The Stogie Guys

Even though I completely stand by the post I wrote last May praising wooden matches, I’ll be the first to say that every cigar enthusiast should have at least one good butane lighter. You’ll no doubt agree that certain situations (inclement weather, for example) just call for a burst of clean-burning flame.

With winter in full swing and winds often at gale force, I’ve been using a new Zippo Blu lighter to light my sticks. Chances are you’ve already heard about this unique product via its website, an article in Cigar Aficionado, or elsewhere.

According to a Zippo press release, the U.S.-made lighter uses “patented two-stage burner technology” and features “sleek and contemporary designs, a signature ‘Z’ patterned chimney, large fuel tank, and quick refilling options.”

I’m no sucker for trendy cigar gadgets, but my Blu has really grown on me over the past two months. Perhaps its best feature is the element of surprise. The product instantly becomes the center of attention as fellow smokers – only used to Zippo’s familiar “click and snap” producing a flame worthy of cigarettes – see a sharp, blue torch emerge from the metal plating.

I’ve found that Blu works well in the wind and delivers a fairly consistent flame. Ignition takes some getting used to, though, as you have to hold the flint-wheel down for a second before spinning it. I should also mention that Blu is not ideal for lighting more than one cigar at a time; the flame requires a short recharge break of one minute or so before it will perform again.

Even so, this is a commendable piece of equipment that combines Zippo’s iconic characteristics with a cigar-friendly blaze. I am not bothered by the fact that you can’t adjust the flame (one size seems to fit all), and refills are a snap, especially if you use premium grade Zippo butane fuel.

Blus start at a reasonable $39.95, but you can pay much more depending on the metal design and finish. Each comes equipped with a lifetime guarantee. I would imagine Zippo Blus make wonderful gifts for cigar enthusiasts – even stubborn smokers like me who prefer wooden matches.

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys

If cigars won awards for beautiful wrappers, this Romeo y Julieta would be a big-time contender. The light brown, thin Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade tobacco is definitely ready for its close-up.

Unfortunately, the rest of this five inch by 52 ring gauge cigar isn’t on the same plane. Not that there is anything particularly wrong with it; it just isn’t particularly exciting or memorable.

The draw was fine, and the smoke was thick and white. The finish was almost non-existent. I did experience some burn trouble in the first third, but it righted itself without being touched up.

The line utilizes a Nicaraguan binder and fillers from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic, creating some complexity as flavors shifted throughout the length of the stick. The cigar exhibited what I think of as a fairly typical Connecticut spice and some cedar.

Altadis describes the Reserva Real as “a rich and aromatic smoke that will arouse the desires of even the most demanding cigar connoisseur.” I don’t feel I’m all that demanding, and I managed quite easily to keep my desires in check.

Again, this is by no means a bad cigar. At about $5 a stick, though, I think there are many more enjoyable sticks available.

Our rating system describes a cigar achieving three out of five stogies as “pretty respectable.” That’s where I rank this one: three out of five stogies.

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

–George E

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Heather Waibel burst on the cigar scene back in 2006 when, as a grad student, she helped spearhead the campaign in California to turn back a tobacco tax increase referendum.

Since then she has moved to Austin, Texas, gotten married (becoming Heather Waibel Haddad), begun her own podcast, started an Internet cigar store, and plans to open a B&M later this year.

As president of Fumée, Inc., Haddad, 25, created a cigar operation that isn’t following the usual path. Here, in an email exchange, she offers some insights into what she has accomplished and what’s ahead.

SG: You’ve touched on some of the difficulties you encountered in setting up your operation. Did you have any problems getting the requisite licenses and dealing with agencies like the ATF?

HWH: The biggest problem was timing. When we went to the RTDA [convention] in August, we were surprised that every time we tried to place an order, they asked for our tobacco license. We obviously knew we needed a license once we started to sell tobacco, but we didn’t realize we needed one just to place orders. So we lied through our teeth: “Yes, we have a license, we just forgot to bring it.”

And as soon as we were back in Austin we were scrambling trying to get one. The state was actually very easy to work with. We’ve had the pleasure of dealing with a knowledgeable agent who walked us through the process, but the problem is that in Texas you need two licenses: one to be a retailer, and one to purchase tobacco from anyone out-of-state. The latter was the one we needed the most at the moment, and that is also one that requires an extensive background check. It took three months to process.

Since then it’s been pretty smooth sailing. They ask for a lot of menial paperwork — you have to keep track of everything, down to which shipping company brought the cigars (UPS? FedEx?), and there’s a strange law that Fumée, distributor, has to sell everything to Fumée, retailer, so there’s some superfluous paperwork, but the state was much easier to work with than say, finding a merchant processor who would run credit cards for an online tobacco shop — that was a doozy.

SG: There has been a lot of discussion among cigar smokers about the potential impact of the Supreme Court ruling allowing companies the power to enforce minimum retail prices. Have you experienced that?

HWH: We’ve been told by some manufacturers that we can’t sell things under a certain price range, but there’s obviously no real enforcement on this issue. From what I can tell, Internet price slashing is pretty rampant. I’ve actually seen some of the bigger companies sell cigars at what I know to be wholesale prices — their profit margins must be razor-thin. It’s the McDonald’s strategy: sell quantity and make money that way. This is good for consumers, but only in the short term; in the long run I suspect that they will end up spammed to death, and will want good customer service.

Of course it’s bad for retailers — both Internet and B&Ms. It’s bad for B&Ms because they can’t compete, and it’s bad for Internet sellers because it’s this practice which has caused some manufactures to cease sales to Internet merchants.

I could name you at least a dozen companies that won’t sell to me directly because I don’t have a B&M. They don’t want me to undercut their other retailers! And, for the record, I don’t. I maintain a pretty strict pricing strategy — we’re not the cheapest store on the net, but we make up for it in what I think is the best customer service in the industry, bar none.

SG: You are very open on your site about your operation and your plans, especially with your FAQs, videos, and other materials. What prompted you to be so transparent?

HWH: I suppose we are. I learned when I saw my podcast numbers going through the roof that entertaining people means that you have a captive audience who also happens to be listening to your message. We are taking a social networking point of view, a viral marketing strategy, which is really necessary for any company today.

If we get a new customer who began as a podcast listener, or someone who never smoked a cigar in their life decides to buy one from us as a result of being forwarded one of our YouTube videos, then the effort put into these things has been worth it. It’s also a good point of differentiation for us. I don’t know of any other cigar website that has these little extras, and it’s a way for us to target a new market: younger, newer cigar smokers who learn about companies through things like Facebook or MySpace. I think that being the brand can help in a lot of ways — people root for you, people feel like they know you and not like they’re ordering from an impersonal Internet robot.

However, there are downsides. You have to watch what you say because alienating people will translate directly into lost sales. So it’s a double-edged sword.

SG: What’s the biggest disappointment you’ve encountered since you began in the cigar business?

HWH: Myself! I have a four-page-long to-do list that gets longer everyday instead of shorter. Starting a business is a great way to learn who you really are. Am I motivated enough to get out of bed on time every day, even though I have no boss? (The answer is no, by the way.) Can I accomplish all of the things I would like to get done this week? (Also no.) Am I patient enough with my co-workers? (No again.)

I try to improve myself every day, set goals, do my best to follow them, but of course I see a lot of room for improvement. That’s what life is, though, a quest to become the best you that you can be. So I’m glad I’ve had this opportunity to reveal certain parts of my personality.

I don’t want you to think I’m copping out on this answer, so I’ll give you a cigar industry-related disappointment as well. I have been disappointed with the way that manufacturers try to tightly control their brands by setting price controls, selling to some stores but not others, or forcing you to order certain brands or quantities that you don’t necessarily want.

I strongly believe that if someone wants to buy some cigars, sell it to them; if they want to price it a certain way, let them. Let the market correct itself. Controlling things just makes a mess out of it. I think many manufacturers forget that the retailer is their first customer.

SG: You’ve obviously decided to make media like the Internet and podcasts an integral part of Fuméeworld. Do you think you have an advantage in that arena, having grown up with those things as opposed to the “typical” cigar shop owner?

HWH: I think my advantage is that I can relate to Generation Y because I know how they think, being a member myself. I have the same advantage with female smokers. I am approachable to them, and I know how to market to these groups more effectively. You can’t market to a 20 to 30-year-old the same way you do to retirees.

Do I have an advantage specifically with technology, though? No. I know only basic video and audio editing, and I bumble along. So anyone could do what I can. I will say, though, I don’t see why every cigar retailer in the country doesn’t sell online. You grow sales on the same inventory, with very little extra operating costs. Maybe the technology involved seems daunting, but it’s really not as complicated as it sounds.

SG: I know you post on at least one cigar forum. How much time do you spend with cigar sites on the Internet, and what do you get out of it?

HWH: This is a loaded question. I feel like a cigar board adulterer! Don’t stone me, but I post on 13 cigar boards, two of them German ones, one Australian. It’s been a great marketing tool for us. I notice a distinct difference in sales when I post versus when I don’t. But it’s seriously hard to post on that many boards. It’s time consuming, and after about the fifth one, you have nothing new to say. It’s very draining. Some days I can’t bear to do it. I started off doing it once a day, but it took hours, so now I try to post at least once a week on each board. Cigar Live is the board I started on, though, and I feel sentimental towards it, so I post there several times a week. That’s definitely the one I’m most active on.

We also have an area on FuméeWorld.com that we’re slowly building up with a few message boards, and of course we are members of several cigar groups on MySpace/Facebook and Yahoo groups.

SG: Finally, you say on your site you smoke anywhere from one to six cigars a week. Do you have a regular rotation or are you always trying new cigars?

HWH: I am always trying new cigars. I don’t have a go-to cigar, really. I like variety, there’s so much out there. For me, my smoking habits depend on my mood, the weather, and my social environment.

If I’m in Vegas, for example, I’ll smoke like three cigars a day. If I’m around my dad, my consumption also goes up. If it’s nice outside, several a week. But there are some weeks when it’s cold outside and I don’t want to smell bad, and I only get to one cigar that week.

I hope to talk my husband into letting me have a smoking room inside the house one day, and then I can smoke no matter what it’s like outside. A girl can dream, can’t she?

Many thanks to Heather for taking the time to answer my questions. She invites StogieGuys.com readers to visit www.FuméeWorld.com.

–George E

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Back in December, I wrote that “when it comes to premium cigars from the forbidden island, Hoyo de Monterrey generally takes a backseat to more familiar brands like Cohiba and Montecristo.” I certainly think that’s true, but Vegas Robaina is even easier to overlook than Hoyo (Habanos S.A. lists it as “multilocal” as opposed to a “global”).

Perhaps that’s because the brand is relatively new. While most Habanos have been around for many decades, Vegas Robaina was introduced in 1997 – first to Spain, then to the world that fall. The brand is named for Don Alejandro Robaina, a Cuban tobacco farmer who became famous in the Vuelta Abajo region for his ability to grow exemplary wrapper leaves.

The 4.88 inch by 50 ring gauge Famoso vitola retails for around $7 per stick in the U.S. Not surprisingly, the light, leathery wrapper is uniquely smooth and almost vein-free. The seams, however, are less than perfect – a characteristic that suggests greater care went into the cultivation of the leaf than the rolling of the tobacco.

Even so, the presentation is undoubtedly above average, and the subtle, pleasant sweetness the wrapper immediately adds to the lips makes the cigar all the more enticing.

What I found after toasting the foot surprised me: a dry and spicy kick with an aroma more agreeable than the taste. Earthy seasonings of clove and ginger join in quickly to add depth, and a faint mushroom flavor comes and goes.

Still, the salty spice is overwhelmingly predominant, and the cigar seems to get drier as it progresses. Some citrus notes would have balanced the flavor profile and cancelled out a bit of the saltiness.

I smoked two Famosos for this review and I found burns that were either straight or self-correcting, draws that were neither too easy nor too difficult, and ashes that became unstable after one inch.

While this is one of the more affordable Habanos, the bottom line is I think you’re better off spending a little more for a better smoke. This cigar is fairly pleasing with decent construction, but it’s a little boring and way too salty on the palate. That’s why I’m giving the Vegas Robaina Famoso three out of five stogies.

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

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Each Saturday and Sunday we’ll post a Quick Smoke: not quite a full review, just our brief take on a single cigar.

With a Brazilian wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and filler tobaccos, the Brazilia line from CAO packs some wonderful tastes of coffee and dark chocolate. Full-flavored yet smooth, the lengthy seven inch by 50 ring gauge Ipanema also offers a stable white ash, a straight burn, and an effortless draw – just like the Gol. This is an easy recommendation in the reasonable $5 price range.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Each Saturday and Sunday we’ll post a Quick Smoke: not quite a full review, just our brief take on a single cigar.

This box-pressed toro is a tightly-rolled maduro featuring a flawless Nicaraguan wrapper. As per Robert Spoden’s advice, I enjoyed it with a glass of red wine (a nice Rhone) and found it a perfect accompaniment to this cigar’s full-flavored spiciness. It had a real kick, but it was never unpleasant or harsh. With its perfect construction, I can definitely recommend the Full Sail.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick S

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

1) In a recently uploaded video on YouTube, CAO President Tim Ozgener talks about his Vision line, named one of Cigar Aficionado’s top ten cigars of 2007. If you’re anything like us, hearing about the cigar’s unique composition and presentation will only make you want to try it more:

2) Have about $44,000 burning a hole in your pocket? Didn’t think so. If you did, though, you could buy one of these special-edition Guayasamín Humidors complete with 90 Cohibas.

3) Around the Blogs: Cigar Inspector inspects the Montecristo White. Stogie Review reviews the EO 601 Green Label. Keepers of the Flame lights up an Oliva Series V. Cigar Jack smokes a Cubita 545.

4) Deal of the Week: 10 quality cigars, including two Macanudo Gold Pyramides, all for just $29.99.

–The Stogie Guys