That project was for the original War Witch. We are approaching our 5th anniversary, so I am compiling a good blend for the next PCA.

 

Follow Aric Bey on Instagram and check out the latest from Black Star Line here.

Photo credit: Black Star Line

A tent is one of several smoking solutions to enjoy your favorite premium cigar during winter.

Best Cold Weather Cigar Smoking Solutions

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Finding the right smoking solutions for winter is challenging if you don’t have the luxury of living in a warm-weather environment. A cigar is meant to be savored, but risking frostbite isn’t worth even the finest cigar.

Joining a cigar lounge is an obvious choice. We have discussed the various lounge options, and many cold-weather smokers find the daily or yearly fees well worth it. However, trudging out of the house in a blizzard is not ideal. Sometimes it’s best to enjoy your smoke from the comfort of home.

Building a smoking room is another option. There are affordable ways of converting any room into a private smoking lounge. If you’re not looking for a construction project, there are alternatives. Here are some tips for when the temperatures dip below freezing, and you want to smoke a cigar.

Smoking Solutions: Garage to Man Cave

A garage isn’t only for parking your car and storing dusty tools. You can convert your garage into a multipurpose cigar-smoking space with ingenuity. Ventilation is the primary concern in any smoking room. It’s not wise to invest in an expensive professional-grade ventilation system for this occasional solution, especially if your garage is far enough away from your house. Leaving the door open, cracking a window, or using a box fan are all tried and true methods that keep smoke from lingering. Most guys attest to the smoke smell clearing after a day or two.

Ok, you’re out of the wind and snow, but a garage can still get pretty cold with the door ajar and a window open. You can’t hold a cigar if your fingers are numb. Patio heaters are an excellent investment. Some quality heaters cost as little as $100.

Furniture can be as simple as a few folding chairs and tables. This allows you to conveniently reconvert your garage for parking the car and storing the snow shovels. Adding more permanent furniture is another great idea; this is particularly beneficial if you have plenty of room and winter lasts for months.

Obviously, take precautions whenever smoking indoors. However, keep gasoline containers and flammable materials far from the smoking area.

Tents and Hotel Canopies As Smoking Solutions

Many people brave the elements all year long. Campers, hunters, and outdoorsmen spend plenty of evenings in extreme conditions. So if you can’t utilize the garage, pitch a traditional camping tent in the backyard and smoke away.

Companies are now making specialized tents designed for smoking cigars. However, most extreme weather or even standard tents have ventilation, are flame resistant, waterproof, and provide a cozy space on a frigid night. You’ll want to get the specs before you purchase. Prices will vary depending on the size and features. You’ll want enough space to stand up. You’ll want something significant if you plan on entertaining or outfitting it with comfortable seats. Be sure to research the tent’s materials as well. No tent is fireproof. Be careful and selective when it comes to fire resistance. Synthetic materials are best.

Wait to store your tailgating canopy. Then, if the temperatures don’t dip too far below freezing and you only need shelter from the rain, break out the football tent. If you want to conjure summertime and the poolside vibe, cabana resort-style tents will provide more protection from the wind.

Smoking and Pre-Built Sheds

This might be a pricier option, but sheds are a long-term solution to your winter smoking woes. Smoking sheds have many benefits. There’s no need to worry about smoke odors creeping into your home or the complaints that may follow. These self-contained units function like a custom smoking room right in your backyard. They can be outfitted with ventilation, heating, quality furniture, and all your smoking accouterments.

Building a smoking shed with basic materials should be easy if you are a regular DIYer. However, big-box stores have a wide variety of pre-built sheds. Some require assembly but come in different sizes and styles, so finding one that suits your needs is easy. A shed can be wired for electricity. Watch the big game with friends or catch up on work while enjoying a cigar.

Remember, ventilation is critical. Sheds have doors and windows, but better solutions exist than the old-fashioned garage method. Invest in a quality ventilation system or an air purifier. You won’t regret it.

If building a shed yourself sounds like too much work, don’t worry. The smoking shed trend is gaining some traction. Many companies will now build sheds customized for cigar enthusiasts.

Indoor smoking bans have made it difficult for cigar smokers. In colder regions, it’s incredibly challenging, but you don’t have to give up the cigar lifestyle when January comes around. Instead, with some imagination and resourcefulness, you’ll learn to love the winter months and smoke on.

 

Photo credit: “Cigar Teepee,” by Kent Wang from London, United Kingdom, CC BY-SA 2.0.

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