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

How many times have you purchased a sampling of random cigars at your local tobacconist, brought them home, and then realized – aside from the company name on each band – you have no idea what the exact names are of the assorted sticks you just bought? If you’re anything like me, this is a weekly experience.

Since each cigar manufacturer has various lines, shapes, sizes, and wrappers, and since the exact name of each individual stogie is rarely printed on its label, knowing what you’re smoking can be very difficult. For example, without its close cousin side by side for comparison, it’s hard to tell a Punch Chateau L Maduro from a Punch Chateau L Oscuro – even for a seasoned cigar veteran.

And, as far as size is concerned, who can tell a 4 and ½ inches by 48 ring gauge cigar from a 5 inches by 50 ring gauge cigar without a ruler? It’s true that one manufacturer’s Robusto and Torpedo is another’s Bully and Pyramid, but these inconsistencies make the process of discovering what you’re smoking even more trying.

That’s why I’m calling on cigar producers to start printing the exact and complete name of each cigar they manufacture on each band. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not advocating an industry-wide regulatory board. And you know I’d never ask for evil government intervention (I’ve had it up to here with their idiotic smoking bans). I’m simply asking private companies to make the decision to print cigar names on their labels so, when I find something I like (as I often do), I know exactly what box to buy.

Why care precisely which make and model you’re sucking down, you ask? For one, there are just so many cigars out there. Also, despite the fact that most manufacturers use the same types of tobaccos for the various sizes of one line, different stogie shapes produce different flavors due to the varying proportions of each leaf used. With fat ring-gauged cigars, the filler has a greater influence over taste than the wrapper, for instance.

Variety is the spice of life, and I’m the first person to appreciate free and diverse choice. As it says in my bio, I count myself lucky that cigars come in a plethora of shapes, sizes, colors, and flavors. And I love the fact that different producers keep coming out with new and creative names for their models. I just wish I could more easily identify individual sticks without Google and a ruler.

–Patrick A

We often tell you how smokers are victimized by government-imposed smoking bans that make it illegal for restaurant owners to permit smoking in their establishments. But don’t think for a second that smokers’ treatment as second-class citizens ends there.

Tobacco taxes are another way to victimize smokers. In May, we explained why these taxes are so wrong:

When politicians and well-funded “activists” target taxes on unpopular or unorganized groups in order to fund their pet projects, it is the political equivalent of a schoolyard bully picking on the weakest kid in school. If politicians cannot convince citizens that taxes to fund their projects should be spread broadly across the tax base, they should reevaluate the necessity of the program, not look for a more vulnerable group with which they can saddle the burden.

But now we find another even more extreme example of smokers being targeted with “tobacco taxes.” In Alabama, three Jefferson County cities have been illegally collecting taxes on tobacco for two years to the tune of $2.1 million.

The Alabama Supreme Court reversed itself Friday and ruled illegal a 10-cent tax on tobacco products levied by some Jefferson County cities. “I think the Supreme Court got it right on the legality of the tax,” said lawyer Pete Short, who filed a lawsuit seeking to get the tax overturned. “The law was clear that cities in Jefferson County could not tax tobacco products.”

So will they try to give this money back to the victims it was stolen from? Quite the opposite:

The high court ruled that money collected under the tax by Bessemer, Hoover and Hueytown – about $1.8 million – go to Cooper Green (government) Hospital after a third of the sum is awarded in attorney fees.

So, to sum up, Big Brother took $2.1 million from smokers and, after two years of litigation, the victims get nothing back. Whatever money remains after attorney fees returns to the very government that stole the money in the first place!

That wouldn’t pass for justice in a kangaroo court in a third world dictatorship…But for people who choose to smoke, it’s just another example of how smokers can’t get a fair shake.

-Patrick S

For those of you who haven’t yet been lucky enough to meet him, Mike Copperman is a cigar god amongst men. This pleasant and approachable tobacconist at Bethesda Tobacco has more passion and knowledge about stogies in his little finger than I have in my entire body. On Saturday morning, he was generous enough to invite Patrick and me to his store for a private Davidoff tasting.

As expected, we got some wonderful cigars and tons of invaluable knowledge out of the experience…But we also got so much more.

After four cups of coffee, one bagel, and a sixty minute commute, Patrick and I rolled into Bethesda Tobacco at 10:30 AM on Saturday. The building is a tiny, two-story dwelling that is as unassuming as it is charismatic. The front patio is dotted with deck furniture sitting in the shade of tropical banana trees. A lone neon sign glowing through the main window simply reads, “Cigars”.

Mike welcomed us with a smile and led us to a lounge on the second floor. This small stogie haven – complete with leather chairs, a television, a huge humidor, and jaded windows fogged by decades of smoke – would be our refuge for the next two hours.

The session consisted of us tasting three different Davidoff cigars, each one comprised entirely of one tobacco blend – Olor, San Vicente, and Piloto Cubano. After each sampling, Patrick and I gave the cigar a rating based on sweetness, saltiness, acidity, and bitterness. With a lot of help from Mike, and a trusty palate diagram of the human tongue, we correctly identified the Olor blend as mostly salty (removes saliva from the mouth), the San Vicente blend as mostly acidic (adds saliva to the mouth), and the Piloto Cubano blend as bitter and sweet.

It’s amazing how refined your palate can be if you (1) pay attention to the geography of your tongue, (2) smoke through the nose (no, it’s not inhaling, Stogie Tip forthcoming), and (3) have a human cigar encyclopedia at your disposal.

Next, Mike presented us with the fourth cigar – the highly acclaimed Davidoff Gran Cru No. 3. This robust smoke is a special blend of the three aforementioned stogies we had just sampled. The five inch by 43 ring gauge smoke is a noble cigar: smooth and well-refined with a wonderful flavor curve that balances evenly amongst the palate.

While we smoked, Mike was nice enough to share some fantastic tips with us. For example, did you know that in order to get maximum flavor out of each cigar you should only take about two puffs per minute?

You see, tobacco leaves are harvested to create starch so the leaf can produce sugar. When you smoke a cigar, the sugar is caramelized. Much like a master chef cooks a soufflé, you must “cook” the cigar at the right temperature. Taking about two puffs a minute will keep the foot at 494° F, the optimum temperature for experiencing maximum flavors.

But the best tip Mike shared with us is much less technical. He explained that the greatest sense one needs in order to enjoy cigars is not on the tongue or in the nose…It’s between the ears. In other words, the more you know about tobacco and cigar composition, the better tools you have with which to appreciate each smoke.

Overall, the whole tasting was a tremendous experience. I will remember the morning of Saturday, July 29 for many years to come.

I highly recommend Stogie Guys in the DC area make the trip to Bethesda when they can (a Thursday, August 3 Ashton BBQ would be a great introductory event). Take some time to peruse their selection, mingle with friendly regulars (who always come out in good numbers), and – of course – meet Mike Copperman.

Also, for those DC Stogie Guys who are interested in setting up a private tasting of your own with Mike, visit Bethesda Tobacco online and contact Mike.

-Patrick A

Much like the florescent glowing hue of the neon beer sign calls alcoholics into bars, the wooden cigar store Indian is the siren of stogie aficionados. These three dimensional, often life-sized sculptures are as synonymous with tobacconists as barber shop poles are with barbers. But what’s the story behind this centuries-old, mysterious emblem?

The history of the cigar shop Indian dates back to the early 1600s in Europe. Indians were widely associated with tobacco because they introduced the miracle crop to Europeans. And due to widespread illiteracy among the general population at the time, shop owners made it a habit to link their goods and services to easily recognizable insignia. So it was simply inevitable that tobacconists start using Indian figurines and statues to advertise their products to an uneducated populace.

But because only a handful of Europeans in the seventeenth century had ever really seen a Native American, early cigar store “Indians” looked more like Africans dressed up in Indian regalia. These initial carvings went by the monikers of “Black Boys” and – due to the tobacco-rich Jamestown settlement – “Virginians”. Eventually, as Europeans became more exposed to Native Americans and their culture, the carvings evolved into more accurate depictions of Indians.

Earlier cigar store Indians were almost entirely female (often depicted with a papoose), but it seems as though their male counterparts now dominate the tobacco advertisement industry. And while sidewalk obstruction laws have forced many American tobacconists to move their sculptures indoors (thanks again, paternalistic government, for looking out for our “interests”), today no stogie shop is complete without one.

As factions of a hyper-sensitive society call for the banishment of cigar store Indians (as they do our sports mascots), these intricate carvings remain the proud symbol of an honorable trade – beckoning Stogie Guys into tobacconists the world over.

-Patrick A

In the newest issue of Smoke Magazine, the editors discuss the new tactics of the anti-smoker choice crowd (hint: they no longer actually use the term “ban”) and also give us a timely reminder that while it is easy to get caught up in negative news (sometimes it seems like every day another restrictive smoking ban is passed), there is also some good news for cigar smokers looking to celebrate with a stogie:

According to the anti-smoking organization American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation, more than 700 cities across the country have enacted ordinances to date that limit outdoor smoking. Many officials in these communities have gone to great length to justify that these controls are not bans, but rather “secondhand-smoke-control ordinances” and “public-health laws.”

The difference, they say, is that people aren’t being told they can’t smoke, but are merely being required to do so in designated areas. Well, thank goodness for that clarification.

And yet, despite all of the rhetoric, trends aren’t necessarily always moving in one direction. Consider PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates, which unveiled a brand new cigar lounge on opening day this spring: The Montecristo Club, a joint effort of Montecristo maker Altadis U.S.A. and Southern Wine & Spirits. The lounge comes on the heals of last season’s cigar events which drew raves from cigar smokers and, of course, criticism from others. In the end, some semblance of reason prevailed, and a permanent option has returned for cigar lovers where none existed at all only two seasons back.

Finally, they suggest you check out two trade organiztions fighting these bans: the retailer Tobacco Dealers of America and the National Association of Tobacco Outlets.

I would also add that you should consider joining or starting a local group to fight anti-smoker choice groups. Here in Washington, a group called Ban the Ban led a courageous, yet ultimately unsucessful, effort to stop the DC smoking ban.

If groups like Ban the Ban spring up in opposition to every attempt to ban smoking, then politicians will be forced to recognize that these “secondhand-smoke-control ordinances” and “public-health laws” have real victims: mainly, the American principles of individual free choice and personal responsibility.

-Patrick S

In-flight airline magazines usually aren’t the most fascinating publications. This is one of the reasons why, after all, periodical stands make such killings at airports. But if you’re planning a trip on Southwest Airlines in the near future, you may want to reconsider forking over $27 for that new Dean Koontz novel.

The May 2006 issue of Southwest’s Spirit magazine sports a wonderful article by Jack Boulware about the Cigar Capital of America: Ybor City in Tampa, Florida.

There is one place left where smoking makes sense, where it’s part of a cultural heritage, a testament to craftsmanship, style, and family. A place where a good cigar is a tradition.

If you’re not familiar with this Mecca of tobacco, Ybor is a historic Latin quarter of Tampa that was once the stogie pinnacle of Earth. Over 20,000 workers produced about 700 million handmade cigars each year in this neighborhood, all from Cuban leaves.

Today, many cigar companies and distributors have their headquarters in Ybor, stogies cost about one half of what they do elsewhere in the country, and – perhaps best of all – smoking is tolerated everywhere. Writes Boulware:

I live in California, where you have about five minutes to enjoy tobacco before an angry mob beats you to death with pamphlets.

The article basically chronicles Boulware’s heavenly visit to Ybor, chatting with local cigar legends, touring famous cigar stores, and – of course – smoking stogie after delicious stogie.

So if you’re hopping on a Southwest flight anytime soon, take a few moments to enjoy this fine piece of literary magic. And if your business or personal travels take you to Tampa, rest assured the city is more than just a retirement community filled with chiropractors, churches, and Bingo halls…It’s also home to Ybor.

-Patrick A