The Stogie Guys

With the success of his Pipes Magazine Radio Show, Brian Levine has become one of the most prominent people in the hobby. The weekly show—available on iTunes and other podcast hosts—is a lively mix of education, interviews, and fun.

Here Brian talks about how it began and what goes into it, as well as a bit of advice for cigar smokers thinking about taking up the pipe.

Stogie Guys: How did the Pipes Magazine Radio Show get started?

Brian Levine: It was a dark and stormy night. A tree had fallen and knocked out the power to my house. We had used the last candle, and the fire was getting low so I decided to go outside and try to cut the tree down hoping it would clear the lines. A bolt of lighting hit near by and I saw it, the logo for The Pipes Magazine Radio Show… Well, not really.

Kevin Godbee (owner/publisher of Pipesmagazine.com) called me in June 2012. He said he had an idea for an audio show based on pipes and pipe smoking. He said he had asked two people for recommendations on who would be good to do this, and both of them had no taste whatsoever and recommended me. We met a couple weeks later in Kansas City at their annual pipe show to discuss the idea.

Kevin and I spent the summer learning software, researching style, gathering sound bites, and setting the tone and format for the show. We finally hit on the basic formula we wanted. We both committed to do the show each week for one year no matter how successful it was at the start. We set a start date in September 2012 and the rest is history.

SG: What is your goal with the show?

BL: I hope that each episode is sometimes educational but always entertaining. I feel like The Pipes Magazine Radio Show is my way to also contribute to the electronic library of information on pipes and pipe tobacco. I am not much of a writer, so doing a blog was out. I have a distant background in television and film so I understand the issues involved with video but always loved old radio.

So, the idea is one hour a week where you can sit down with your pipe, or take it on the road and listen to me, the guest that week, some music or entertainment, and maybe hear me pop off about something, all the while celebrating that we are pipe smokers.

I also make it a point to not just have guests on that are in the business. About half of the guests are pipe smokers that I have met or became aware of and have ranged from a friend who performs one-man shows as Thomas Edison to a collector of pipe-smoking Santa Claus figurines. We have also had pipe smoking clergy from all sects. There are also interviews with individual pipe makers and the biggest factories, as well as tobacco blenders big and small.

Either way, no matter who the guest is that week, I hope to learn about them as a person as well as a pipe smoker. If I do what I want, it will sound like you are listening in on two people having a conversation. I also don’t care what kind or cost of pipe or tobacco a guest smokes, as long as they enjoy it.

SG: Do you know how many listeners you have? Any idea how many are younger pipe smokers?

BL: At least one, his name is John Seiler and he is always the first to comment on a show when we are done. Really, we average 14,000 downloads per episode. Some of the more popular episodes have over 200,000 hits on the file. Obviously the older shows have more hits then a new one. Thanks to the sponsors and Pipesmagazine.com we are able to keep all 125-plus episodes online and available to be played. That is a whole lot of data and me jabbering for over 125 hours.

The podcast of the show is also sent out through iTunes, Podcast.com, Podbay, Podkicker, Spotify, Stitcher and another eight or ten online sources, so it is hard to tell our demographics. The show has a Facebook fan page and I can tell you from that, 54% percent of the listeners are under the age of 44. That number is much lower then I thought it would have been. Women represent 8% of our fan base, and it is not because I am so sexy. About 30% of the listeners are outside of the United States. I have heard from six continents including all the major countries except for some reason we don’t have any listeners in North Korea. Go figure.

SG: What’s been the biggest surprise since you began the program?

BL: There have been several including the fact that the older demographic has embraced the show. The countries that the show reaches shocks me because we only do the show in English.

The biggest surprise has come from the feedback that we receive. Many of the comments we get say how the show is the listeners’ weekly “Pipe Club.” A large amount of pipe smokers do not know any other pipe smokers so this is their one chance each week to hear from me and other pipe people about the hobby, and that means a lot to me. I am glad we are connecting people in a digital way. I was also surprised at the beginning that anybody would want to hear from me, but they do and they wanted more.

SG: If you would, tell us a little about your favorite pipe and pipe tobacco.

BL: Nope. I don’t talk about my favorites for two reasons. One, I am in the business and my full time job as the National Sales Manager for the Sutliff Tobacco Co. makes me biased towards what we make as well as the other brands we import like Mac Baren and Brigham. However, being in the business gives me access to people that others would not get.

The second reason is really the biggest. I do not want to influence listeners or turn them off because of what I like and smoke. I want each pipe smoker to go on their own journey to find those pipes and tobaccos that are magic to them. I am happy to have every guest on the show talk openly about what they like.

I can say that I have a soft spot in my heart for my Disney pipes, and if anyone wants to learn more about my collection of Disney-related tobacciana and the fact that Disneyland and Walt Disney World had full service tobacconist on Main St. USA, they can see my entire collection on Facebook.

I will say that I enjoy some of the older pipes, especially the English factory pipes from the first half of the last century. I also think we are in a golden age right now as far as the quality of pipes and tobaccos that are on the market.

SG: What’s your advice to a cigar smoker who wants to get into pipes? How should they approach pipes and tobacco?

BL: First let me say to anyone getting started, the tobacco goes in the big hole and your mouth goes on the small hole. But, seriously, pipe smoking is a completely different experience than a cigar. I have smoked cigars for over 20 years so I know what I am talking about, yet I prefer my pipes.

Think of smoking a pipe like a martini and a cigar like a single malt. The martini takes preparation and tools to make and enjoy. A single malt is ready to go out of the bottle. A pipe is dramatically more personal then a cigar because you can pack your pipe using different methods. When you buy a cigar it is ready to go. Pipe tobacco tastes differently in different sized pipes.

If a cigar smoker wants to try a pipe I suggest they do the following: find a pipe that they like the look, feel, and style of. Find a few tobaccos that you like the smell of. You will also need a tamper, a soft flame lighter, and pipe cleaners. Get some advice on different pipe smoking techniques. These can come from forums, YouTube, or your tobacconist. Give it several tries before you give up. It took me six years of regular pipe smoking to find my pipe smoking style and preferences, so don’t give up after a few bowls. Listening to the Pipes Magazine Radio Show will help (or hurt) as well. I am also available to answer questions at brian@pipesmagazine.com

–George E

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Dale and Darcy Cahill’s interest in tobacco sheds grew naturally, from observation and a simple question. When they began dating some years ago, Dale would drive down from Vermont and, along the way to her home in Connecticut, he passed quite a few big barns.

Having an engineering mind and a history of hands-on work, he was curious and asked Darcy what was in them. “I said, ‘I don’t know. Let’s go look,’” Darcy recalled. “Luckily, it happened to be the end of September, October. We walked into one of those places and… it smelled so good. And it was full of tobacco. It was just beautiful. He said, ‘We’ve got to start taking pictures of these.’”

That was the beginning of what’s become a seeming flood of photographs, calendars, note cards, even tobacco leaves themselves—dried, preserved, and mounted on barn board. You can check it all at their website.

Now, the couple is embarking on a new project, courtesy of a Library of Congress Archie Green Fellowship, recording the oral histories of everyone they can find involved in tobacco in the Connecticut River Valley.

Their second book on the valley’s tobacco sheds just came out. It reflects their efforts to document and preserve New England’s tobacco heritage.

Dale estimates there are currently between 5,000 and 7,000 tobacco sheds still being used, whether for tobacco, vehicle storage, or something else. He’s glad to see that because, he explained, Thomas Visser, a professor of historic preservation who Dale considers a mentor, taught him that the first way to preserve things is to keep them in use. “It’s when you quit using them, they fall apart,” Dale said.

And, Dale added, even a few new sheds have gone up in recent years.

As should be obvious, New England’s agricultural heritage in tobacco is important to Dale and Darcy. It’s easy to understand when they talk lovingly about the structures they’ve toured, the people they’ve met, and the work they’ve done.

Their enthusiasm for the subject seems nearly boundless. Last year, for example, they performed—she plays fiddle, he plays guitar and mandolin—at the Luddy/Taylor Connecticut Valley Tobacco Museum’s annual cigar barbecue, which includes a farm tour and appearances by cigar company reps. “It’s very small scale,” Darcy said of the event. “It’s very sweet.”

With the Cahills keeping their eyes, and cameras, trained on the landscape, there’s no doubt that the tobacco sheds, old and new, have someone watching over them.

Contest: Win a Free Copy of Dale and Darcy’s New Book

One lucky StogieGuys.com reader will win a free copy of Dale and Darcy’s beautiful new book, Tobacco Sheds: Vanishing Treasures in the Connecticut River Valley. Just submit a comment below and we’ll select a winner at random next week. Be sure to include your email address so we can contact you if you win (we will not publish your email address; just make sure you provide it in the space provided when you submit your comment). Here are all the contest rules. Good luck.

–George E

photo credit: TobaccoSheds.com

Recently, Jeff and Sara Mouttet, owners of Riverside Cigar Shop and Lounge in Jeffersonville, Indiana, across the Ohio River from Louisville, sent us a couple of samples of their new House Blend.

I always find the story of a new cigar intriguing, so I posed some questions about this venture to Jeff via email. And, indeed, it turns out to be an interesting story.

Stogie Guys: Your website shows a very extensive selection of top boutique cigars. What made you decide you needed to add your own line?

Jeff Mouttet: There were several factors that led us to the decision, but first and foremost, we always wanted our own blend and always planned on doing one as soon as the time was right. Additionally, we’ve made good friends with many outstanding boutique cigar makers (Skip Martin and Mike Rosales, Sean Williams, Gary Griffith, Chris Kelly, Enrique Sanchez, Noel Rojas, Sam Leccia, etc.) and we wanted to work with them to do something for us. Lastly, it’s a good business move. We’ve been fortunate to build a loyal clientele over the last three years, and it’s surprising how many people ask if we have our own cigars. Well, now we do.

SG: Walk us briefly through the process of going from idea to cigars on the shelf.

JM: It’s kind of funny, because I had Manny Iriarte design the band over two years ago, but the cigar just now happened. Noel Rojas came through the store on a trip through the area and House of Emilio asked if we minded if he stopped by for a night and did a quick rolling demonstration and, being up for most anything, we said yes. So during the course of the night, after everybody raved about how good Noel’s cigars were, Noel and I sat down and talked numbers, blends, volumes, etc., and we decided right then and there to go ahead and do it. As far as the process, I leaned pretty heavily on Noel’s expertise. I’m a cigar smoker—have been for 30 years—but I’m no blender. Not even close. Maybe one day, but at this point, we left most of that to Noel, and I’ve got to say, I’m glad we did, because he did a fantastic job.

SG: Did you have a specific profile in mind from the start, or did you explore a variety of blends until you found one you liked?

JM: We did have a specific strength profile in mind, not so much a flavor profile. We tried several blends, and ended up with the Ecuador Habano with Nica filler and binder.

SG: What has been the most difficult part? The biggest surprise?

JM: Waiting, shipping, customs, and “Central American Time” have been the most difficult parts of the equation. Well, those, and getting the bands to Nicaragua. The biggest surprise has been the reception of the cigar. We’ve sold nearly 1,500 cigars (all we had made for the first run) in a little less than a month, and that’s just on-premise sales.

SG: Do you have a plan to produce more cigars, maybe distribute them, or will this be it?

JM: Our goal over the next 2 years is to introduce at least two more cigars to the market. We’ve talked to both RoMa Craft and Tesa Cigars about an ongoing manufacturing relationship and both are receptive to the idea. Ideally, we’d like to have “house blends,” or Riverside exclusive blends, make up around 30-40% of our boutique line sales. Distribution is a little trickier if we keep the Riverside name on the cigars, but that may be something we address in the future. I know I would have trouble justifying somebody else’s store name in my humidor, so let’s just say we’re sensitive to that issue. At the same time, I think the quality of the cigars we’re making merits distribution, so we’ll explore that when it looks more feasible.

SG: Are you doing any mail-order or telephone sales for those outside your area who want to try the Riverside House Blend?

JM: Yes. You can call 812-284-6198 or email me at jeff@riversidecigars.com and we’ll be glad to ship. Given all the recent credit card issues we can only take Visa over the phone, but we do have a PayPal account for the store, too, so we have a couple of ways you can pay.

–George E

photo credit: Riverside Cigar Shop

Back in 2006, if you were to ask me to name my favorite cigars, I almost certainly would have mentioned Dona Flor’s Alonso Menendez. To this day I remember that smoke as capturing the flavor of moist chocolate cake like none other.

So I was disappointed when Dona Flor disappeared for a number of years. Evidently, shortly after the brand was introduced to the U.S. in 2005, legal issues arose that blocked domestic distribution. Then, about a year ago, Chris Edge—a Denver-based cigar enthusiast and businessman—brought Dona Flor back to North America. Several new blends were part of Dona Flor’s reintroduction, including Seleção.

Now Chris Edge is also bringing Alonso Menendez back, with a different band but presumably with the same recipe as the 2006 variety. The Brazilian puro features a Mata Fina wrapper, Mata Fina binder, and a filler mix of Mata Norte and Mata Fina tobaccos. The intent is to create a fuller-bodied cigar “with the same lush, creamy, smooth smoke that the Mata Fina tobacco is known for,” according to Edge. The cigar is manufactured in Brazil by Felix Menendez (his brother, Benji, started the Alonso Menendez brand in 1980).

Brazilian-wrapped smokes are never going to be as aesthetically appealing as those from, say, the Dominican Republic. Mata Fina and Mata Norte leaves are, by definition, a little rough around the edges. But the five-inch Alonso Menendez Robusto doesn’t make a bad first impression. While the wrapper is a little lumpy, this is overshadowed by the fragrant tobacco’s pre-light notes of chocolate and sweet hay.

And after all, taste is what really counts. That’s why it’s a treat to light up the Robusto and find a very familiar, very approachable, profile of milk chocolate and coffee bean. Tons of flavor yet very little nicotine kick and only the faintest black pepper spice. Call it nostalgia—call it whatever you want—but this cigar takes me back, and I like it. Only some sour notes in the final third detract from my overall experience.

The Robusto’s construction thankfully doesn’t get in the way of my enjoyment of the flavor. The burn line is very straight and requires no touch-ups to stay even or lit. The gray ash holds firm. And the draw is smooth with each puff producing lots of smoke.

My colleagues and I have written about how our tastes change with time. That’s no doubt true. Yet I’m still a big fan of this smoke, and I’d wager there will always be room in my humidor for a cigar that reminds me of moist chocolate cake. Keep an eye out for more information about Alonso Menendez—including availability and prices—following this month’s IPCPR Trade Show. For now, I award the Robusto a stellar rating of four stogies out of five.

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

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Much of what I smoke is driven by the needs of StogieGuys.com: what we haven’t yet reviewed, what readers are asking us to review, what’s new, etc. This requires a ton of variety. (I know it’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it). When I’m just smoking for sheer enjoyment, though, I find myself favoring a few select blends at any given time.

Over the past few days I’ve been smoking more for enjoyment and less for this site. If you follow us on Facebook, you’ll note that I recently took a brief vacation to Florida—a trip that afforded me the luxury of firing up whatever I wanted. I think it’s telling of my taste to look at the cigars I decided to take to Florida.

Tesa Gran Cru Limited Edition. This one-size, box-pressed cigar is all about balance. Anyone can put together a spicy, heavy-handed powerhouse, but few can construct a medium-bodied blend with such equilibrium as Tesa’s Chris Kelly. This torpedo’s Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, criollo ’98 binder from Jalapa, and Nicaraguan filler tobaccos combine to yield a woodsy flavor with notes of cream, salty peanut, and coffee. You can bet I’ll be all over this smoke again as soon as more become available at Kelly’s Chicago shop.

Nestor Miranda Grand Reserve. Remember this cigar? It was released in the summer of 2011 and then, as far as I can tell, sort of forgotten. But I’ve been impressed by the single size, a torpedo (6.1 x 52) with a Connecticut broadleaf wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and filler tobaccos. The flavor has a dry spice with earth, coffee, and caramel. Normally priced around $12, my local shop put the Grand Reserve on special for $9.50 earlier this year, and I decided to stock up. I’m glad I did as it’s currently a favorite.

God of Fire Serie B Double Robusto 2011. I know I reviewed this cigar very recently. I know Prometheus is one of our advertisers. Ever since I tried the Serie B Double Robusto 2011, though, I’ve seriously been hooked. And for good reason. The Double Robusto (5.75 x 52) has an Ecuadorian sun-grown wrapper and a great profile of pepper, raisin, dark chocolate, and espresso. It also smokes like a champ, as it should for $22. I can’t afford to smoke this cigar too frequently, but my vacation was a nice excuse to burn a few of these.

Pinar del Rio Small Batch Reserve Habano Gran Toro. No, not everything on my list has to be expensive. While recently I’ve been reaching for a fair number of super-premiums, I realize this isn’t sustainable. So I’ve also been smoking a few more modestly priced smokes, like the Small Batch Reserve Habano Gran Toro from Pinar del Rio, which packs a flavor of sweet wood for about $6. It also boasts the excellent construction I’ve come to expect from Abe Flores’ brand.

Now these aren’t the same cigars I chose to smoke for pure enjoyment a few months ago, and they probably won’t be the same cigars I’ll choose months from now. My tastes tend to be somewhat seasonal. Just like I prefer rum in the summer and bourbon in the winter, I tend towards milder, creamier smokes in the summer and heartier, spicier cigars in the winter.

In addition, no matter how good a cigar is, I find the principle of diminishing marginal utility starts to apply if I fire up the same stick over and over. So it makes sense for me to rotate my favorites, even as they get interspersed with the cigars I smoke for this website.

In any event, I figured it might be interesting for me to share what cigars I’ve been selecting from my stash lately. Feel free to share your current favorites in the comments below.

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Last week I interviewed Michael Frey who owns Casa Fuente in Las Vegas, a cigar destination worth visiting if you are ever in Sin City. Today, I’m reviewing the new Casa Fuente exclusive cigar, which Frey mentioned he was smoking while answering my questions.

The new smoke is the second Casa Fuente exclusive smoke, made (no surprise) by Arturo Fuente. The first, we were told by Casa Fuente manager Michael Fayerverger, was a variation of the Opus X blend made with a Cameroon wrapper.

This second, new Casa Fuente blend is quite different. According to Frey, the cigar features a Havana-seed Ecuadorian sun-grown rosado wrapper around binder and filler comprised of “secret tobaccos” from the Fuentes’ Dominican farm. The cigar, he says, was blended by Carlito and introduced earlier this year. (The rosado wrapper is likely the same as the Rosado Sungrown Magnum R blend.)

The cigar is available in three sizes: 806, 807, and 808, which I’d estimate to be a robsuto (5.25 x 52), double robusto (5.75 x 52), and toro (6 x 54). I smoked one of each and found them to be sufficiently similar to be summarized together in one review. The cigars cost $21, $22, and $24, respectively and, depending on what report you read, are strictly limited to one or two cigars per person on a given day.

The new 800 series Casa Fuente features a complex combination of clove, nutmeg, molasses, wood, leather, and earth. It’s medium- to full-bodied with excellent balance and tons of complexity. The molasses and clove build towards the second half, creating an extraordinarily savory blend.

While it contains Dominican binder and filler tobaccos, I seriously doubt it uses the same binder-filler combination as the Opus X and original Casa Fuente, as both are the same cigar except for the wrapper. This cigar has far less peppery spice than either of those cigars. Instead, it is full of clove and cinnamon spice.

Tasty, unique, complex, and, yes, expensive. The original Casa Fuente is a tremendous cigar and this new rosado-wrapped version is a worthy successor. For that, the new Casa Fuente 800 series earns a formidable four and a half stogies out of five.

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

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Five years ago I interviewed Casa Fuente General Manager Michael Fayerverger for one of our first “Cigar Insider” interviews. Over half a decade later, I decided to check back in on Casa Fuente, one of the most iconic cigar destinations in the U.S.

This time I interviewed Michael Frey, proprietor of Casa Fuente (as well as Rhumbar) in Las Vegas. Our discussion included my favorite drink on the Casa Fuente menu, a new Casa Fuente blend, and the Aruro Fuente Cigar Company’s 100th anniversary.

Stogie Guys: How have the past five years been?

Michael Frey: Business has continued to grow over the past five years and each year we’ve added a lot of new customers who love the experience and continue to come back.

SG: Even though we’re doing this interview by email, I suspect you have a cigar lit while you write your responses. What cigar is it?

MF: How did you know? It’s the new Casa Fuente Series 5 Special Selection 806.

SG: You’ve added to the Casa Fuente cigar line this year. Tell us about the new addition.

MF: It’s called the Casa Fuente Series 5 Special Selection. There are three cigars, the 806, 807, and 808. All three have a 50-ring gauge and range from robusto to short churchill. They feature a Havana-seed, Ecuadorian sun-grown rosado wrapper and the binder and filler are secret tobaccos from the Fuente’s farm blended by Carlito.

SG: This year is the 100th anniversary of Arturo Fuente Cigars. Any special events planned at Casa Fuente? How about special cigars?

MF: On the Saturday night of the Las Vegas Big Smoke, Carlito will be cutting a giant birthday cake. As far as cigars go, you never know what Carlito will do.

SG: As the owner of Casa Fuente, you have access to some of the rarest Fuente cigars. Which ultra-rare Fuente is your all-time favorite?

MF: I have two, the Brain Hemorrhage and the P.J.

SG: Anytime I’m in Vegas I have to stop by for one of Casa Fuente’s Don Carlos Caipirinhas, which uses a tobacco-infused Grand Marnier float. I’ve had caipirinhas all around the world, including Brazil, but that’s my favorite. Can you shed a little light on that recipe?

MF: The intense, smoky flavor comes from the Grand Marnier float which features an infusion of an aromatic pipe tobacco. It was developed by Francesco LaFranconi, a master mixologist for Southern Wine & Spirits here in Las Vegas.

SG: Because of the warehouse fire that wiped out some of their most prized tobaccos, the Fuentes have said that some of their 100th Anniversary Celebration cigars will be delayed until next year. Any insight into what we can expect?

MF: From what I understand, there will be an introduction of several new brands under the Opus X brand name, including the Angel Share which I smoked recently when Carlito came to Las Vegas for a visit. It was heavenly, living up to its name.

Many thanks to Michael Frey for taking the time to answer our questions. If you even in Las Vegas, I highly recommend stopping by Casa Fuente for some fine cigars and beverages. Speaking from personal experience, it is well worth the trip. My personal favorite is a pairing of the original Casa Fuente cigar and a Don Carlos Caipirinha.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys