The Stogie Guys

When I started smoking cigars, the biggest factor in deciding what to buy usually was the size of the stick compared to the price. As you can probably guess, I smoked a lot of poor and mediocre Churchills.

I don’t think my “more tobacco means more for the money” approach is all that uncommon for new smokers. I’m also not so sure it’s a bad idea in the beginning. It helps provide exposure to a lot of brands, not to mention a lot of tobacco.

These days, when I’m making a purchase, I still take size into consideration. But now I’m much more apt to focus on how much time I want to devote to the cigar. And even with a lot of time, I’ve found through the years that I usually enjoy a relatively smaller size.

Consequently, I probably smoke more robustos than any other, though I’d have to say I enjoy petit coronas and the occasional lancero a lot, too.

Sometimes I’ll smoke my way through all the vitolas of a cigar brand, especially if it’s one I really like. Generally, though, I tend to concentrate on a couple of sizes at most.

Of course, there are also occasions that call for a large cigar. I’ve noted before, for instance, my affection for the Sancho Panza Extra Fuerte Madrid. This large stick (6.1 x 54) is bigger than any other cigar I regularly smoke. But I’ve tried other sizes in the line and, for my taste, none of them has that little lagniappe that makes the cigar special.

One thing I’ve wondered for a long time is what sizes are the top sellers. It would be tough to determine, since there’s no standardization for dimensions or designations. But wouldn’t it be interesting to know?

–George E

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Aged cigars are hot these days, and not just Cubans. Retailers offer them for sale. Magazines rate them. Board posts extol their virtues. I find it to be a fascinating topic, in large part because it is so wide open. Experts often disagree over key points, and no one can assure you that holding on to any particular cigar will result in improvement.

My own aging efforts are haphazard. The way it usually happens is I’ll ignore or forget some cigar or other and, after a while—voila!—it’s got some age on it. A recent example was a Tatuaje Havana VI Verocu No. 2  that had somehow escaped my notice for about a year and a half. When I smoked it recently, I could only wish I had more: The flavors remained just as distinct but somehow deeper. Time in the humidor had rounded the pepper and spice to perfection.

A different route led to another extraordinary aged Tatuaje. I got together the other night with Stogie Guy colleague Patrick M in Ybor City for a few hours, and he graciously gave me several beautiful cigars, including a two-year-old Tat from a cabinet he’d bought that had been resting at a retailer. It was sublime, one of the best cigars I’ve had the pleasure of smoking.

Interestingly, both are rolled by Don Pepin Garcia, who isn’t a big proponent of aging. I reflected on that the other night when I lit up another Pepin creation, a box-pressed 601 Blue Robusto fresh from the seller. The 601 line is one of my favorites, though I’d probably rank the Blue as my least favorite of the four. Not this stick, though. It was head of the class—full of flavor, changing as it burned and highly tasty. I cannot imagine it would get better with age.

Interestingly, I’d smoked a larger vitola Blue that was more than year old just a few weeks earlier. I wasn’t particularly impressed with what aging had wrought. And to keep it even more interesting, Patrick A had a considerably different experience with a 15-month-old Blue Toro that he wrote about last month.

So what’s the conclusion? Well, you can probably draw your own. For me, there are at least three: (1) It’s difficult, if not impossible, to gauge beforehand how specific cigars will age and how you will react to them; (2) Like most aspects of enjoying cigars, personal taste plays a large a role in judging aged sticks; and (3) Don’t go overboard on aging. It’s another aspect of the hobby and another way to find great smoking experiences. But it isn’t the only way.

For more information, you can find exclusive write-ups about our experiences aging cigars in the new StogieGuys.com email newsletter. Sign up today if you haven’t done so already.

–George E

photo credit: Cuban Crafters

[Editors’ Note: The following is courtesy of Chris Verhoeven, a South Carolina-based friend of StogieGuys.com who went on a dream vacation.]

Last month, through my local B&M, I was lucky enough to tour the Rocky Patel Premium Cigar Company’s operations in Danlí, Honduras. And while anyone who went on this amazing adventure would agree that the pictures can’t fully convey how spectacular the trip was, today I’ll try to do just that with just those.

It all starts at the field of dreams. It’s amazing how tall these plants get and it’s humbling to walk out and see nothing but tobacco across the horizon. The company lets a few plants flower to harvest and test the quality of the seeds, but most lose their flowers early on so all the nutrients focus on the leaves instead.

Here in the tobacco curing barns, Nimish, the VP of operations and our gracious host, shows us how the tobacco leaves are sewn onto the sticks and hung to cure.

Although it is a multi-step process involving these piles as well as rooms I can only describe as saunas, I found the tobacco fermentation procedure to be the most interesting. The leaves are wetted and piled creating heat on the inside. The temperature must be watched carefully and the leaves must be rotated to prevent the tobacco from burning and losing its flavor.

While seco, viso, and ligero tobacco are known to come from distinct primings (when the leaves are harvested they pick two per week starting at the bottom, and each pick is called a “priming”), gray areas do exist. These women use sight and feel to sort the leaves appropriately. Females are employed exclusively in this process due to their softer hands and superior color vision.

Finally, after years of curing and aging, the tobacco reaches the rolling tables.

I was truly amazed at how many quality control checkpoints Rocky Patel cigars go through. This draw tester is one of those checks. Cigars must fall between 35 and 50 on the gauge…the one I rolled was a 20!

Spanish cedar is the wood of choice at the box factory to ensure the cigars are kept in the optimal environment.

This photo, taken with Uptown Cigars owner and trip sponsor Israel (far left) and Nestor Plasencia, captures one of the trip’s most memorable moments for me.

The whole trip is a blast, evidenced by this snapshot of me drinking by Rocky’s guest pool. I sincerely hope you get to experience this fun for yourself. Rocky does about 30 of these per year through tobacco shops that sell his products, so be sure to check out your local B&M for a chance to take the trip of a lifetime.

–Chris Verhoeven

photo credit: Stogie Guys

An email from the Stogie Guys’ founders about preparations to cover the annual International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association convention this summer evoked two reactions: wistful regret that I won’t be there and utter amazement at how fast another year has passed.

Even with the economic woes still rippling through the country, cigar exhibitors in New Orleans will, no doubt, unleash a batch of new cigars. And I haven’t yet begun to whittle down my wish list of earlier smokes. The coming sticks will surely entice me to add more names and put me further and further behind on smoking them. Only a smoker who lights up far more frequently than I could hope to keep up.

I may, however, be able to make some progress soon. For the past several months, the weather here in Florida has been so pleasant. I’ve done nearly all my smoking outside my home, reducing the stock of cigars in my humidor. But with the temperatures rising, I’m likely to be visiting local shops more frequently to revel in indoor air-conditioned smoking. So I will have a chance to try some of the smokes I’ve been wanting to light up.

For example, I have yet to smoke a Casa Magna, the low-priced stick Cigar Aficionado raved about. There are also new Tatuajes that sound tasty, new La Gloria Cubanas (and new sticks to come from that brand’s founder), a host of new Padillas that promise good things, and My Father from Pepin’s factory. That’s really just the top of the list.

Any you’d care to recommend?

–George E

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Make no mistake, the well-funded, well-connected professional activists who oppose tobacco are far from sensible people looking to place so-called “reasonable restrictions” on tobacco. The truth is, almost all are deceitful opportunists who won’t stop until tobacco is taxed or regulated out of existence (or at least pushed completely into an underground black market).

These anti-tobacco zealots are too smart to ever admit their ultimate goal in public, even though occasionally they let their secret slip. Instead, they twist science to deceptively present themselves as reflective, thoughtful advocates who just happen to continuously find “problems” in need of “solutions,” which always amount to more tobacco taxes, more regulations, and more expansive smoking bans.

Recently, these incremental steps towards tobacco prohibition have often been presented as closing loopholes, leveling the playing field, or combating problems seemingly unrelated to smoking. It seems the anti-tobacco crowd has taken to heart the lesson of the boiling frog, which goes something like this: If you throw a frog into a pot of boiling water, he’ll jump out. But if you place the frog into a pot of lukewarm water and slowly turn up the heat, it will boil to death.

I suspect they realize that if they are forthright about their ultimate goal of prohibition, they know they would lose credibility and could even unleash a backlash, as those whose freedom of choice they seek to limit would rally to defend their right to enjoy tobacco. However, if the steps towards total prohibition are small enough, like the frog, we won’t act until it is too late.

Three examples show how the tobacco banners present more regulation, taxation, and smoking bans as merely fixes to “loopholes” or “problems” in existing laws:

Congress Takes on Mail-Order Tobacco Sales

This week, Congress is debating a ban on mail-order cigarette sales. It seems that many states are losing revenue as consumers seek to avoid punitive cigarette taxes. Instead of buying a pack of cigarettes for $10 in New York City, they are ordering them through the mail for less than half the price.

Never mind that it’s the excessively high taxes that are forcing people to look for less expensive ways to get tobacco. The anti-smokers say the solution isn’t to re-examine the taxes that created this pseudo-black market, but to create more restrictions and make the postal service, and companies like Fed-Ex, police the contents of every package shipped over state lines. At least so far, the regulation only affects cigarettes, but that’s just another “loophole” waiting to be closed.

Anti-Smokers Say Nebraska Smoking Ban ‘Unfair’

Meanwhile, in Nebraska, after a battle to ban smoking in all restaurants and bars, a deal was eventually struck that would ban smoking everywhere except cigar bars where cigars and pipes would be allowed, but not cigarettes. But the anti-tobacco zealots at the American Cancer Society thought even that most limited exemption was a problem, and they even found novel way to suggest that it was unconstitutional.

According to their tortured reasoning, the ban was an unfair benefit to cigar bars. It seems after banning smoking in all these restaurants and bars, they suddenly claimed to be concerned with the competitive disadvantage that the ban’s victims were put in. Naturally, the “solution” they were seeking—which fortunately was rejected by the Nebraska Attorney General—was to extend the ban to include cigar bars.

San Francisco Pushes Butt Tax

As reported by the New York Times yesterday, San Francisco’s mayor is pushing a tax increase on cigarettes. (No word yet on any effect on cigars.) His reasoning? Smokers, who have been forced out of bars by city and state smoking bans, were creating litter by leaving their cigarettes in the street.

Citing the cost of cleaning up the cigarette butts, Mayor Gavin Newsom wants to increase the cigarette tax. Obviously, the idea of allowing smoking back into bars where staff can clean up butts and provide smokers with ashtrays isn’t being considered. Instead, the “solution” is to raise taxes further.

In all three situations, the “problems” were created when freedoms were limited by policies advocated by the anti-tobacco crowd. Yet somehow the solutions are always more anti-free choice policies.

It has become quite clear that we smokers are becoming the frog, standing idly by as our freedom to smoke is stolen from us one degree at a time. My fear is if we don’t start fighting back soon, it will be too late and our freedoms will have evaporated completely.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Smoking cigars is far too enjoyable to let any one aspect of the hobby upset you very much. Still, there are a few things I see over and over again that get my goat, even if only momentarily. Here’s a handful. Feel free to add your own.

1. Bands applied too tightly or too sloppily. Having to struggle to break the glue bond and remove the band, only to have it tear the wrapper, is inexcusable. It makes me wonder about all that loving care cigar makers talk about when they don’t pay enough attention to this critical element.

2. Catalogs with different prices for the same cigars. Usually, you’ll spot this with five-packs. They’ll be listed at one price in the advertisement that features the cigar and then listed with another, frequently lower, price in a section promoting five-packs. Is this simply slipshod work or deliberate deception?

3. Retailers who charge $4 or $5 for empty boxes. Let’s get real. With few exceptions, most cigar boxes are cheaply made and assembled. I think that’s good. They protect the cigars during shipment and on the shelves without adding significantly to the price. And selling them is surely better than throwing them away. But shouldn’t the price be close to the value?

4. Shoppers who buy online based solely on price and then complain about service. How do you think they can sell at those prices? Skimping—or virtually ignoring—some things is one of the ways they save money. Service is likely to be high on the hit list. So, don’t be surprised if you have trouble getting emails answered or telephone calls returned.

–George E

photo credit: econedlink

With traditionally cigar-friendly locales like Dallas and North Carolina set to enact smoking bans soon, today presents a good opportunity to revisit our case against these unjust and tyrannical laws.

Regular readers will recall that, over the years, we’ve written a great deal about the lamentable spread of state and local smoking bans. While my colleagues and I try to keep our web magazine focused more on tobacco and less on politics, some issues—predominantly taxes and bans—cannot and should not be avoided.

So, here I intend to piece together many of the arguments we and others have made against the draconian smoking ban movement. My goals are threefold: (1) to potentially convince those who remain unconvinced, (2) to refresh our memories, and (3) to provide fellow brothers of the leaf with ammunition for their own debates on the subject.

Protect Whom?

One of our first commentaries on this subject was written back in May of 2006. It was prompted by city officials in Calabasas, California, who had approved a law that prohibits all smoking outdoors (except for in city-approved designated “smoking areas”). Given the complete lack of scientific data regarding outdoor secondhand smoke, I concluded that Calabasas officials weren’t trying to “protect” nonsmokers—they were trying to “protect” smokers, the very people who are consciously choosing to smoke.

That realization shouldn’t have come as a surprise. After all, the aim of every smoking ban, whether outdoors or inside private buildings, is for the government to control the actions of consenting adults.

The argument that bans are needed to protect the waitresses, bartenders, busboys, etc. who work in smoking facilities is also ill-conceived. As our friend Jacob Grier (a bartender) recently pointed out in an op-ed, there are many jobs that expose workers to riskier activities (such as Oregon’s requirement of full-service gas stations, which exposes attendants to harmful gas fumes). Besides, if secondhand smoke is a main concern, one can simply opt for a career or an employer that self-regulates tobacco use in the workplace.

Funny Science

In the open air or inside a bar, “health concerns” seem to be a mere ruse to disguise a movement of politicians, bureaucrats, and busybodies who would simply rather not smell, be near, or tolerate tobacco. Keep in mind that the notion of secondhand smoke as an epidemic is totally overblown.

While the AFL-CIO claims that “secondhand smoke is estimated to cause 65,000 deaths per year in the U.S.,” that number is just plain wrong. It’s 20 times the estimate of the Center for Disease Control, and even the CDC estimate was roundly rejected by a federal court. Thomas A. Lambert’s “The Case Against Smoking Bans” summarizes how various agencies and groups used biased “scientific” studies to make secondhand smoke appear to be risky enough to merit “a significant intrusion on the personal liberty of business owners and their customers.”

It’s Economics, Stupid

Famed George Mason University economist Walter E. Williams argues that smoking bans persist and spread despite common sense because “the cost to nonsmokers to impose their will on smokers, say, in a restaurant, bar, or airplane, is zero, or close to it.” The act of voting for politicians who will impose majority rule over minority rights is inexpensive, and zero-priced activities have sub-optimal outcomes.

Allowing the market to dictate smoking preferences, however, provides for choice. Some establishments will cater to smokers. Others, if demand merits, will spring up as profit-motivated business owners ban smoking to cater to desired preferences. Here in northern Virginia, in the absence of any smoking ban (though a statewide ban is forthcoming), many if not most restaurants are currently smoke-free.

Choose Liberty

The most compelling argument against smoking bans, in my opinion, is the notion that consenting adults have rights to do with their bodies what they so please, and private business owners have rights to offer the accommodations they so choose. Whatever the perceived social ill, government regulation and intervention is usually a “cure” worse than the disease.

–Patrick A

photo credit: Flickr