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Steve Bartell smoking a cigar

Molon Labe’s Steve Bartell is “All-In”

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People called Steve Bartell crazy for getting into the cigar business. Still, when you have lived the cigar life since childhood, it’s anything but crazy. Bartell — owner and president of Molon Labe Cigars — is all in and has an “intent” to make his brand global. He talked with Cigar Life Guy about his start in the business and how he went from selling cigars on the Internet to building a line that has perfected the “trifecta” — pairing in-house coffee and whiskey exclusively to Molon Labe’s cigar portfolio.

First Premium Cigar Experience

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

Steve Bartell: It’s funny because I was telling this story to one of my customers. My grandfather was a cigar smoker and used to sit under grapes — he had a grape arbor in the back of his house — with a cigar and homemade wine. And I remember loving the smell as a little kid. He’d let me puff off his cigar as a kid, so I learned to love it.

Fast forward to when I was about 18 years old and in college, and I was fortunate enough that my first real cigar experience was smoking an authentic Cuban cigar, a Romeo and Julieta Vintage III. One cigar and I was hooked. From that moment on, I loved smoking excellent cigars. So, I started smoking cigars at a reasonably young age.

As I got older, I joined a cigar club. I lived in Phoenix, Arizona, in my twenties. I don’t know if you know Varton of Ambassador Cigar in Scottsdale, but I joined the VIP program and was the youngest guy by twenty-five years. He took me under his wing with all the old-timers in the backroom in the VIP lounge. So I got to smoke a lot of great cigars as a young man. I was introduced to some rare limited-edition cigars and started working through the premium brands in the humidor. That was the beginning for me.

Getting into the Cigar Business

Cigar Life Guy: You have been smoking cigars for a long time. How did you get into the cigar industry? What did you do before, and how does it help inform what you do now?

Steve Bartell: I was in the tech business for 35 years, so I never intended to get into the cigar business. I love cigars, and I got to smoke many great cigars with my customers while in tech and traveling worldwide. When I was fifty, I ran into a family that owned some land and was growing and making these fantastic cigars. I had been smoking the cigars for five years and loved them so much I went to the family and told them I’d like to make a brand out of it — a limited edition, reserve brand. So, it started as a pet project — a passion project for cigars.

That’s what got me into the business. That was Molon Labe. The Molon Labe brand started eight years ago but entered the market five years ago, and it was a limited reserve. We had five vitolos, all the same blend — a true puro.

Nowadays, that word is a bit bastardized. “Puro” to Cuban means it all comes from the same field, not the same country. So I found a true puro that all came from the same field. It was a fantastic cigar, and I built a brand around it. So now it’s Molon Labe. We only sold it over the Internet, and we only made 500 boxes of each Vitolo. Every year, we sold out. People loved the cigar. And that’s what got me into the next generation of where I am today.

What Sets Molon Labe Apart

Cigar Life Guy: You never intended to have your own brand. What makes Molon Labe different?

Steve Bartell: There’s a lot of things that make it different, so I’ll give the top five. One, it’s a puro. So, all of the binders and fillers of that cigar come from the same field. Second, the wrapper is anywhere between a twelve and fifteen-year Habano out of Windsor Locks, Connecticut.

What makes it unique is that it’s Habano and Connecticut because it’s grown in the U.S. The third thing is it’s one hundred percent organic. So there’s no pesticide in the leaves and no fertilizer in the ground. The fourth thing is the experience you get from smoking a cigar. It’s unlike any cigar in any humidor you walk into.

The last thing is that it’s a limited reserve. We only make 3,000 boxes yearly, and that’s it. It’s very old-school. It’s very artisanal. When you look at them, they’re not beautiful. They’re not perfect. They don’t replicate each other. They’re all unique.

Challenges and Regulation in the Cigar Industry

Cigar Life Guy: What is the biggest challenge facing the cigar industry?

Steve Bartell: The first thing is regulation. The industry is constantly under attack. It makes it harder and harder for retailers to survive. The other thing is that I don’t think people realize what goes into bringing a cigar to market. It isn’t easy. It’s not a matter of slapping your band on a cigar and having a box. That’s the easy part. The hard part is getting the cigar to the market and getting the market to respect it. That’s why we kept Molon Labe as our legacy. It really ties back to the Cuban legacy from which it was born.

It’s a complex industry. I always thought it was a huge industry, but it’s not. It’s small. Compared to most industries, it’s small. It’s global in nature, but it’s a small industry. It takes a lot to grow your business. It takes a lot of evangelizing, trial and error, and intestinal fortitude to overcome all the obstacles thrown at you when bringing a cigar to market. There’s production, boxes, pricing, marketing, and then just getting the cigar out there.

The Molon Labe Portfolio

Cigar Life Guy: Tell us a little about the Molon Labe Portfolio.

Steve Bartell: We sold out our Molon Labe Reserve over the Internet. We were an internet-only business for the first three years. Last year, in 2023, I acquired a company from a friend who owned a cigar business. He was a Cuban gentleman who lived in Miami.

My friend did something similar: He had a pet project that turned into a passion project that allowed him to sell cigars in about 80 to 85 stores in Miami, and he made a great cigar — two lines of cigars. Additionally, he had a factory in Nicaragua and a factory in the Dominican Republic. The brand was called Fuera de Serie — FDS is what we call it for short. It means “out of this world” in Cuban.

My friend grew the business about as far as he could. He did it all by hand-to-hand combat in probably the most challenging market in the United States. He became a very good friend of mine. I loved his cigars. I opened a lounge up here in New Hampshire and started carrying those cigars because you couldn’t find them North of Miami. They just took off. I couldn’t keep them in stock. Everybody loved them. Even today, two years later, it’s the number two-selling cigar in my lounge.

We have a Dominican line, and an Ecuadorian Connecticut with Dominican binder and filler that we grow in Tamboril on our farm. We have an Ecuadorian Habano with a Dominican binder and filler that we grow in the Dominican Republic. Then we have a San Andres Maduro that we also grow in the Dominican Republic. We released those in a toro and robusto. Then we created a mini figurado in a Habana and Maduro, unlike anything on the market. It’s very similar to the Short Story in looks, but we have it in a Maduro, which is unusual.

Then, for our Nicaraguan line, we buy tobacco. We have great relationships with our tobacco growers due to personal relationships between our master blender and his father — Ostvani and Luis Hernadez. Ostvani was one of the original farmers and overseers of Aganorsa Farms. So we procure our tobacco from Aganorsa Farms — EJ Fernadez and Placencia. We only use Grade A, pick the very best tobacco from those farms, and we hand-select everything that we buy.

Our Nicaraguan cigars only come in Toro. It is a USA Connecticut. It’s an Ecuadorian Habano and it’s a San Andres Maduro. We call the Nicaraguan Maduro “Chocolate Cake,” and we call the Dominican Maduro “Chocolate Brownies” because the Nicaraguan is light and airy.

The Dominican Maduro is very heavy — thick and chocolatey with a back note of pepper spice. We released our Nicaraguan Habano in January as a 60-guage Gordo. I would put that Gordo against any Habano on the market. It is absolutely fantastic.

We acquired the company in November of 2023. My partner was retiring from the business but didn’t want to just turn the company over to anybody. I offered him to buy the company, and he told me I was the only person he would sell to. So, I bought the company in November of 2023 to take the entire line global.

In January of 2024, we launched Molon Labe Cigars, including Molon Labe Reserve, our Dominican line, and our Nicaraguan line. We currently have 106 stores in six countries, and we are growing. I would say that we are the fastest-growing brand in America right now.

The cigars do very well, and I think that‘s because of several things. The quality of the tobacco is amazing, the construction is second to none, and the price point is fantastic. The retail price of the Dominican cigars is $10.50. The retail price of Nicaraguan is $11, the Gordo is $12, and the mini smokes is $7.50. I would put that up against any $15 or $20 cigar for the quality of the cigar you get.

Coffee, Cigars, and Spirits

Cigar Life Guy: Molon Labe also makes organic coffee. Why does coffee pair so well with cigars?

Steve Bartell: Part of my journey with Molon Labe was creating a cigar experience. I had the Reserve Cigar, and it was phenomenal, but I didn’t want to go out and sell a cigar on its merits. I think a cigar should stand on its own, but I didn’t want to generalize and say, “This cigar goes great with coffee.”

Coffee is like cigars — they’re not all good. So, I went on a journey to source coffee. I worked with 120 different coffees to get to five that explicitly paired with our cigars. Our website talks about perfect pairings, and those perfect pairings are our cigars with our coffee and our whiskey. We did the same thing with whiskey.

Our cigar company is New Hampshire-based and Miami-based. All of our coffees are roasted locally, and we select the top one percent of coffee beans and grow organically. We have the Soprano, which is a dark Italian roast. We have Death by Chocolate, a dark Italian roast with a back flavor of dark chocolate. The Sumatra is an Indonesian coffee-French roast with very low acid and goes excellent that cigar. We have a Nicaraguan blend, grown an hour from our factory. Then we have a Creme Brulee, which is a flavored coffee.

Toward the end of 2023, we went through a similar exercise to find a reasonably sourced distillery that could make five blended spirits that go specifically with our cigars. Not just a general — “This is Whistlepig or Woodford Reserve.”

All of the products that go in the bottle are organic and grown in New Hampshire. So all the corn, all the wheat, all the rye, everything that goes into that bottle is locally grown. We’re launching that spirit line officially at the end of this month. They’re amazing. They’re taking the market by storm. So when we do a cigar event, we bring the trifecta. We bring the cigars, coffee, whiskey, and rum. We start with the whiskey and rum, go to the cigars, and finish with the coffee. The response is overwhelming.

The ASH Cigar Lounge Difference

Cigar Life Guy: You also run the ASH cigar lounge. What sets it apart from other lounges?

Steve Bartell: A couple of things set us apart. One is service. We provide incredible service — whether at the bar or in the humidor — for pairing cigars with people’s palates and with the right drink. Additionally, we also serve my coffee. In fact, we have a full-service coffee bar in the lounge, and we pair a lot of coffees.

Looking Ahead with Steve Bartell and Molon Labe

Cigar Life Guy: Anything else you’d like the cigar world to know?

Steve Bartell: If you haven’t tried Molon Labe, you definitely need to try it. As I said, we are the fastest-growing brand in the U.S. We have reps up and down the East Coast. We’re in Florida, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and New England. Soon, we’ll also be in other major markets down the East Coast.

We come to market with something that nobody else in this business comes with. There are a lot of cigar companies that have a coffee or coffee “partner” or a whiskey “partner” or do a pairing with a particular whisky company. Nobody has done it with intention. In other words, nobody has it all together as a package and says, “Hey, try these things together to elevate your experience.”

For us, it’s about the experience. We put a lot of thought into manufacturing our products. Many cigar companies come out with whiskey, but it’s a whiskey that they’re putting their label on and calling it their own. These things are all ours. We control all of it. It’s done with intention, and that’s what sets us apart. I don’t think anybody in the cigar industry is doing that.

We help lounges sell cigars, whiskey, and coffee, promote it on our own site, promote it nationally, and promote with as many events as needed to help that lounge be successful. If you’re successful, we’re successful. And we support the communities that we serve.

We try to tie to local events and charitable organizations in our marketplaces. We raise money for drug addiction, hospitals, veterans, and underprivileged kids getting into business. That’s the thing I’m most proud of. People tell me I’m crazy for getting into this business at my age, but my goal is to build a company that gives back. My goal is to be successful enough to devote resources to the people most need it.

 

Follow Steve and Molon Labe Cigars on Instagram and check out the latest from Molon Labe Cigars here.

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

Octavia Toliver smoking a cigar

HERficionado® Octavia Toliver Talks Finding Community in Cigars

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Octavia Toliver, founder of Atlanta Cigar Week, CEO of HERficionado, and a true Sister of the Leaf (SOTL), has lived the cigar lifestyle for nearly two decades. She is as passionate about cigars as she is about curating cigar events and building a welcoming and comfortable community for women in the industry. She talked with Cigar Life Guy about the warmth of the cigar environment, being herself, and making the Atlanta Cigar Week better and better with each passing year.

Octavia Toliver: First Premium Cigar

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

Octavia Toliver: It was around 16 or 17 years ago. I visited a cigar lounge on a first (and last!) [laughs] date. Initially, the smoke was overwhelming, and I wasn’t even sure why we were there. But, as we spent more time there, I began to feel the warmth of the environment. He helped me choose a cigar, probably something flavored, and the ambiance slowly won me over! It was a surprisingly pleasant experience, and I wanted to explore more without him! (laughs) So I did!

Cigar Life Guy: What drew you to the cigar culture, and what are your favorite aspects of the cigar community?

Octavia Toliver: What really pulled me in was the elegance and the deep sense of tradition that comes with cigar smoking. I became fascinated with the rituals and the rich history. But the beginning of my journey was a bit lonely because I didn’t feel the sense of community that we have now. That is why I started curating events. I wanted that sense of community, which is now one of my favorite aspects of the culture. Most SOTLs and BOTLs are incredibly welcoming. My network is filled with heartfelt connections with people as passionate as I am about cigars, spirits, and everything the lifestyle encompasses!

Women in the Cigar Industry

Cigar Life Guy: Women in the cigar industry are often overlooked. What advice would you give to women entering the industry and women who smoke cigars?

Octavia Toliver: Be yourself. Don’t try to fit into the mold of the boys’ club. We women have our own strengths and superpowers. Embrace them, as this is what will set you apart! I always encourage the women in the industry to have no fear of trying new things and to keep their dignity and integrity intact. One last thing: it is easy for women to feel the need to compete with the next woman. I encourage them to fight that urge and to collaborate instead! We go much further together than apart!

Octavia Toliver: Cigar Industry Challenges

Cigar Life Guy: What is your biggest challenge in the cigar industry?

Octavia Toliver: Early on, the biggest challenge was proving that I belonged here. It hurt when some people questioned my knowledge or right to be part of this community. But over time, I realized their doubts had nothing to do with me. It was the limiting beliefs of others about what a SOTL was supposed to look like or how we should do things. This shift in mindset was truly transformative for me. After years of dedication and achieving significant milestones in the cigar community, I’ve come to a deep, unshakable recognition of my own worth and contributions. I know without a doubt that I’ve earned my place here. Now, the opinions of those who might doubt my credibility don’t carry weight anymore. I stand confident in my experience and my achievements.

HERficionado: A Female Friendly Network

Cigar Life Guy: You are the founder and CEO of HERficionado.  Tell us about the female-friendly cigar network and why it’s essential to have a platform exclusively for female smokers.

Octavia Toliver: Women face different trials and joys within the cigar culture. When I first started HERficionado®, and She Smokes Too®, it was to give us a safe space to share those things lovingly and comfortably! I didn’t have that available to me when I began my journey. Despite much progress in the industry, SOTLs still encounter specific challenges and microaggressions that are unique to our experiences.

Women must have a place where they feel truly seen and heard, where our unique experiences in the cigar world can be celebrated and cherished. I have always been a part of that side of the culture. I love my guys, but I’m a true girl’s girl!

Octavia Toliver: Atlanta Cigar Week

Cigar Life Guy: You are the founder of Atlanta Cigar Week and an event curator. What goes into making a cigar event great?

Octavia Toliver: A great cigar event starts with a creative idea! What sets your event apart from the hundreds of other events nationwide? Atlanta Cigar Week® was created out of thin air. There was no blueprint of what to do nor what NOT to do. We put our ideas on paper and iterate each year to make it better and better. With each passing year, we are figuring out ways to create a new experience for our guests. It’s one of the things that makes the Atlanta market so unique; there are always new venues opening in addition to the 100+ preexisting cigar lounges and shops. However, event organizers need to take advantage of the resources at their fingertips and highlight what’s unique about their market.

Cigar Life Guy: What are you looking forward to most at this year’s Atlanta Cigar Week?

Octavia Toliver: It’s the people, always. Atlanta Cigar Week® feels like a big family reunion. We catch up, we share stories, we laugh—a lot. And I love seeing friends from across the country who mark this week on their calendars yearly. It’s extraordinary.

 

Follow Octavia on Instagram and check out the latest for Atlanta Cigar Week and HERficionado.

Photo credit: HERficionado

Joshua Habursky smoking a cigar.

Meet New PCA Head and Top Cigar Advocate Joshua Habursky

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Working in Washington, Joshua Habursky takes pride in earning a reputation as the “cigar guy.” Recently named the Executive Director of PCA, Habursky has been living the cigar life and advocating for the cigar industry for over a decade. He spoke to Cigar Life Guy about his start in Washington as a lobbyist, building bridges between the cigar world and government, and why you shouldn’t believe what you see on TV regarding politics and Washington D.C.

Joshua Habursky’s First Premium Cigar Experience

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

Joshua Habursky: I had my first premium cigar as an undergraduate student at Washington & Jefferson College. Dr. Joseph DiSarro, the head of the Political Science Department, always had an assortment of cigars in his suit coat. Dr. DiSarro was a strong influence on my career in both politics and cigars. We would smoke cigars every Friday and become known as the “Churchill Club.” I started to gain an appreciation for cigars and became a frequent patron of places like Leaf & Bean and Jernigan’s in the Pittsburgh area.

Life in Government Affairs

Cigar Life Guy: You have worked in government affairs for a long time. Tell us about your experiences with associations outside the cigar world, such as the American Motorcyclist Association and the American Diabetes Association.

Joshua Habursky: I have spent over a decade working for trade and membership organizations, ranging in issues from transportation to healthcare to financial services policy. All these experiences were with fantastic organizations where I worked with phenomenal people. Each organization was a stepping stone in my career to get to the cigar industry, where I have found a home.

When I moved to IPCPR-PCA, I hit my stride in an industry I enjoy. I have developed a reputation in Washington, DC, as “the cigar guy,” and I take great pride in that connection.

Last year, I celebrated ten years as a lobbyist. I celebrated appropriately by releasing a cigar from Liberty Cigar Co. and an Apple Brandy from Luminary Distilling Co. out of Erie, Pennsylvania, my hometown. When Ulysses S. Grant was President, he would sit in the “lobby” of the Willard Hotel, and people would come in to meet with him to ask for political favors while he smoked cigars and drank brandy. That is where the term “lobbyist” was popularized. It was a fun project where I used my background to tell a historical story through premium cigars and celebrate a special occasion over brandy and cigars.

Joshua Habursky: The Truth About Politics

Cigar Life Guy: What would you like the average citizen to know about working in Washington and politicians in general?

Joshua Habursky: Don’t believe what you see on TV and in the movies. Washington has some bad apples here and there, but most people are trying to fight for causes they believe in and enact change. People approach this from different viewpoints, and sometimes issues are contentious, but unfortunately, compromise doesn’t get the limelight. Most politicians and elected officials like the same things you and I do, like sports, travel, and even premium cigars. If you watch political shows on TV, the reality is that real Washington is somewhere between The West Wing and House of Cards.

Lobbying: More Than Meets the Eye

Cigar Life Guy: Outside of D.C., when most Americans hear the term “lobbyist,” they roll their eyes. Talk about your career choice, getting into lobbying & what most people don’t understand about lobbyists in general?”

Joshua Habursky: Lobbying is the dirty word for advocating. The media hasn’t been kind to lobbyists, especially after significant scandals involving high-profile lobbyists like Jack Abramoff. Most people see only one side of lobbying and equate it all with steak dinners and cigars. There is certainly part of the equation most lobbying is educating Members of Congress and staff about an industry, issue, or cause. Suppose you believe in your organization and advocate to the best of your abilities. In that case, lobbying is an essential part of our system of government and a noble profession.

I got into lobbying as a career because I wanted to gain real-world experience to be a political science professor. Currently, I have the best of both worlds. In addition to being the Executive Director and chief lobbyist for PCA, I am an adjunct professor at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management, where I get to teach federal, state, and grassroots lobbying courses.

Joining the PCA with Joshua Habursky

Cigar Life Guy: What drew you to the cigar industry and the Premium Cigar Association (PCA)? And what makes it different from other associations you have worked with?

Joshua Habursky: I joined IPCPR (editors note: former name of the Premium Cigar Association) over five years ago and worked as a grassroots consultant for a year before joining full-time. I have been a cigar enthusiast for 15 years and a proponent of small businesses in the hospitality space. I have owned cigar lounges and several restaurants, so I understand the challenges and opportunities our members face and, more importantly, the barriers that the government can place upon them.

PCA differs because of my experience, interest, and unique perspective. Over the last five years, I have developed relationships with the leading cigar makers, visited hundreds of shops on my own time, and toured fields and factories in cigar-producing countries. Even though I work in the cigar industry, I spend much of my free time learning about cigars and enjoying them. I have my dream job because of the type of industry and my interest level in that industry at PCA.

Challenges Facing the Cigar Industry

Cigar Life Guy: What is the biggest challenge facing the cigar industry?

Joshua Habursky: Factionalism. Patrick Henry said it best: “United we stand, divided we fall.” There are many differing opinions, and we need to listen to them, work through them, and build bridges. This is a challenge that any association faces with a diverse membership and something that you see as a challenge facing the country. We are taking the steps to communicate more effectively so that we can work through everything in times of disagreement. The cigar industry is small relative to other sectors, and we must work together for the longevity of our organization, industry, and cigar community.

How Joshua Habursky Stays Busy

Cigar Life Guy: You also work as an adjunct professor. What is the most important lesson you try to impart to your students?

Joshua Habursky: It’s unbelievable to think that I have almost been teaching for ten years. I started at West Virginia University in their media college, taught an elections course at Heidelberg College, and have been with George Washington University for five years. The most important lesson in every class is: Never stop learning. I have been fortunate to go to a lot of different places, meet a lot of different people, and study a lot of subjects at a variety of universities and colleges. Nothing beats real-world experience and mentorship.

Cigar Life Guy: What’s one non-cigar hobby or leisure activity you enjoy that most people wouldn’t know about?

Joshua Habursky: I am a big electronic music and combat sports fan. I go to one or two UFC fights live as a spectator and have taken up boxing for exercise. And I enjoy going to live sporting events or shows in general. I have been at the F1 Miami Grand Prix for three years. That is one of my favorite experiences. Padron has a cigar lounge right on the track, where I enjoy a fine cigar while watching the race.

 

Follow Joshua on Instagram.

Photo credit: Joshua Habursky

Ron Smith of Dallas Leaf LLC pictured smoking a cigar with wife, Chere.

How Ron Smith Made Dallas Leaf a Community Powerhouse

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A true sense of “community” is about supporting each other and giving back. No one knows that better than Ron Smith, founder and CEO of Dallas Leaf LLC. What started as a small cigar club has evolved into several subsidiaries that sponsor events, support Black-owned businesses, and provide for charities. Smith talked to Cigar Life Guy about his start in the industry, the Dallas Leaf Cigar portfolio, the legendary cigar crawl, and having fun living the cigar life.

First Premium Cigar & Starting in the Cigar Industry

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

Ron Smith: Partagas Black Label, which was back in 2000. I was on assignment in San Diego, Gaslamp Quarter, and my co-workers took me to lunch. It was a spot that allowed cigar smoking. Back then, places like that were few and far between. I had a glass of port wine with lunch and a cigar. It made me sick. But after that, I was hooked. I still smoke that cigar. It reminded me of one of my favorites. 

Cigar Life Guy: How did you get involved in the cigar industry? What did you do before, and how does it help inform what you do now?

Ron Smith: I’ve always loved cigars, but it wasn’t until I branched off from being a co-founder of RawBones Dominoes that I really started thinking,” Hey, I can really get into the cigar culture.” That was back in 2018. In 2019, I began Dallas Leaf Cigar Club with about eight people because we wanted to attend Black Smoke Miami as a cigar club. My vision was always to do more than be in a club. Once I set up the LLC, I created several subsidiaries and attached them to Dallas Leaf LLC. At that time, Dallas Leaf Cigars was our primary focus, but Dallas Leaf Foundation is my true baby. We also have Dallas Leaf Entertainment and Dallas Leaf Mega Cigar Event.

Committed to Giving Back

Cigar Life Guy: Dallas Leaf LLC is committed to giving back to the community by supporting local charities and minority-owned businesses. Can you tell us a little more about this mission?

Ron Smith: Dallas Leaf Foundation is the cornerstone for what we do in the community. Our motto is “Support Is Free”. We give back monetarily and support several community-based activities such as food drives, clothes drives, school backpack drives, and giveaways.

Jaxon “Mr. President” Turner, the proud owner of Never 2 Young 2 Care Charity here in Dallas, changed how I looked at charity and motivated me to help others. Early on, we supported him, and he touched me so much. How could I not feel motivated to give back when I saw this young man, who was only 12 or 13, doing all these charity events at the time? That, along with how Breast Cancer has impacted my family. It was a no-brainer for me to have some charity or foundation to support.

One of the events we do in Dallas is the Susan G Koman Breast Cancer Walk. Here’s another charitable event that is near and dear to my heart. I recently lost a Masonic brother of mine to cancer.

The Dallas Leaf Portfolio

Cigar Life Guy: Tell us a little about the Dallas Leaf Cigar portfolio.

Ron Smith: Dallas Leaf Cigar Company has three blends, and those three blends can be in several different sizes. We have the 1841DL Bishop Double Maduro, our most popular seller. It’s a full-body San Andres and Mexican wrapper, a double-capped Nicaragua filler with an Indonesian binder. You talk about flavor! OMG, it takes you on a ride with oak and a hint of chocolate notes. You can get this in a Lancero, box-pressed, or nub.

We also have the 1841DL Pegasus Habano, which has a mild to medium Habano wrapper, Nicaragua filler with an Indonesia Binder, and double-capped. It has cedar and earthy notes, some coffee, and creamy. It is very smooth throughout.

Also in our lineup is the 1841DL Hamilton Habano. This medium- to full-bodied cigar is a strong mid-range smoke between the Pegasus and Bishop. It has a Habano wrapper, Nicaragua filler with an Ecuadorian binder, and is double-capped. It has some pepper and spice in the first third, but it’s a smooth and very balanced smoke.

We have a few specialty cigars that we bring out at different times of the year, but overall, that’s our portfolio. We have a local roller in the Royse City area, about 30 miles East of Dallas. So everything is hand-rolled by him.

Lately, though, we have focused our energy on other aspects of the company, such as sponsorship, support, events, and entertainment. We only bring the cigar on a case-by-case basis to a special event or cigar week we support or sponsor.

Dalla Leaf Cigar Club

Cigar Life Guy: You also run the Dallas Leaf Cigar Club. Tell us a little about this aspect of your business and what makes the cigar community unique.

Ron Smith: The Dallas Leaf Cigar Club is very special. It started one Tuesday after work at this spot called Vinetti’s, which is owned and operated by the Price Group. Mr. and Mrs. Price had a restaurant, and in the back, there was a cigar lounge. It felt like some mob stuff going on back in the old days. So we would meet back there, play dominoes or spades, and smoke cigars.

One day, we heard about Black Smoke Miami and thought, “Hey, let’s go”. The next day, I was at the county clerk’s office filing for a “DBA” for Dallas Leaf Cigar Club. That was our first formation-not the LLC. The club quickly grew, and people started getting more involved as we added more subsidiaries. We had elections to vote for a president, vice president, sergeant of arms, secretary, and treasurer. I believed in structure, rules, governing, and, of course, having fun. These are all things I learned while serving on the Board of Governors during my tenure at RawBone. What made it fun was that we traveled everywhere.

Our club members love going to other cities and states and meeting everyone in the cigar community. It was educational and a lot of fun. Plus, having a cigar club helped once we established the cigar company. We had loyal customers from day one. The “crawl” actually came out of the cigar club traveling.

Sponsored Dallas Leaf Cigar Crawls

Cigar Life Guy: You also sponsor the Cigar Crawl. Tell us a little about this event.

Ron Smith: Yes, the Cigar Crawl was very exciting. We did several cigar crawls, and regardless of what you may hear out there, Dallas Leaf Cigar Club was the first to ever do one. We were the first to go to another city and do one.

The Cigar Crawl was born from the club’s desire to travel and visit other cigar houses or lounges. So, we did Dallas first. We visited houses such as Blowin’ Smoke and Industrial Cigar Lounge, which won Cigar Lounge of the Year at PCA this year — and Cu’Noma, which won Cigar Lounge of the Year by Black Smoke Miami a few years ago. We also used the Smoking Jacket Mobile Cigar Lounge — Dallas’s oldest female-owned cigar lounge. And it was an epic trip. We visited Little Rock twice. Houston. Austin. Miami. L.A. So, when I tell you we traveled and supported Black Owned Cigar Lounges, we did just that. My good friend Tobacco Kennedy even brought his “Road Show” to Dallas, and guess what? We took them on a cigar crawl, too!

The Future of Dallas Leaf

Cigar Life Guy: So what’s next for Dallas Leaf LLC?

Ron Smith: My wife Chere and I currently own and operate Dallas Leaf LLC. And we have some very big plans. We have been Title Sponsors for Black Smoke Miami for the past five years, and this will be our fourth year sponsoring Houston Cigar Week. We try to support our cigar weeks with sponsorships, and I’m sure that will continue.

I’m proud of all the friendships we made and all the business opportunities created while operating as the CEO. And my wife was blessed to have won Sister of the Leaf of the Year. She has also worked on several major projects, including the upcoming Dallas Smoke Fest. All of this was made possible by Dallas Leaf LLC. We will never forget the people who helped us grow this company. New York, Taz, Tasha, Tersa, Tonya, Cali, Dave, Jerry, and countless others all put their hard work into Dallas Leaf LLC. So, I honor them by keeping Dallas Leaf LLC going.

So what’s next? I aim to purchase land in Dallas and build the Dallas Leaf Club House. I won’t go into details, but it will be more than just a cigar lounge. My wife coined the phrase “Support is Free,” and Dallas Leaf LLC will continue supporting Black-owned businesses and the cigar culture as a whole, forging friendships one cigar at a time.

 

Check out the latest from Dallas Leaf LLC and its subsidiaries here.

Photo credit: Dallas Leaf LLC

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

Darren Cioffi of Principle Cigars

From Passion to Principle Cigars: Darren Cioffi’s Cigar Journey

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The founder and owner of Principle Cigars, Darren Cioffi, may not remember his first premium cigar experience, but his extraordinary designs and extensive portfolio are challenging to forget. Cioffi, a self-proclaimed “paper” guy and cigar guy, entered the cigar life by collecting vintage cigar bands. His love of cigars grew with his passion for antique graphics and design. He talked to Cigar Life Guy about the joys of appreciating aesthetics, the pains of competitive slow smoking, and bringing the Principle brand home to the United States.

First Premium Cigar Experience

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

Darren Cioffi: I don’t have one. I am trying to remember when my first cigar was. There was no “aha” moment. I just eased into it. It was a result of travel and being around people who were into smoking and working in the Caribbean. It just became something I was doing. I honestly do not remember.

Vintage Labels and Design

Cigar Life Guy: Your interest in history and antiques started in high school. Tell us how you found vintage cigar labels and the tobacco industry.

Darren Cioffi: I started as a high school sophomore and dealt with three-dimensional things like clocks and books. I was doing more and more of that on Long Island, where I grew up. After that, I started selling at the 26th Street Antique Market in New York City on the weekends.

During the week in the summer, I started going down to Pennsylvania to the markets and the auctions to look for stuff to sell in New York. It was before I could drive, and I was in PA somewhere. My mother was driving me, and she saw this goofy shop and said, “Hey, why don’t you check out that place?”. I said, “No, just keep driving. You never find anything in shops.” 

To this day, I don’t know why she insisted (she didn’t care about this stuff), but finally, I said, “Yeah, let’s check it out.” I went in and just got lost. 

The guy was a paper dealer, and my life changed then. I went 100% into paper. That looks like advertising artwork, financial documents, stocks and bonds, autographs, and photography. But one thing that guy mainly had was cigar labels. The labels immediately fascinated me. They were a hundred years old and were Stone Lithographs. The cigar labels were stunning and rare, even though you could find them in groups.

I just went hardcore. From there, I started going to Europe looking for cigar labels and then going around the Caribbean. While there, I started smoking cigars. 

It all happened at the same time. I was buying and selling tobacco-related artwork, and I also started dealing in vintage cigars, mostly because I was interested in the packaging and the design. Then, I realized that people were smoking that stuff, too. 

The 1870s to 1930s is vintage to me. It’s a passion that grew simultaneously on all fronts. These days, I’m mainly dealing with other paper, not so much cigar stuff, but I’m still acquiring it. I have an enormous amount of it. I’ll start working through and selling some of that stuff someday.

Principle Cigars Band Designs and Presentations

Cigar Life Guy: You dealt with tobacco artwork before you smoked cigars, and Principle Cigars’ band designs and presentation are innovative and distinct. Why are aesthetics as essential to branding as taste?

Darren Cioffi: I’m a guy who is into antique graphics first and cigars second. From that perspective, I know more than what’s sound design and what’s terrible design. I know what works from a collector’s perspective. I understand what people desire and what they want to own in terms of graphics. Much of that translates to our inspiration for brand design. 

We always create products that look like they could be from a certain period, not just in the period’s style. Many people who know us think, “Oh, Principle Cigars is Art déco” because our Aviator series is Art déco. It’s true, but even within Art déco, many schools exist. Aviator is American late 1940s industrial era Art déco, whereas Accomplice is more 1930s French style with some Art nouveau holdovers. Petits Provocateurs is a hardcore French turn-of-the-century Art nouveau, like perfume model branding. Angelique is 1960s style. Martinique is 18th Century Island Colonial.

We work with many styles and stay as accurate to them as possible. We desire to make the product look like it could be from that period on the shelf. If we do that, it will be attractive to educated consumers who understand the design and those who lack the knowledge but find it appealing. It’s showing them something they haven’t encountered in their regular life. But great design is great design. It will speak to them on some level.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying product design. You go to a liquor store and see how many innovative wine bottle labels there are. Sometimes, I smoke a cigar because I appreciate the design. I’m not saying that it’s guiding my decision, but why can’t I take joy in the attractiveness of a product I’m consuming, as well as the essential attributes of that product, like taste and performance?

The Principle Cigars Portfolio

Cigar Life Guy: You are known for not taking shortcuts when blending tobacco. What does this mean to you, and what sets Principle Cigars apart?

Darren Cioffi: This is a hands-on project. I make cigars in seven different factories now, and I’m involved with every leaf in all of them. We work with other people because they all have different strengths. From the design to the blending to the mechanics to the positioning of everything behind this product, it’s my passion. It’s not a guy knocking on the door of a factory, selecting a blend to market. I don’t care about the marketing. Smoke my cigars. Sell my cigars. Don’t do it. It’s fine. I have a long-term approach. I do this because I love it.

I’m never out there hustling. It’s all about creating a product that is as beautiful as I can. The product will work for me if I stay true to that principle. For people who take the time to process our cigars- those who pay attention to it, look at it, taste it — it’s evident. I never like to be in the position where I tell people, “Hey, smoke this because…” But of course, I want people to try my stuff, and I would like to think the product speaks for itself when they do.

Principle Cigars Portfolio of Premium Smokes

Cigar Life Guy: Principle boasts a broad portfolio of cigars. Tell us about some of your favorites.

Darren Cioffi: We do a lot of stuff for a smaller company. That results from being passionate and wanting to create different things constantly. When we have something small and interesting, we want to share it with people. 

Sometimes, we have products we don’t promote because we know we will only make a few thousand cigars. They’ll get out there to some folks and those paying attention, but if we promoted and distributed them properly, people would only sometimes experience them. We’re in a lot of different countries. The byproduct of how we do things results in a wide product range.

We have something called the Cocktail Collection, a series of cigars designed to pair with five different cocktails from different periods with branding specific to those periods. But we scrapped it over the last few years because we have so much stuff coming out. Instead, we use the Cocktail Collection as an umbrella to sporadically release cigars within the series. 

We just came out with the Tiki, the Mai Tai companion, and I am chain-smoking that cigar. There’s a Robusto that’s widely available, and then there’s a Toro. We have a co-branded space with Industrial Cigar Company in Frisco, Texas, so we created a Tiki Toro for the new room — a cocktail lounge called Fuselage.

It’s all I’m smoking these days. It’s bright and effervescent and just as gorgeous as can be. 

Another cigar we released, but we have yet to make a big splash about it because we only made about two thousand cigars, was a Tenth Anniversary Aviator called the Espoir. It’s a 9.5 by 46 gauge cigar. We made these in January 2023, so they have exactly one year on them now. 

I’m a fast smoker, but I like big cigars. I like cigars that last a long time. The problem is that larger cigars with relatively large ring gauges can eat up if you puff them like I do. So I made this 9.5 by 46. It’s complex. It’s a rich Aviator, as you might expect, but its long size and narrow ring gauge regulate the heat level where I can puff the hell out of it for two hours and maintain the flavor. I don’t lose it to overheating like other larger cigars. So the Espoir and the Tiki are my two go-to’s.

Cigar Life and the Challenges of “Slow Smoking”

Cigar Life Guy: You have traveled worldwide and spent time with some exciting and eccentric people. Who is the most interesting person (or people) you have shared a cigar with?

Darren Cioffi: I don’t have a good answer for this. You never know when you’re going to find inspiration from people. When you do what I do, you meet many people. 

I always admire those who have the brainpower to categorize every person they’ve met and remember what pleasant conversation they’ve had with them or what cool thing they were talking about. But I am not that guy. I show up at a place I have been a year or two before, and I might recognize the faces and have vague recollections. However, I could improve in categorizing everyone’s names and what we discussed. The benefit of doing this is you meet a hell of a lot of people. 

You never know when the spark will light and a casual conversation in a cigar lounge will become exciting and unique. Thankfully, it happens more frequently than you would expect.

A First for Cigar World Championship

Cigar Life Guy: You were the first American to win the Cigar World Championship. What was that experience like, and why is it essential to savor a premium cigar?

Darren Cioffi: It’s a different activity. It’s not that I’m just so great at it. For whatever reason, I can do it. I went, not knowing I could do it, and I won. Because I won, I kept doing it for a while. It’s part of why we’re a primarily European cigar brand today. It gave us enormous publicity when the company was only a few years old. But it’s a different activity.

The slow smoking you do to compete isn’t smoking to savor the cigar. When you’re smoking a cigar, even slowly, to experience the cigar, you need all of the tobacco burning simultaneously, so you are getting that complete recipe of wrapper, binder, and fillers all combusting and combusting at a low temperature. So it’s not that you’re smoking slowly to maximize enjoyment; you’re smoking appropriately to do so. And that level of appropriateness changes based on the combustibility of the blend. Ideally, you’re blending a cigar so it combusts in unison and correctly delivers the blend recipe.

But anyone can smoke too slowly. If you’re not paying attention to your cigar, you’re tunneling and burning the tobacco inside. You can tell. The taste goes away because you’re not getting the recipe. Smoking slowly for enjoyment — too slow is too slow. 

You have to smoke so that everything is burning, but you’re also maintaining temperature. When you’re smoking slowly to compete, you’re just smoking a dot, and you’re moving that dot around the cigar. At times, you’re intentionally smoking on the inside, and then you’re going to move that burn to the outside. 

You don’t want to burn the entire cigar at the same time as you would if you were smoking for enjoyment because then it’s going to go too quickly. Toward the end, it’s incredibly harsh. There were times I could barely stomach it because you’re smoking in such a way that it is just destroying your palate. 

The game is enjoyable. The camaraderie is enjoyable. Winning is undoubtedly enjoyable, but there’s nothing pleasant about the smoke when trying to win.

Branching into the U.S. Market

Cigar Life Guy: Principle Cigars has been around for ten years. What can the world expect from it in the future?

Darren Cioffi: You can expect more of the same. We have a year of more releases than we did last year. You can expect the strengthening of some of our partnerships. We’re going to be doing more with Carillo in the coming years. We’re excited about some new partners we have yet to make public. I expect growth, not only in new markets, but we are starting to pay more attention to the homefront. We have taken a passive approach to the United States because our focus has been overseas, but in the coming years, you’ll see a lot more in the States for us.

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

Darren Cioffi: Check us out for yourself. I’m accessible. I love when people tell me what they like, and I can suggest a cigar for them. I love to talk to people who can articulate what they enjoy and don’t enjoy about cigars and open their eyes to new things that may fit into what they’re looking for. I’m here. I hope to see more of you in the coming year.

Check out the latest from Principle Cigars here and Follow Darren and Principle Cigars on Instagram.

Photo credit: Principle Cigars

Lee Marsh of Stolen Throne Cigars

Stolen Throne Cigars: Interview with Lee Marsh

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Lee Marsh, the founder of Stolen Throne Cigars, was a prolific cigar smoker long before he started making them. Now, he’s making a name for himself and the Stolen Throne line by doing things his way. Marsh talks about the recent premium cigar victory over the FDA, connecting with the consumer, and the importance of not rushing anything when making cigars and cigar life.

The First Premium Smoke

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

Lee Marsh: That’s funny. I don’t remember my first premium cigar experience, but I was probably about fifteen the first time I had a quality cigar -meaning a handmade cigar. My uncle was in the Marine Corps and brought some back for me. We were hanging around when he gave me my first cigar. I remember the first premium cigar brand that piqued my interest. I also remember what I enjoyed about cigars and started the journey. It was the original Camacho Corojos when the Aurora family was still making Camacho. I vividly remember my first Corojo, and it was instantaneously one of those times when you have a cigar and say, “This is different.” It started from there.

Lighting a Fire: Getting Started in the Cigar Business

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

Lee Marsh: I’ve always been a consumer. I’ve been a passionate cigar smoker for years. I was working in compliance and tech, and I traveled a lot. So, I spent a lot of free time in cigar shops and cigar lounges around the world. It kind of just grew. And the first time I visited a farm in the Dominican Republic, it subconsciously lit a fire in me. I just kept coming into conversations that if I made cigars, I would do this or that. And finally, it was a “Shit or get off the pot” situation. So I went all in. I met with Noel (Rojas) through a couple of mutual acquaintances, like Island Jim, and we just hit it off immediately. A week later, I was down in Nicaragua, and we started the ball rolling on what would become the Crook of the Crown.

Stolen Throne Cigars: Doing Things Their Way

Cigar Life Guy: Stolen Throne is an evocative name. How did you come up with it, and what’s the meaning behind it?

Lee Marsh: That was the hardest part about getting the company going. The Crook (of the Crown) was well before we had a name. But naming the company and the brand was difficult because I didn’t want something that I had to fake or pretend. I wanted it to be authentic and transparent about who we were and what we wanted to represent. It’s rooted in the sense of making your place at the table — doing things your way. The Waylon Jennings style, like outlaws and being a badass. It’s about doing the things you want to do. 

Cigar Life Guy: You released the limited edition Phantom Queen at last year’s PCA and the Yorktown Fleet line in 2023. When people smoke your cigars, what do you want them to associate with your brand?

Lee Marsh: Realistically, when you smoke a Stolen Throne Cigar, you’re on our journey of tobacco with us. I’m a first-generation cigar maker, so you’re experiencing all my thoughts, hopes, aspirations, and passion when you smoke every cigar. I think what many people don’t realize about us is that you can tell from our portfolio that we’ve been on the market for four years. We only have four blends in two sizes. We take our time. Everything is done with a hundred percent of our effort and passion. And when you sit back and smoke our cigars, you’re on that journey with us. We’ve been out for four years, coming up on five years with mainly The Crook of the Crown, which is still surreal to me, to be honest.

Cigar Life Guy: Stolen Throne recently took over distribution for Ed Reed’s ER line. What was that collaboration like?

Lee Marsh: It’s one of those things that grew out of a friendship. Ed and I have been friends for a while. We met at a Ravens game back when he was smoking a Crook of the Crown. He spoke to me about getting into the business. He was passionate about cigars. So, I took him to task. I was like, “I’ll help you, but if you want to be another celebrity with a name on a cigar,” I’m not your guy. But that’s not what he’s about at all. He’s passionate about the culture and everything that goes into a premium cigar. He’s an avid smoker and super into what he’s doing. So when they got into the process and needed a little help navigating, they reached out to me, and our distribution grew from there.

Challenges in the Industry

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

Lee Marsh: I think it’s like anything else: The rising cost of living. The lifestyle is not inexpensive. It’s one of those things where people have limited disposable income.

I would say the FDA, but that was struck down today, which is awesome. For now, anyway. It’s like anything else when you’re a luxury aspect of someone’s life. For most, it’s not a hobby; it’s a lifestyle. I know I smoke ten cigars a day usually, probably half that before I started making cigars. But it’s a part of our life. Like everything else, the rising cost of living is a potential threat.

Cigar Life Guy: What’s next for Stolen Throne?

Lee Marsh: Hopefully, we chug along and do everything we want as far as continuing to push passion and quality products. People always ask, “What do you plan to do in five years?” Well, I hope I’m still making cigars (laughs). That’s the plan — Keep doing what we’re doing, continue to improve, and push our envelope to reach our true potential.

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

Lee Marsh: We’re super grateful. It’s been a whirlwind for four years. We’re grateful for the support we received nationwide and internationally. For us, the consumer always comes first, along with the retailer. They go side by side. It’s overwhelming when you hear retailers who already work with us telling other retailers, “Hey, you gotta do business with these people.” Most of our growth over our first three or four years has been consumers supporting the brand and telling retailers, “Hey, you gotta bring this cigar in.”

Follow Lee on Instagram and find out the latest from Stolen Throne Cigars here.

Photo credit: Stolen Throne Cigars

James Lee of Cigar Pxrn smoking a cigar

Cigar Pxrn: Interview with Founder James Lee

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It’s hard to forget a name like Cigar Pxrn, but former NFL tackle and Cigar Pxrn founder James Lee was going for bold. There may be no better way to express love and appreciation for cigar life than donning Cigar Pxrn apparel. Lee talked with Cigar Life Guy. He spoke about the life-changing first premium cigar, finding a niche in the cigar industry, and why he’s still holding out on blending his own cigars.

James Lee’s First Premium Smoke

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

James Lee: My first cigar experience was with a neighbor. I had a neighbor, Andre, and he would always host cookouts. He would have them when I was playing during the season. But I wasn’t a smoker. I was playing football (An NFL career that included stints with Cleveland, Tampa Bay, and Washington). It was the Spring of 2010. He threw some steaks on the grill, and I thought, why not? And I smoked my first cigar — an ACID Kuba Kuba. That changed my life. That’s a day I’ll never forget.

What’s in the Cigar Pxrn Name?

Cigar Life Guy: Cigar Pxrn is an evocative name. What’s the story behind it?

James Lee: Well, for one, Cigar Pxrn is probably the best name for a cigar brand (laughs), but the name came as a play-off of food porn. I was trying to create a name for the brand; food porn was everywhere. Everybody was cooking for YouTube videos, and we just played off that for the love of cigars like people did for the love of food. When we did it, the word cigar porn (p-o-r-n) would send you to a porn site. So we had to create an avenue to keep people from going to a porn site. That’s how I came up with the “X.” We put two cigars across each other to create the “x.”

Cigar Life Guy: You played in the NFL and have a degree in Early Childhood Development. How did you get into the apparel and cigar business?

James Lee: After I retired from football, I joined the cigar lounge in Charlotte (Charlotte Cigar Club). Throughout my years there, cigar reps would come by and sell you boxes. There would be special promos on boxes; you could buy raffle tickets to win a hat or T-shirt. That was the only way you could express your love of cigars — wearing the cigar rep’s branded apparel. I wasn’t smoking a particular brand, but I realized there was a niche. I realized I could create a brand for all cigar lovers — not specific to or locking into one brand. It’s just saying, “I love cigars.” Once I researched it, I realized nothing was out there besides getting the shirts and hats from cigar reps. In 2017, that was the only way to get apparel. You go to somebody’s website and buy a shirt. So, I created a brand, Cigar Pxrn.

Cigar Pxrn’s Unique Apparel

Cigar Life Guy: What makes Cigar Pxrn apparel and accessories unique?

James Lee: Cigar Pxrn is loud, bold, and edgy. We run into many people who love the shirt or say, “I can’t wear that shirt.” So, it also screams confidence. You must be strong enough to put the word “Pxrn” on your chest because of the attention you’ll get from it. If you’re a man, you’ll receive attention from women. If you’re a woman, you’ll receive compliments from men. So, we’re unique because we’re edgy. We put two of the best industries together and created a brand.

Cigar Life Guy: How do you want cigar smokers and consumers to see your brand?

James Lee: I want people to see my brand as an image of greatness. We continue creating unique and quality products. I have a strong team of representatives worldwide who represent Cigar Pxrn and the lifestyle as well as I do. They’re a reflection of me in their own cities, and we work together as one team. It’s greatness.

Balancing Cigar Pxrn Business

Cigar Life Guy: Have you considered expanding beyond apparel and accessories to adding a full line of cigars? If so, what would you need to consider it?

James Lee: For years, I’ve received that question, “When are you going to make a cigar?” I’ve gone back and forth with it. But I try not to focus on multiple things simultaneously because you can lose out on something while trying to create something else. We started as a lifestyle brand. Now is not the right time. As a brand, our primary goal is to continue to bless the cigar industry through fashion.

I have considered it. I’ve had people at PCA this year say,” When are we gonna make that cigar for you?” But people have asked that question since day one.

When you do too much at once, you lose your focus. You can’t go 100 percent in on two things simultaneously. We’re going into year six and focusing on apparel right now.

Cigar Life Guy: What’s next for Cigar Pxrn?

James Lee: We’re expanding to cater to more women. Today, you have an enormous amount of women smoking cigars. Many women are entering the industry, so we want to expand our women’s line beyond T-shirts. We want to give them more options so they can express themselves. Men are fine throwing on a T-shirt, so I want to put more emphasis on women. We’ve just launched our own line of sunglasses. Next, we plan on expanding our offerings to include dress apparel, prioritizing fall colors for dresses, and offering a range of shirt styles. Our goal involves getting into the bling, but something other than a V-neck T-shirt.

 

Follow James on Instagram and check out the latest Cigar Pxrn apparel here.

Photo credit: James Lee

Howard Gumbs Jr. of Howard G Cigars

Howard Gumbs Jr. of Howard G Cigars: Interview

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Entrepreneur Howard Gumbs Jr. has never balked at a challenge, and after launching Howard G Cigars amidst the pandemic, he has never looked back. A true brother of the leaf, Howard is building his legacy with the All-Pro Series and his newest line, The Perfect Round. Howard talks to Cigar Life Guy about his start in the industry, smoking with Avo Uvezian, and the best part about cigar life — forging lasting relationships while enjoying a premium cigar.

Howard Gumbs Jr.: First Premium Smoke

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

Howard Gumbs Jr.: I’ve been smoking cigars for sixteen years. The very first cigar I smoked was Rocky Patel Decade 1990. I was in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I was with a gentleman named Duncan, a cousin of a business partner, and I remember smoking that at a place called Twigs, and that was my first time smoking a premium — a Rocky Patel.

Learning the Cigar Life

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?

Howard Gumbs Jr.: I got in the cigar business differently here in Orlando. I had the privilege and honor of smoking a few days a week with Avo Uvezian. So, I’m in the cigar business because of Avo. One day, we sat outside together, and he said, “Howard, you should be in the cigar business.” 

And I said, “Why do you say that, Papa,” and he said, “Because you love the people like I love the people.” It was a shocking thing. He believed me. About six or seven months after that, a buddy of mine said the same thing that Avo said. He had a brother who owned fifty percent of a factory. So, it went from mindset to putting it into action.

As far as business, I’ve always been an entrepreneur. I have multiple companies. The cigars started from that relationship, but it’s the same mindset as other businesses. It transferred to the cigar business because of all of the connections.

Cigar Community and Cigar Culture

Cigar Life Guy: You have stressed the connections you can make while sharing a premium cigar. What makes the cigar community and cigar culture so unique?

Howard Gumbs Jr: What makes it special is we have something in common. Typically, you’re not in a rush when you’re smoking a cigar. You’re gonna sit down, you’re gonna cut it, you’re gonna light it. You’re going to have a beverage with it. 

Enjoy that time. You have forty-five minutes to an hour and a half where you’re relaxing. You’re not worrying about what happened at work, you’re not worrying about business, you’re not worrying about any other issues, but you’re just enjoying that cigar. 

Many people I meet talk about the moment they get off work and the excitement just to come and smoke their cigars and socialize for an hour and a half. That is one of the things I associate with the cigar life. Also, you must always find out who you’re sitting down with. One of the things with the cigar community is you need to know who in the world you’re sitting next to. There are a lot of times I’ve had Fortune 500 CEOs sitting next to a janitor. We’re all smoking cigars. The one thing that we have in common is that leaf. No matter which cigar you’re smoking, we’re all sitting there enjoying it.

Launching During the COVID-19 pandemic

Cigar Life Guy: You started Howard G. Cigars in 2020 amidst the pandemic. What was that like? What challenges did you face, and how did you overcome them?

Howard Gumbs Jr.: I only had a few challenges. What happened was the cigars were made in 2019. I wanted to release the cigar when I had the proper boxing. When the pandemic occurred and the world shut down, I was told, “Hey, there’s so many people stuck at home, why don’t you just get the cigars out?”

The cigars were ready, so I just got them out and put them in different packs of four. Then I looked at my database of personal friends — palates I trust, guys I know that they are serious smokers. So, I just took that time to send out the product. I sent out the product and asked for honest feedback. Take away friendship. Take away how you feel about me.

Nothing is going to hurt my feelings. If you hate it and think it’s trash, tell me it’s trash. Tell me if this cigar could be in your wheelhouse because you’re an experienced smoker. Those are the things that I did during the pandemic.

So, during 2020, when people were sitting at home, it launched us across the country just with friends. First, people said, “Hey, he said he was going to do something, and he actually did it,” and second, “The sticks were great!”. 87% of the feedback was exceptional. We knew we were on to something. From that point on, we decided to continue.

We take it seriously. So, we go to the shows where the large retailers are, to PCA. And we go there with the mentality that we’re in the game for the long haul. 

We’re going to keep on expanding and growing. Our goal is always to get better by one percent a day and continue to create and build on lasting relationships and great products like the legacy brands that have come before us.

The All-Pro Series with Howard Gumbs Jr.

Cigar Life Guy: You have cigars commemorating former NFL stars Leon Searcy and Ike Taylor. How did you forge those relationships, and what’s the story behind the collaboration?

Howard Gumbs Jr.: There’s not a significant story behind it. Those are my brothers. I already knew that Black Moses would become a series, and Magic Stick would also become a series.

I also knew I wanted to do an All-Pro series, but when I had the idea, I wanted to ensure that my athletes seriously smoked cigars. It wasn’t just guys who smoked a cigar when they had a child or who smoked because their team won a championship. 

I wanted somebody who appreciated and loved the cigar community. People smoke when the lights are not on, the cameras are not on, and nobody is looking. People that sit down and have a couple of sticks. That was my mindset.

So the first person I thought of was” Big Searc,” Leon Searcy. We smoked cigars together for years. Leon would come to my house, and in five hours of hanging out, seven cigars would magically disappear out of my humidor. He wasn’t taking cigars for souvenirs but smoking them (laughs). So I told him, “How about we do an All-Pro Series with Leon Searcy? You’ll be the first cigar in the All-Pro Line,” he said, “Howie, I love it!”. 

From there, we went through his favorite cigars, found his palate, and created the perfect cigar for him. Once he gave the seal of approval, we shot a video and went ahead and put it out on the market.

Ike Taylor was a little different. He was a Steelers legend. The Steelers have one of the biggest fan bases along with my Dallas Cowboys, so I wanted to gear it toward that. 

We went through forty different blends for Ike. Every time we narrowed it down, we realized Ike’s favorite wrapper was a Sumatran. So his blend is eighty percent Nicaraguan, but we added twenty percent Lancaster, PA tobacco because he is Steeler. So that was different.

Both cigars have been doing phenomenally well. We appreciated the love we received from Steelers Nation and the Jaguars because of Leon and his affiliation being a top fourteen Jaguar of all time.

Howard Gumbs Jr.: The Perfect Round

Cigar Life Guy: You recently released The Perfect Round. What’s next for Howard G. Cigars?

Howard Gumbs Jr.:  Perfect Round is our golf line. Here in Orlando, where I live, the amount of golf tournaments we’ve been at physically or sent products to has doubled nearly yearly. 

We have friends who play golf religiously. Some guys that out of 365 days, they’re playing a minimum of 200. That’s profound love. Tee time is typically seven, eight, or nine a.m., so we wanted to come out with a cigar to help you with the front nine and start your day. It’s a 52 by 7. It’s our first Dominican blend — very well-aged tobacco. The construction of the cigar is fantastic. But it’s a Connecticut Shade because we want you to start on the front nine with a milder cigar. Typically, you’re not drinking alcohol that early in the morning, so milder is best.

Once we get to the back nine, you tend to have had something to eat, and maybe you’ve had a spirit or two, so we wanted to strengthen the Back Nine. If you’re going to finish stronger on the back nine, we’re also giving you a more robust cigar. 

The Back Nine has a Habana wrapper but the same binder as the Front Nine. Put them together, and it’s an eighteen-count box — nine Front Nines and nine Back Nines.

That cigar has done exceptionally well. We sold out in pre-orders at PCA. The reviews from that cigar in our official launch last week were incredible. We’re excited about that. 

We’re excited about what we’re doing. Right now, we constantly have events lined up around the country. We’re just having a good time. Be on the lookout for things we’ll be bringing out.

Final Thoughts

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

Howard Gumbs Jr.: We have our phrases at Howard G Cigars. “We got action.” is one. Another one is, “We’re slinging cigars,” and the last term is, “You want this smoke.”

 

Follow Howard on Instagram and check out the latest from Howard G Cigars here.

Photo credit: Howard G Cigars