The Stogie Guys

Last Friday, we noted the Associated Press article on the resurgence of the cigar industry. Since that article has now run in hundreds of publications, we thought it was time to recap the lessons learned from the nineties so that history doesn’t repeat itself.

At the height of the boom in 1997, Americans were smoking 417.8 million premium cigars – a fivefold increase from 1993. That dramatic shock meant that cigar manufacturers rushed cigars to market causing a decline in quality at the same time prices soared.

It doesn’t take an economist to figure out that consumers are going to be turned off by a combination of declining product quality coupled with increased prices. So by 1999 cigar consumption dropped almost by half. Thankfully, this meant that many of the fly-by-night operations responsible for the worst cigars of the cigar boom closed their doors.

These shoddy operations catered to the trendy smokers of the mid-nineties, who saw smoking more as an act of conspicuous consumption than an appreciation of the time and talent that go into producing a handmade cigar. Theses are the smokers that, as the story goes, would ask what you were smoking, but before giving you the opportunity to answer, they would say “Hecho a Mano, I’ve had that brand.” (Hecho a mano is Spanish for “made by hand.”)

After the boom, the cigar smokers who remained were the people who – whether they smoked only a few times a year or every day – smoked for the right reason… because they enjoyed it. And for these remaining smokers the real boom is happening long after the peak production years of the nineties, as producers now focus on quality.

Currently, producers are so concerned with quality that Cigar producer Charlie Torano told Stogie Guys Special Correspondent George Edmonson that there is big competition between producers to stock pile the best tobacco. When asked about the mid-nineties, Torano said “I think we’ve learned our lesson.”

And it seems that cigar retailers are learning same thing. Upon discovering that a local cigar shop didn’t carry a well-known national brand, I asked the owner why and his response was distinctly post-cigar boom. He said he thought the quality had fallen and that for the same price there were other similar tasting cigars that were better.

With both producers and retailers showing such concern for the quality of cigars, we agree that the industry probably has learned its lesson. But, if as the AP article suggests there is a new boom – or at least a renaissance – for cigars, here’s another suggestion to make sure that this new boom doesn’t become a bust. (In 2005, almost 320 million premium handmade cigars were imported.)

Cigar producers should focus on educating their customers about what a quality cigar really is. While the 90’s cigar boom may have been fueled by glitzy Cigar Aficionado ads, smoking celebrities, and conspicuous consumption, the new boom should be driven by an increasingly educated cigar smoking public that appreciates quality.

If the cigar industry is truly serious about its commitment to quality, then creating a discerning public that appreciates quality handmade cigars and shuns poor quality is the best way to ensure sustained growth.

–Patrick S

It’s no secret that most major metropolitan areas in the U.S. have fallen victim to smoking bans over the past few years. New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago – just to name a few – all succumbed to the tyranny of the majority by prohibiting private business owners from offering smoke-friendly facilities to consenting adults.

Regular StogieGuys.com readers certainly know how we feel about these oppressive statutes.

Needless to say, watching anti-smoking zealots’ totalitarianism sweep the nation like the plague is enough to make a smoker/freedom-fighter enraged. But what really makes me sick is that same tyranny may soon surmount my hometown – beautiful Westmont, Illinois.

Although “The Progressive Village” has yet to take an official stance, last month city bureaucrats held a smoking ban hearing for local business owners and concerned citizens. Fellow western Chicago suburbs Hinsdale and Burr Ridge have already passed smoking bans, and Downers Grove and Woodridge are currently considering similar laws.

An article in Friday’s Westmont Progress highlighted one man’s personal vendetta against possible anti-smoking legislation. Bob Airdo, owner of Vincitori, recently installed a high tech air purification system in the Italian restaurant to “make the dining experience enjoyable for everyone.”

What a novel approach. Unlike unconstitutional blanket laws prohibiting adult behavior, Airdo’s strategy ensures smokers and nonsmokers alike will be able to enjoy the fine cuisine while taking in live jazz.

Air purification systems installed in the restaurant’s ceiling are designed to kill or capture unhealthy smoke. Unlike smoke-eater machines, which just capture visible smoke, Michael Holmes, technical director of Quality Filter Services Inc., said air purification systems trap tobacco smoke, and chemically alter cancer-causing gasses associated with it into harmless vapor.

I should make it clear that I’m not calling on the village to force private businesses to install air purification systems. That would be as damaging to Westmont’s resurgent economy as a smoking ban.

All I’m saying is that the free market works perfectly: Let business owners decide what amenities to offer, and customers can reward or punish them with their money. That way, we can leave senseless smoking bans for dumps like Hinsdale.

–Patrick A

A month back we received an email from a reader asking our opinion of a JR special on the Montecristo Afrique Kilimanjaro (10 cigars and a travel humidor for about $60 or, for $25 more, a sharp-looking glass top humidor with the cigars). Since we hadn’t had one yet, we couldn’t offer an opinion. But when we came across a Kilimanjaro at our local JR store, we scooped it up for ten bucks.

The first thing you notice about this 7 inches by 46 ring guage lonsdale is that is quite handsome. I’ve always been a fan of the classic brown Montecristo band, but this cigar is dressed up even more with a nice cedar sleeve with KILIMANJARO burnt down the center. Completing the ensemble is a black band at the bottom that reminds you the cigar is from the Afrique line.

But the stogie’s appearance isn’t all bells and whistles. The dark brown Cameroon wrapper makes the cigar standout long after the cedar sleeve is crumpled up in the trash. Pre-light, the cigar had subtle woody notes. The top grade wrapper was also free of veins.

Once lit, the cigar lived up to its billing as a very unique smoke. It had a dark coffee flavor, which was augmented by the Iced Café Americano I paired with this stogie. But the coffee flavors were swirled up with chocolate and subtle hints of what I can best describe as English breakfast tea. Elsewhere I’ve seen people claim to notice chai flavors in this cigar, and while I didn’t occur to me while reviewing the cigar, in hindsight it is plausible that chai flavors were present.

Overall it was a very complex, yet balanced flavor profile. Additionally the construction was flawless – with an even burn, easy draw, and sturdy white ash.

While I have had better cigars from the “ultra-premium” price range, I highly recommend that everyone try at least one cigar from the Afrique line. Not everyone will love the unique flavors, but they’re worth checking out.

For one-of-a-kind flavor with excellent construction, this cigar earns an impressive four out of five stogies.

[To read more StogieGuys.com cigar reviews, please click here.]

–Patrick S

In our ongoing effort to make StogieGuys.com as entertaining and reader-friendly as possible, each Friday we’ll post a sampler of quick cigar news and stogie-related snippets to tide you over for the weekend. We call ‘em Friday Samplers. Enjoy.

1) The Associated Press is running a story about the resurgence of handmade cigars and asking if another cigar boom is upon us. Just last week StogieGuys.com special correspondent George Edmonson discussed that possibility with a famed cigar maker, Charlie Torano, who told George, “I think we’ve learned our lesson” from the last boom. Torano says instead of rushing cigars to market like in the mid-90s, the remaining producers are competing for the best tobacco to make sure that quality doesn’t suffer this time around.

2) Our article on the two latest, and most unlikely, victims of smoking bans – 007 and the French – prompted a post over at Reason Magazine’s Hit & Run blog wondering if the vodka martini would soon be replaced with a Shirley Temple. The post also unearthed other examples of censorship of smoking such as a US Postage Stamp of Jackson Pollock and a photo of the author of the children’s book Good Night Moon – both of which had cigarettes airbrushed out by anti-smoking zealots.

3) Meanwhile, a smoking ban in Suffolk County, Long Island is so restrictive it even bans smoking in cigar bars! This prompts the question: Who exactly is being protected by banning smoking in a cigar bar? The workers who chose to work in a cigar bar? The patrons who chose to go there? Oh, right! Smoking bans aren’t about protecting people…They’re about imposing the will of anti-smokers on others and eliminating individuals’ choices.

4) The Pittsburgh Pirates just announced they are promoting to vice president the man responsible for creating and marketing the Montecristo Club at PNC Ballpark. Cigars and baseball…Why didn’t we think of that?

5) Finally, the award for obvious headline of the week goes to KDKA in Pittsburgh, who came up this gem: “Not Everyone Agrees With Smoking Ban.” No shit.

–The Stogie Guys

There’s weird and then there’s utterly bizarre. The Samford Stogies Racing Team falls under the latter category.

This motley crew of adventurous Samford University graduates tackles the Mercedes Marathon in Birmingham, Alabama each February – cigar in mouth. Apparently they just can’t put off that celebratory stogie until the end of the race.

Legend has it the concept originated when, in 2005, five untrained misfits banded together to form a haphazard relay team to complete the 26-mile contest. Patrick Crandall recommended they run under the name “Samford Stogies” (for some reason, Patricks make great cigar enthusiasts). The team ingeniously decided to run with cigars in their mouths to seal their identity. As they say on their website, “Who says you can’t smoke your victory cigar during the fight?”

History was made when the team completed the challenge in an impressive three hours and 21 minutes. Drew Roberts, one of the squad’s founding fathers, was kind enough to share the following words with me:

Well, we started the tradition of smoking victory cigars during the race for the challenge. It definitely does make the run tougher, but the reactions from the fans watching the race and from the other race participants make it all worthwhile. It also builds camaraderie between our team members knowing that the other guys are experiencing the same pain of not only running, but the stupidity of doing it with a stogie. Additionally, we enjoy the added benefit of using the cigar to talk trash for us. You don’t have to say a word because when you pass other runners during the race with a lit cigar, they understand.

When you think of complimentary activities for cigars, you think of drinking, golf, womanizing, pool, and other leisurely endeavors – not running. We therefore applaud the Samford Stogies for incorporating cigars into a previously untapped activity. If you’d like to join their team for the 2007 Mercedes Marathon on February 11 in Birmingham, please click here.

–Patrick A

The paternalistic busy-bodies who are pushing smoking bans can now claim two of their more unlikely victims:

James Bond
In an interview with Parade Magazine, Daniel Craig, the current 007 and star of Casino Royale, expressed his frustration with the movie’s producers for prohibiting Bond from smoking cigars in the film “in order not to send a bad message to young fans.” Noting the obvious hypocrisy, Craig quipped:

“But here’s the reality, I can blow off someone’s head at close range and splatter blood, but I can’t light a good Cuban.”

In the 2002 Bond flick, Die Another Day, 007 actor Pierce Brosnan smokes Cuban cigars in multiple scenes.

Previously, we’ve covered anti-smoking zealots’ successful efforts to censor the cigar out of Winston Churchill’s mouth and to remove smoking from Ben and Jerry cartoons.

The French
Meanwhile, France – unitil recently a relatively smoker-friendly country – is bracing for a paternalistic smoking ban. The AFP reports:

After five months of consultations with doctors, tobacconists and trade unions, the 30-member committee decided in favour of a blanket ban on public smoking from September 2007 at the latest — though it held open a possible delay till summer 2008 for some establishments.

Smokers could only indulge their habit in “hermetically-sealed areas, furnished with air extraction systems and subject to extremely rigorous health norms,” according to a report which was to be formally adopted later Tuesday.

The report also advised the government to resort to a decree to enact the ban, rather than a law — which it warned could prove cumbersome in the months leading up to April’s presidential election.

Moves to prohibit public smoking in France reflect the changing mood across Europe — where several countries led by Ireland have introduced similar measures — as well as the growing propsect [sic] of litigation by victims of passive smoking.

With France falling to the anti-smoking Nazis, it’s once again an opportune time to note the striking similarity between Hitler’s smoking policy and the policies advocated for by today’s health fascists.

–Patrick S

We’ve made a concerted effort here at StogieGuys.com to review a wide range of cigars since the site was founded in May. A quick glance at our archived reviews page reveals a list of most major brands – as well as a few surprises. But this work in progress is by no means complete, so I headed to one of my favorite B&Ms, Georgetown Tobacco, to fill in a gap or two.

I would not be disappointed I chose an H. Upmann Vintage Cameroon Corona. This five and ½ inches by 44 ring gauge cigar comes beautifully wrapped in a printed cedar strip with three – count ‘em, three – gold and red bands. Very regal. I slid the strip down to uncover a smooth, earthy-brown Cameroon wrapper that was dotted with plume.

(It’s worth noting here that I did not age this cigar after purchase, which suggests these babies are ready to smoke right out of the box.)

Immediately after toasting the foot with a wooden match, the cigar produced a harmonious floral flavor that was pleasing to my entire palate. The combination of Nicaraguan, Dominican, and Peruvian fillers yielded pleasing notes of jasmine.

In the second phase, the taste shifted from floral to fruity with significant hints of citrus and pear. With such pronounced flavor I expected this stick to be a bit harsher, but the taste remained smooth and creamy. Like many cigars, however, this parejo became quite spicy towards the end of the smoke.

On construction, this stogie earns high marks. It lit quickly with a few wooden matches (I was outdoors), it burned evenly, and the draw was easy with a bit of resistance – just the way I like it. My only complaint is that it went out once mid-smoke after I had failed to puff for about three minutes.

Conclusion: At approximately $4.50 apiece, this cigar is a bargain. For well-rounded flavor and great construction, I give the H. Upmann Vintage Cameroon Corona four out of five stogies.

[To read more StogieGuys.com cigar reviews, please click here.]

–Patrick A