The Thrifty Reason for the Season

I'm ashamed of you all, our holiday sales have sucked. I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

Holiday sales in general have been way down this year. People are still paying off holiday shopping from two years ago. I sell a luxury item. I get it, when the purse strings tighten, cigars are one of the first items to go. Our Black Friday deals were left untouched, too. This holiday season has been one of thrift.

As it turns out, I've spoken to a number of other small business owners aside from my boss, and they're experiencing similar issues. Good friend of mine who owns a Mercedes Benz repair facility just recently took in an S-class Benz that the guy had to default on - he couldn't pay the repair bill, and it went into lien, that's truly sad.

So we've had to change our game up around here, too. Previously, we've floated comfortably on our collection of regular customers, never really excelling as a business, but never in danger of closing our doors, either. Many of our clientele are affluent, some are downright wealthy, but when surrounded by people cutting costs, they've seen the writing on the wall and cut back alongside them. I'm not sure whether it's a show of solidarity or out of fear. The money has to go somewhere, and I go everywhere.

So our previous lineup was a fairly large percentage of super premium blends surrounded by many other top end sticks, moderately priced, like Pepin Garcia, Fuente, etc. We've kept the super premium lineup, but cut down the "middle class" of cigars. Now I know how Obama feels. ZING!

So I've brought in a lot of cheaper cigars. Not entirely comfortable about it, but that endless stream of reps has been good for something. I want to keep making money, and they share in my dream. Solidarity.

Take the Azan line we just stocked for example:

These cigars represent some great blends that have come out on the market recently, but their goal is to shoot down the competition based on price.

The right cigar is an Authentico Maduro at about ten bucks. Closest competition is Hoja de Florez's Maduro at around 12.50.

The tubo in the back? That's their burgundy line, a dark Sumatra at 5.50, sweet, and similar to Pepin Garcia's Flor de las Antillas (at around 7.50). I've sold a ton of these as gifts, since the tube makes for a better presentation.

None of the Azan line has really perfected what the competition is doing, but the small ring gauges and price tags represent a great choice for someone who doesn't want to blow as much money as the competition wants. We make slightly less on the lower-priced cigars, naturally, but retain a customer or get a new sale out of it. That's okay, I'm okay with that.

We've also been selling samplers, over a hundred of the damn things. I just pull five similar-bodied cigars off the shelf, bundle and label them, and knock 20% off the price. Suddenly a one or two stick sale becomes a five stick sale, albeit at a lower profit margin. That's okay, I'm okay with that.

Bundles are in now, we got ninety of them the night of the event from another rep, who was disappointed he couldn't showcase his premium product the same night, so it goes. In just shy of a week, I've iced over 20% of that stock. We only make about twenty dollars on a bundle, but they make a perfect companion for a new humidor, which should be kept at or above 50% capacity. That's okay, I'm okay with that.

We're working hard to keep business in Central Florida, and truth to be told, it's working.

-Ephram Rafael Nadaner

Current Smoke: Bundle Ecuadorian Habana (Solidarity, brothers!), and it ain't half bad.

Honest Cigar Reviews - 262 Paradigm

I lit this box-pressed stick on a whim from my humidor at the shop, and just wanted something mild to smoke. I decided that wasn't fair. Guy from Kuutz gave me this stick to review from 262 called the "Paradigm". Apparently, it's gotten a 91 from Cigar Snob, one of the magazines I actually still have waning respect for. We'll see.

Size is a box pressed Toro, or thereabouts, straight-cut, lit with a soft flame, drinking nothing for the moment. Yadda yadda, I treat this cigar like every other cigar I smoke - I'm giving it a fair chance.

Let's talk qualitative for a moment. The Paradigm features a Brazilian Mata Fina wrapper, Honduran binder, and a blend of Nicaraguan and Colombian fillers. No wonder my mustache has turned white. This is an interesting lineup for me. Leaving the wrapper aside for a moment, the filler/binder comes from not one or two, but three countries. I have to wonder if 262 thought more countries = more complexity or something, sadly, it's not the case.

Cigar is about medium, tested it out by retro-inhale. Not too shabby, and not unexpected. Nicaraguan tobacco tends to be more full bodied in the industry, Honduran tends to be a little milder, they met somewhere in between.

What this cigar is missing is in the flavor department. This four-country blend of a stick should be loaded with complexity, I expected rich coffee cocoa notes from the Brazilian wrapper, subtle earthy notes from the Honduran binder, and a little kick of pepper from Nicaragua's leaves. Of those three, the only one I'm tasting is a twinge of earthiness.

What I'm left with then, is this unique combination of flavors that tastes mostly bread-like going into the second third. Spice notes seem distinctly buried in the back of the palate somewhere, like they didn't want me to taste them, so 262 brands buried them out in the desert somewhere hoping I'd never find them.

When I re-lit (this smoke keeps going out, even with me puffing on it), I got a hit of leather, like I'd just walked past a leather store just as some lady came out clutching a new handbag she's just paid Coach pricing for with a "Made in China" sticker on the bottom. Great investment, idiot.

What else is there... uh... oh, draw. Draw is pretty open, which is actually surprising because the cigar looks like it's rolled pretty tightly. Also surprising, because it keeps going out as I mentioned before. Ain't this thing just a casual anomaly?

Singles are selling for 8.67 online when I checked. I can't help but bring up that manufacturers like Pepin Garcia can get you the total package for under eight bucks, when this cigar is struggling for a few cents more (keep in mind that's the online price). Variety may be the spice of life, but I cannot endorse a product that charges more for less.

I'd say I'm disappointed, but that's not entirely fair. 262 took a bold leap in combining four country's worth of tobacco into one blend, and it didn't work out exactly as planned. Perhaps they really like it, maybe they're just trying to unload it and get to the next project. But I have to give the guys credit for trying. I am not assigning this cigar an approval rating, it would not be fair.

-Ephram Rafael Nadaner

What Worked, What Didn't - Running a Successful Event

We hear it all the time. Underpromise, overdeliver. This last weekend was no exception as my shop hosted the wonderful Azarias Cordoba and his lovely wife Emille in our Cordoba and Morales Cigar event.

The event was a rousing success, pulling in our best day's take by orders of magnitude. And I attribute this success to several measures.

• Z and Emille are excellent people. They took care of most of our event preparation for us, including cooking the most amazing pork you can imagine. Z's pork might be better than his cigars. Might.
• We reached a pretty critical saturation of event advertisement between my last-minute email reminder, facebook notifications, in-person reminders, and general word of mouth. The place was packed, almost to our fire code occupancy. It was awesome.
• Cordoba and Morales doesn't make shitty cigars. Not a one of them is less than excellent. Their original lineup, the Front Nine, 19th Hole, and Family Reserve are all outstanding unique boutique blends, and if you haven't smoked them you're a bad person and you should feel bad. All joking aside, do yourself (and their growing business) a favor and try one immediately. They are crazy-talk good for the price.
• Their special edition Clave Cubana is also stupid-good. "Ephram," you say. "Two points about cigars? You're a mad-man!" Well, yes, it's true, their cigars are so good, they merit two points.
• We're small, and we're okay with that. One of our major competitors was hosting an event the same night as us with Drew Estate, and as you might imagine, it was wildly popular. I didn't even have to check to know that. Why do I know that? It's fucking Drew Estate. They're popular as hell right now for good reason, they've worked incredibly hard on a new series of blends that are coming out really great. Good for them, they're giant, and we're small, and again... We like it that way.

That's it, I think. So, yeah... if you were here with us, you done good, kid. If not, you should be ashamed.

In all seriousness, though, these events are going to be the lifeblood of this thing I'm managing, for better or worse. I'd love to have one every month, but I fear that might over saturate people with cigars and tire them out on us, so I'm going to settle for six a year - every other month - unless I receive indication that we need more than that.

So, in the spirit of my missing Friday update, and given that I've told you everything that worked really well, so far... here's what crashed and burned.

Our email updates went out late. Our provider, GoDaddy, only allows us 250 SMTP relays per day. If you don't understand what that means, never fear. It essentially means we can only send 250 messages per day. Our address list is over 700 names, so I had to spread these emails out over three days to fully saturate our email list. Unfortunately I only found out I had to do this three days before the event, so the final emails went out the day of the event. Obviously less than ideal.

In this email I advertised some things that none of us knew would not be happening. I'd been told about raffles and free drinks that never materialized. I should not have said anything about them, but at least no one grumbled at the lack of free shirts and cold beer. C'est la vie.

Finally, I advertised something else that I should not have. One of my regulars asked me to include information about a card tournament, explaining that he had already discussed it with my boss, the owner. As it turned out, he was lying. While I cannot stress that the card game going on was entirely legal tournament style play, my boss did not want that information included in the mailer because he was worried about perception drawing scrutiny while we're trying to make money here. As we all know, even when doing nothing wrong, legal complications can surround a small business and really drive it into the ground.

So that's it, with the mail situation sorted, I'll just have the owner sign off on a draft before mailing out about the next event, and we'll be all set.

S/BOTL, please have a happy holiday and remember the reason for the season - Enjoying great smokes with your friends and family while they're in town! Just kidding, but no really, smoke 'em while you got 'em.

-Ephram Rafael Nadaner

Current Smoke: Cordoba Hand-Rolled (from the above event, extremely good for being rolled three days ago!)

Content Blackout - My Apologies

Well folks, looks like I set myself up to fail with my rigorous content schedule. Last weekend was a whirlwind of people graduating, events happening, and getting personally engaged to the girl of my dreams.

Let the regular updates begin... again.

Humidification, Hygrometers, Humidors - Oh My

After just going through an overhaul of my shops humidification systems I thought I'd talk briefly (no way, Ephram, briefly?) on humidification and it's importance regarding cigars.

Anyone that knows anything about cigars knows they can't be kept on your kitchen counter for very long. Cigars, like pretty much any consumable are hydroscopic in nature, meaning they absorb relative humidity from their surrounding atmosphere. The appropriate environment for cigars is one of debate, but general consensus is that they should be kept around 70% Relative Humidity (RH), and 70 degrees Fahrenheit. This can be a challenge to achieve, especially in Florida, where air conditioning your home or business to 70 degrees can cost a fortune.

However, controlling the humidification is somewhat easier, and cheaper, than controlling the air temperature, so that's a good place to start.

Cigar smokers are offered a plethora of humidification devices on the market today. Everything from high end active humidifiers that blow the humidity around your storage device, eliminating deadspots, to conventional sponge-style humidifiers that come free with most humidors, or cost less than five bucks on their own. Here's an overview:

• Active Electric Humidification: These devices use electricity and some kind of reservoir in conjunction with a hygrometer to measure the relative humidity of your storage solution and blow humidity around to achieve the desired level. Cigar Oasis manufacturers a popular line of such devices.
• Two-Way Humidity Packs: These devices, somewhat new to the market, are great for keeping a small number of cigars at perfect humidity in a sealed environment. They consist of a paper-packet with a membrane that achieves isotonicity between the inside of the packet and the outside environment. Their best feature? They're one of very few solutions capable of bringing down humidity as well as raising it back up. Boveda, distributed by Ashton, are forerunners in this category. If you live in a dry environment, they're also good for storing guitars and other wood instruments, as well as artwork, to protect against cracking.
• Two-Way Humidity Beads: While the packets may be no-nonsense, Heartfelt Industries makes another two-way humidity product in the form of small ceramic-like beads that come in a variety of containers. The beads are also capable of absorbing excess humidity and become clear when properly humidified. They come in a variety of pre-calibrated humidification levels, 60%, 65%, 70%, and so on.
• Crystal Gel Humidifiers: These new crystal jelly humidification devices on the market replaced the older style sponge-humidifiers because they're less susceptible to clogging over time. They consist of a perforated container filled with hard crystals that absorb several times their weight in water and humidify your storage solution passively. Many manufacturers make these, and some higher end humidors are now starting to come with them standard. I've both used and sold the Cigar Savor line of humidifiers in store, and they work fairly well.
• Sponge Style Humidifier: For many years these represented the only method of keeping your cigars properly humidified, and some experts still swear by them. They're very simple devices, made up of a perforated container filled with a spongy foam insert, resoundingly similar to floral foam used in the flowershop industry. Simply fill them with water and drain the excess, and they should keep your cigars humidified without issues. Many humidors come standard with these, but it is recommended to upgrade sooner rather than later, because they can become clogged by water impurities fairly easily.

All of these solutions, except the sealed packets, work best when supplied with distilled water - which has nearly zero impurities. Feeding your humidification anything less than distilled water is asking for the device to become clogged with impurities, and you risk malfunction and possible damage to your cigars. Luckily, pure distilled water is available in most grocery stores and drugstores for about a dollar a gallon, supporting the cheapskate in all of us.

So now that you're set up with humidification, you need some way to track it, to quantify how humid your storage solution is. Well, that means a hygrometer. Fortunately, they only come in two varieties, digital and analog, and function just like watches.

Analog hygrometers are simply a gauge with a needle that measures humidity, usually attached to a synthetic fiber wrapped around the column that expands and contracts with humidity. They're notoriously inaccurate and require recalibration fairly regularly.

Digital hygrometers use a silicon plate with two conductors at either end. Air moisture attaches to the silicon and the hygrometer measures relevant conductivity between the two ends. More conductivity means more humidity. These can be extremely accurate or terrible depending on their build quality, and tend to hold their calibration longer than their analog brethren. 

So you've got a humdifier, you've got a hygrometer, now you need a place to put it all together, your humidor.

Humidors can be as elaborate as you want. In my shop, we use twelve cases with sliding glass doors and wood interiors to store our cigars. This has the benefit of keeping the smoke from our lounge from attaching to the cigars, while providing a fairly well sealed environment to keep humidity from escaping.

Some people use tupperware. Hey, it seals, and works great. It's not pretty, but who gives a crap if it keeps your cigars come out perfect?

Most people fall somewhere in the mean and use a wooden box with Spanish kiln-dried cedar lining the inside and a fairly good risen seal. These embody the true definition of humidors, and can be as small as 4-5 count or as large as a thousand or more. A quality wooden humidor has an added benefit that my cabinets or tupperware can never touch.

The wood itself is hydroscopic, containing even more humidity to protect your cigars from drying out. In addition, as the wood trades humidity with the cigars, contaminants like ammonia or sulfates are removed from the cigars, cleansing them, and perfecting their taste over time. Better humidors actually age your cigars to perfection faster. Mind blowing, I know. You too, can perform the Kessel Run in under 12 parsecs.

So hey, that's that, Quality humidifier in a quality humidor measured by a quality hygrometer equals perfect cigars. Get out there and show them who's boss.

-Ephram Rafael Nadaner

Current Smoke: 5 Vegas Classic 

Regular Feature: Honest Cigar Reviews - Rodrigo Boutique Blend

I've contemplated whether or not to do feature-length reviews for the last few days. On the one hand, as I've said before, I'm not here to give anyone bad press. On the other, it's a good recurring feature that can give a little guidance in the realm of cigars.

I finally decided to start reviews on a constructive criticism type basis. If the manufacturers are displeased with what I have to say, that's fine. It won't sour any existing relationship with my shop.

That being said, I recently had a rep in here with probably around 14-15 cigar lines he was trading in. This is way too many in my opinion, but whatever. He showcased several different cigars, and gave me two of each. One for my boss, the owner of my shop, and one for me to smoke.

Today, I'm smoking the Rodrigo Boutique Blend he gave me. It measures out at around 6x54, which is odd, because the only 6" cigar in the line is a 60 ring gauge, which this is clearly not. Right off the bat, I'm scratching my head at the consistency of their line. I know my cigar didn't shrink, or have a portion of the foot cut off for any reason. I guess it's possible their website hasn't been updated to reflect a new size or something.

The Wrapper on this Boutique Blend by Rodrigo is a darker Ecuadorian Habano seed. Normally, I find Habano Sun Grown stuff to be a little more sweet, but this blend edges more on the spicy side. It's possible it was a later priming on the plant - taken from a little higher - and received a little more sun contributing to it's spicy richness. Either way, not a bad flavor, and not too overpowering. It does have a tendency to kind of coat my tongue early on in the cigar, but I'll report back in as it changes.

Early body, for the first half of the stick, is actually fairly mild. For some, it might top out at just barely a medium, but it's a flavor stick for now, and that's good, because I haven't eaten a real breakfast today. The Rodrigo Boutique Blend isn't likely to make anyone sick.

Draw is a little tight. And I find that the cigars I smoke with a tighter draw tend to produce less smoke, and feel milder as a result. In this case, it's not terrible, and doesn't merit opening up with a paper clip or cigar auger. I'm just going to power through it. It might be more serviceable humidified to 68-69%RH instead of the regular 70% I keep my cigars at.

The filler and binder for this blend are both sourced from the Dominican Republic, which may contribute to it's milder body profile. Dominican tobacco tends to err on the milder side, with the fuller bodied stuff coming out of Nicaragua these days. However, the Dominican Republic has the best torcedors (rollers) right now. As this cigar is Dominican in origin, I'm surprised it has draw issues.

Spice on the lips is very mild, and very Dominican in flavor. It has that kind of "soft" quality for me that I can only explain by likening it to cheese flavor. In this simile, Sharp Cheddar would be Nicaraguan, Milder Cheddar would be Dominican/Honduran. That's not to say anything about this cigar is "cheesy" it's just difficult to hammer down that kind of tactile quality in the flavor.

As far as the general flavor, well, it's definitely tobacco, there's no mistaking that. Sadly, other than the aforementioned soft Dominican spice flavor, there's not much else going on.

Towards the half way mark, I picked up a little tang of earthiness in the tip of the tongue - somewhat metallic in nature. The herbs are coming in now, leafy stuff like oregano or cilantro comes to mind. I recommend smoking this guy a little slower - this has been a problem for me lately on full-size ring gauges. Smoking it too quickly makes it taste somewhat like cigarettes.

As for the price. I can't really pin it down that well since I have no idea what size the rep gave me. Middle of the road suggests the MSRP is about seven or eight bucks. For a real boutique blend, that's a bargain, but I feel like the Rodrigo Boutique Blend comes a little shy of "Boutique Status" especially since they can be found online from tobacco merchants on Yahoo's platform. I tend to think of boutique cigars as being sold in B&M locations only. For the price, this is a pretty middle-of-the-road stick, and I wouldn't spend more than five or six dollars on it. It's not that outstanding, especially when Fuente has a six dollar Brickhouse with my name on it somewhere right now.

All in all, I consider this cigar to be "alright", let it age a little bit and it might even be "pretty good", but when the competition has better blends, at better prices, that are good right now, I can't see this guy being a huge winner.

3/5, middle of the road.

-Ephram Rafael Nadaner

The Retroinhale: How to Test Cigar Body

First I'd like to give a shout out to the guys at tappedthatash, with whom I'm looking to cross promote my store. They're pretty neat guys, the lot of them, and seem to jibe pretty well with my style. If you're looking for no nonsense reviews, they're up to the task.

I've had a couple people hit me up on reddit's /r/cigars asking about how to determine the body of the cigar. I'd like to get one thing out of the way: as I have mentioned before, when referring to body, I speak of Nicotine content. It seems like everyone has their own definition of what "body" is when referring to cigars. For some, including the publisher of the 33 Cigars journal I spoke about earlier, the "body" of a cigar is simply the part you hold in your hand. Well, that's actually true. In construction terms, a cigar has three sections: head, where you smoke, body, where you hold, and foot, where you light. So while 33 Books isn't incorrect, their definition of body is somewhat unimportant when rating cigars. I mean, what are you going to say in your rating?

"I found the body to be round."

Get out of here. Go.

I'm not here to toot my own horn, but I've spoken with several classically trained tobacconists, rollers, blenders, people that own the companies you know and love, and body is Nicotine content, that's pretty much it.

That being out of the way, I've already spoken on how the industry has a tendency to confuse Body and Flavor. I'm not going to reiterate too much, but just because a cigar is mild in flavor does not mean it's incapable of knocking you on your ass with huge body.

DJ HawaiianShirt asked me on an earlier post about ways to detect the strength of a cigar without relying on reviews or asking your tobacconist. Truthfully, there's only one, and it's right between your eyes and your mouth.

The Retroinhale, commonly known around my shop as "rolling the smoke" is puffing on the cigar in your mouth, and exhaling it through your nose without inhaling it into your lungs. I'm not going to lie, it's a tricky technique at first, but I can no longer smoke without retroinhaling automatically. Retroinhaling, like learning to drive manual, can be difficult. But, like riding around in your friend's 5.0 Mustang with a manual transmission (I'm talking to you, StormSigma), it opens your up to new possibilities.

The tongue is pretty weak at detecting certain flavors, we actually have two palates to aid us in flavor-detection. Your lower palate is in the roof of your mouth, your upper is actually in your nasal cavity. They're both different in what they can taste, which is why some people love the smell of foods and hate the taste - the two are highly related but still completely different. Retroinhalation allows you to savor the flavor from both regions of your palate, opening you up to previously unknown flavors of your cigar. If you smoke from your mouth alone, you're only getting half the flavor.

As an added benefit, retroinhalation is a mechanism by which you can determine the body (read: Nicotine Content) of your cigar. In the bridge of your nose are a series of detectors that become irritated in the presence of Nicotine (can you tell I'm not exactly a biology major?). The "burn" you get from retroinhale is directly related to the cigar's body. More burn equals more body. Sadly, this means you have to smoke a cigar to determine it's true body, but it beats enjoying a quality stick, only to find out you need to go vomit half-way through - least to note the aforementioned benefit of more flavors.

Over time, you'll develop a really highly calibrated sense of a cigars body from the first few warm-up puffs. I can often tell if a cigar will be mild, medium, or full before the flavor completely turns on.

Guys, try it out and let me know what you think. It definitely beats judging the body based on the nausea you get post-burn.

-Ephram Rafael Nadaner

Current Smoke: Ezra Zion Jamais Vu (consistent burner, but not my style)

Regular Feature: What Works, What Doesn't

It dons on me that if I want to keep this thing I've got going on here long-term, and keep posting content faithfully on the schedule I've laid out for myself, then I probably need some kind of schedule of content. I think you guys, my readers, should know what to expect a few times a week out of whatever I've got going on here. That being said, I intend to introduce a series of regular posts, reoccurring weekly, to tempt you guys into maybe coming back.

My week-end Friday Update will be entitled: "What Works, What Doesn't", and will focus on what improvements have worked within my storefront, and what tactics we're abandoning or modifying due to their previous failures.

So, first, what's worked?

Samplers: We recently introduced discounted samplers at the front counter in three varieties: Mild-to-Medium, Medium, and Medium-to-Full. Each sampler contains five cigars, for the price of four. We essentially write off the lowest price cigar in the sampler.

This is a win-win for many reasons. Customers who come in to buy gifts for others often become shell-shocked when they don't have product knowledge. I have to query them on what the recipient might be interested in smoking, and only about 2-3% of these customers actually know what they're looking for, whether it's a specific brand, wrapper, or type of body. For the other 97%, I have precious minutes to figure out what their significant other might appreciate receiving when the gifter has no idea what the giftee likes.

This is challenging, frustrating, and I'd be lying if I told you it was an exact science.

I could do like my boss wants me to, put them on the most expensive cigar in the store and pray the customer doesn't freak out at the price and leave, and pray the recipient has a taste for fine Davidoffs or Diamond Crown Maximus. However, this doesn't seem like the most successful way to build long-term customers.

I'm not introducing them to every cigar in the store. Ain't nobody got time for that.

So these samplers, they're my solution to satisfying my boss, the customer, and myself. Boss man is happy because I still sell the customer on about 35 dollars worth of product. Customer is happy because they didn't get bombarded by a bunch of information they have no idea how to process - they get something and get out. I'm happy because with one question, I can usually put the gifter on the right sampler. Slip a business card in the bag, and boom, Return Monthly Revenue.

These samplers have been a huge hit. Specifically the Mild-to-Medium ones. I attribute this to the fact that customers who come in without any cigar knowledge usually lack the experience to appreciate the fuller side of the spectrum. They're Flavor Smokers, and the milder Romeo y Julietas, Montecristo Classics, and Fuente Rosados are the perfect fit.

As an unintended benefit of these custom samplers, I have the opportunity to promote new cigars, and cigars with sluggish sales. Let me be clear, we don't stock any "bad" cigars. I don't stock a cigar that I wouldn't smoke. I don't stock anything with huge inconsistency, with a terrible flavor profile, or a really artificial flavor. We only stock Premium Hand Made, Long Filler, Cigars. So when I slip a less popular cigar or something new into one of the samplers, I'm not doing it to cheat the customer, to make them buy something they didn't want in order to get the superior deal. I'm doing it because we have some amazing cigars in the store that just lack a cult following to move very quickly. These blends are still great, I'm just hoping that someone will hit on them and come back to buy more.

What crashed and burned?

I wouldn't call it a spectacular failure, but we recently stocked Aging Room's new Wild Pack. The principle behind this 10 cigar sampler was pretty cool: There's two each, of five different blends. Each cigar is identified by only a letter and a number, like M356, or F55. Each cigar has a supplementary foot band with a little star-rating chart. Smokers are supposed to smoke the cigars, fill out the ratings, and go online to input them on a website. The highest rated cigar by average will become Aging Room's new blend in the next year.

This is brilliant, it's cool, and it feels awesome. Get cigar smokers involved in the product testing? Perfect, then you don't have to pay someone else to do it. Charge them for the privilege of smoking your new blends? Sure, if you have the fan base, why wouldn't you charge for a sneak peak and what might be the new blend.

You're all sensing the "but". Well, here it is. I asked the boys over on reddit's /r/Cigars if they would be interested all things considered, and the price was too damn high. The Wild Pack retails for 99.95 MSRP, or thereabouts (within a few dollars, including shipping), and that works out to about ten dollars per cigar. Most of Aging Room's other stuff is 7.95 in it's largest vitolas. So they're effectively charging a 25% premium for new, unproven, blends.

The wild pack bites, hard.

The folks on /r/Cigars suggested prices ranging from an insulting 40$ (where I would be losing a few dollars on every sale) to about 75-80$, which seems a little bit more reasonable given Aging Room's stuff. Someone over at corporate oughta swat these dudes upside the head for pricing their samplers so damn high. (While they're at it, roll across the pond and smack Altadis for what they did to their holiday gift packs. No one wants to pay a twenty percent increase for a tire gauge in their Romeo Gift Pack. It's stupid).

Corporate pricing is a bit off this Holiday Season, like Santa Claus saw us putting Christmas shit up before Thanksgiving and rolled around town magically, beating people with the stupid stick.

So the wild pack, I only asked for two units to pilot, and my boss ordered four. I managed to sell three of them at a tasting event with some buddies of mine, so we made our money back and then some. It's safe to say I will take price into consideration before making a snap judgement on a "cool" product like that again. I'm just glad I could get out of it without a loss.

Enjoy your Friday, folks. It's certifiably not hump-day.

-Ephram Rafael Nadaner
Current Smoke: La Mousa Melete Robusto (Mild and unoffensive)

The Good, The Bad, and the Weird

In my informal interview with Reddit yesterday while cross promoting my blog, I got asked a question about all the characters that show up in my shop. It's absolutely true of pretty much every cigar shop - we get a lot of odd customers.

My favorite customers are, of course, my regulars. The guys I can really nail down the palate of really appreciate my memory when I really hit on a new recommendation. These customers have the most long-term psychological benefit for me at the store, because if anything wears you down in the retail business, it's an endless torrent of people who simultaneously want and know nothing about your product. I will never be a pharmacy rep.

An added benefit of my regular customers is that they fill up the store and give it the appearance of desirable business. Newcomers are wary when it's just them and I in the store, which thanks to our operational model is fairly frequent. Having a few regulars around puts the newcomers at ease, probably because they think: "Oh, there's a couple dudes in here, clearly he's not driving away business for any reason. Maybe I can do business here, too."

One final benefit of maintaining a swathe of regulars in the shop is the business they attract, and create. I've met with multiple people who have referred my for other jobs, other contacts, etc. These people really make up that Cigar Shop Social Network I was talking about before.

All good things accounted for, we do have some bad apples every so often. Yesterday, I had to kick out an abusive salesman who made the critical error of leaving his business card within my reach. His boss reported him to be on probationary status when I met him for a cigar this morning, I thought he had been fired, but I guess the guy has a heart. It is the Holiday Season, after all.

Lately, I've had this one Columbian lady coming in off a bicycle. She's told me a number of outright lies about her dealings with other shops in the area. Surprise, surprise, we're actually pretty tightly knit. Just because a shop is my competitor doesn't mean we don't look out for each other. It's actually on the contrary. I'm good friends with a number of other shop owners and managers around the area, and we trade business and information all the time. So this lady keeps coming in, harassing my boss and I about offering her a job, and explains that even though we're overstaffed, we don't really have to fire anyone. Her womanly touch will attract more customers to the store! Did I mention this lady rides a bicycle everywhere? The only thing she's attracting are insects, she smells like death.

In 2011 we had an issue with two Cuban guys who were able to "purchase" a bunch of stuff from us including a Dupont Lighter, two boxes of cigars, and several cutters on a hacked credit card. Their card phreaked out our terminal into running a transaction in "Forced" mode, which any retail savvy employee will tell you, means it will try to process the transaction regardless of credit status on the other end of the line. We lost 1800 dollars in product that night because our new guy at the time was on the job, and didn't know what to look for.

Finally, we come to the oddballs. Those that aren't quite harmful to the shop, but are still a little bit odd.

I mentioned our lovable Don Carlos on Reddit already, but he deserves another honorable mention here. The Don is clearly altered. He's slipping into dementia, or Alzheimers, or something. Two weeks ago, he told me he was head of the Window Washer's Union in New York City, where he responded to an accident about a man falling seventy-something stories and living, because he landed on the tips of his fingers and toes. He's reported that he told Jimmy Hoffa to "go fuck himself" on more than one occasion - four years after Mr. Hoffa went missing. He was approached about being the first white member of the Black Panthers for his interracial relations-fostering demeanor. He knows where the National Treasure is buried, because he's a grand wizard or whatever in the Freemasons.

The list goes on.

The Don doesn't set us on edge, purely because his bullshit reeks so badly you cannot possibly not smell it. He's a lovable commodity in our shop for whenever we need a good laugh, and he's not offended by this in the slightest.

Lastly, I'd like to give a mention to a gentlemen we did finally have to ask to leave permanently, Cuz.

I want to make something clear. I actually liked Cuz. The guy had a heart of gold. Unfortunately, he's also beamed up enough lines of coke in his day that he's permanently on edge. The guy carried the coffee pot for Narcotics Anonymous for two years or so, helping others and himself stay clean, and finally beat his addiction, but his longstanding abuse has left him with a bad twitch, an inability to control the sound of his voice, and a demeanor that can set people on edge.

Why did I like him? Well, Cuz and I briefly piloted a television program similar to Storage Wars. Except, instead of selling everything we found, we bought units full of sentimental value, illuminated a trail to the former owner, and gave them back everything they lost in bankruptcies, deaths of their children, etc....

The show never aired. But TLC bought the rights off Cuz. Maybe one day, it'll be a thing.

There you have it, quite the menagerie, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. It's like I said, though, every cigar shop has it's oddballs and regulars. Stick around long enough, and you'll find the man for any job.

-Ephram Rafael Nadaner
Current Smoke: Carlos Torano Dominican Selection

Armando Gutierrez Azul Vintage 2008 - An Honest Review

I mentioned this cigar as my current smoke in my last post and felt it needed a more suitable review.

Originally, I was smoking it passively as one of the many introductory sticks offered by the endless torrent of sales reps that walk through my door. I was somewhat harsh, it's actually not that bad, and as I said before, I'm not here for negative press.

I use a cigar journal purchased from 33 Books Co. for my casual reviews. I will scan the journal entry and post it when I get home, so my readers can get a better feel for what I was smoking... more "in the moment".

The cigar had minor draw issues, I'm getting that out of the way now. Many new blends in a round parejo shape I smoke have similar issues, so House of Emilio may work out the kinks in later editions. It only went out once as a result, and a soft flame brought it back to life without issues.

That being said, flavor was consistently "on" and I didn't notice it until I finished my review. I guess I wasn't really paying attention. The cigar started out with an oily chocolate taste, and a little bit of cedar thanks to it's cedar-shaving adornment. Midway, it developed a little bit of earthiness, a lot like the Avo Maduro. As it smokes now, towards the end, that metallic note of earthiness is lingering fairly pleasantly on the forward end of my lower palate.

I tested it out at around a medium body using the retroinhale "rolling" method. I'm not really buzzing that hard on it, so I feel like that's a fair and balanced rating.

The cigar itself is made by House of Emilio, and it sits in their "Epicurean" line. It features an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, that may account for some of it's sweetness. The binder is Honduran, Filler is Jalapa and Esteliano.

The cigar is apparently rolled in Nicaragua, which may account for it's tight roll. I've heard the Nicaraguans have yet to come up to speed with the modern "fan bunching" rolling technique, and use a traditional Cuban "spiral" rolling technique. If you ask me, the best Torcedors come out of the Dominican Republic, but I'll comment more on that later.

Please do these guys a favor and try this stick out. I was harshing on it before, but it's really not a bad stick. I gave it a final rating of 4/5 in my journal.

Thanks for reading.

-Ephram Rafael Nadaner

Perks of Being in the "Biz"

My customers often comment on how awesome my job as a cigar shop manager must be. While I assure you, the sitting around smoking cigars with great people is indeed awesome. There is also a lot of hard work involved in managing my shop.

I work a number of hours a week that I'm never paid for in supply runs to warehouse stores, waiting in line at the bank or post office, preparing shipments, speaking to representatives before or after my shift... the list goes on. This morning I opened late because I was locked in mortal combat with our thermal label printer - almost resulting in a lost sale. However, at the end of the day, I'm thankful and blessed to have employment in our current economical situation.

That being said, I often get to sit back and enjoy the perks of being in my line of work. A representative of a major cigar company recently approached me and invited me to travel out to Nicaragua pretty much all expenses paid and spend three nights at their plantation. And so, sometime in February I'll be boarding a plane to go see the front end of our product's production line. This is very exciting.

"So, can you smoke all the free cigars you want?"

This is another question I hear pretty often - usually from the younger patrons. The short answer is yes, I can. The long answer is: not exactly. You see, representatives of various cigar brands often come to me asking if I'd be interested in stocking their products. In the nineties, their might have been a few thousand different lines available to stock, total. Nowadays, there are well over ten thousand. This means I'm constantly inundated with different sales reps hosting different lines all containing different blends. The long and short of it is I get a lot of free cigars. I get so many free cigars, I can't possibly smoke them all, myself, without succumbing to acute nicotine poisoning. So I can, effectively, smoke all the free cigars I want. That being said, some of those blends our reps are hawking are great. This year, we discovered the wonderful Cordoba and Morales brand. Many of those blends are also awful. I'm not here to give bad press.

So I wouldn't want to smoke every cigar I get, but I enjoy challenging my palate to quantify these new offerings to see if they'd be something worth stocking. It's frankly something I work very hard at, bringing to bear a number of tools for the cause. I'm a human guinea pig for cigars.

Changing gears here, I want to discuss what is probably my favorite aspect of working in the cigar shop. And frankly, you don't even have to work here to experience this blanket effect. The absolute best social networking I've ever seen occurs on the shop floor. The people you meet here are some of the most valuable acquaintances you'll ever come across, I mean it. I've met one of my best friends in the world when we sat down over a cigar and started talking about the cinematic qualities of the Bioshock video game franchise. I met my awesome boss here, who I consider like a father to me. I've met numerous professional acquaintances who led me to interviews and other working opportunities. Seriously.

Fuck Facebook. Fuck Myspace. Fuck LinkedIn.

My favorite perk of being in my line of business is the people. Sure, I meet some true assholes who are beyond redemption. I threw a salesman out this morning for raising his voice over mine, cursing, disturbing my customers, and welching on a bet (he bet me his house I was paying flat rates on my personal credit card sales transactions, I proved I was not). But, then I met his boss (bet that guy wishes he never left his business card on my counter) when I called to let him know his salesman was a no-fly in my store and several others on the block. His wonderful boss called me back indicating "I hear you've just had a visit from the worst salesman in the world," as the first words out of his mouth. We are now friends. He's coming in for a smoke tomorrow.

And of course, I'd bring shame upon myself if I didn't mention my "internet friend" community abroad. I'm a member of the /r/cigars sub-reddit online. Reddit is a free forum of people who gather together to share like-mindedness in a myriad of sub-reddits (individual threads keyed towards specific topics). The cigars sub-reddit hosts a community of cigar enthusiasts who are absolutely chomping at the bit to adopt you into their fold and begin trading and "bombing" each other in random acts of genuine altruism. They're literally trying to "out-nice" each other, and I'm proud to call them my "internet friends". Just be wary to read the rules and become a verified member by conducting your first trade, and you too can enjoy the benefits of the community.

The point I'm trying to hammer home here is you people are my most valuable asset as customers, and my greatest source of inspiring friendship, and if that sounds like a hallmark card - imagine a grizzled twenty-something with a pirate beard saying it, then taking a drag on a terrible cigar he's smoking for your benefit.

You wouldn't be too far off base.

-Ephram Rafael Nadaner
Current Smoke: Armando Gutierrez Azul Vintage 2008 (Trabajador 5"x54)
(It's so-so, not terrible.)

Will that be Mild, Medium, or Full Bodied?

A lot of people who come into my shop have no idea what they're looking for. They're kids, who have no idea what a premium cigar is compared to their Swisher Sweets or Dutch Masters. They're wives and girlfriends, looking for the perfect gift for their significant others. They're converts from cigarettes, looking to replace a lifelong habit of poor health with an occasional treat for the week-long woes.

My first question for these people is usually: "How strong of a cigar are you looking for? Mild, Medium, or Full Bodied?"

"I have no idea," they say, with a blank stare.

See, yesterday, I addressed flavor as the primary quality of segregating super premium blends from the conventional hand-rolled masses. Today's lesson is on body, or nicotine content.

Body is important to any cigar, not just super premiums, because it determines what time of day and sometimes even where a smoker should expect to enjoy their blend. For example: I'm currently smoking a Diamond Crown #8 Torpedo. It's just barely considered a super premium blend in my book because of it's superior flavor. However, I consider it to be a milder-medium cigar. As such, I'm enjoying it as my first cigar of the day - my "breakfast" cigar.

Why does this mild-medium make it as my first cigar in the day? It's low strength means I'm not going to get sick smoking it before I've had any substantial food in my stomach for the day. See, higher nicotine content cigars, more full bodied ones, deliver a buzz not unlike a cigarette. Many are so strong, that they deliver something like an "overdose" even if you do not inhale.

This overdose leads to that nauseous-clammy feeling you get, often causing sweating and dizziness. It can usually be avoided by selecting a cigar more appropriate for your nicotine tolerance, or eating a full meal before smoking. My after dinner smoke of choice is usually more full bodied.

We're at a point in the industry where the market tends to confuse Body and Flavor. Differentiating these two components is absolutely key to selecting a cigar perfect for your mood and atmosphere. They often go hand in hand. Fuller bodied cigars often tend to be fuller flavored. Milder cigars often are aged to a mellower flavor. This is however, not a "golden rule". Many new blends like Pepin Garcia's Centurion are very full in flavor, but mild-medium in body. Other cigars like Davidoff's blends are often mistaken as mild in body due to their mellow flavor. In reality, almost everything Davidoff makes is medium-full or above.

When consulting your tobacconist about the perfect cigar for any occasion, be sure to consult them on body before selecting based on flavor. This will ensure you don't get sick enjoying your new selection, but are still able to appreciate the relaxing qualities of your cigar.

-Ephram Rafael Nadaner
Current Smoke: Diamond Crown #8 Torpedo

Super Premiums and Sticker Shock

As I sit here enjoying a super premium Davidoff 25th Anniversary in the shop, I struck a conversation with one of my regular customers regarding the top end prices demanded for some super premium blends, and just how much enjoyment you get out of a 22$ smoke versus an 8-10$ smoke.

First, the cigar. I found it smooth and earthy throughout, developing peppery notes towards the end. This cigar was gifted to me on my birthday last month, and has been in my humidor about a month. I love many of Davidoff's offerings, touting them as my "special occasion cigars" (more on that in a moment), and this cigar was not to the exception. The light immediately delivered big flavors with no discernible burning taste. I expected a relatively high burn on the retro-inhale, but there was none. Usually, on fuller body cigars, I get that distinctive burn, indicative of higher nicotine content. This lets me know to strap in and get ready for the ride. This cigar was none of that, just smooth and delightful throughout. Biggest notes were that grassy earth flavor, with moderate to full undertones of herbs, wood, and a little vanilla. I rated this cigar a five of five.

My mark of a quality cigar is always in flavor. My main marker for qualifying this cigar as a great blend is the lack of contaminating flavors. For example: ever light up an inexpensive blend right out of the box and taste that cheap wood and ammonia flavor? Those are contaminants. After extended aging periods in a quality humidor, virtually any cigar can shed these contaminating flavors. In fact, it is recommended that smokers not enjoy cigars obtained from a roller in person until 48-72 hours after rolling. This not only allows the cigar to firm up in shape, but also allows the ammonia naturally present in the leaf to dissipate. My 25th Anniversary tasted pure and flavorful, and I detected virtually zero contaminants. Right there, I knew she was going to be a good smoke.

Body is an irrelevant marker in the equation of quality. There are both full and mild bodied cigars that I consider to be truly quality. Sometimes we want a full after a nice dinner or rich lunch, sometimes we wake up and want something mild to start the day - our "breakfast" cigar. This cigar was fairly full - at least a 3/4 strength. However, it lacked the characteristic burn on retro-inhale I mentioned above. I judged it purely on the buzz it delivered - not the most scientific method, but I can assure you, this cigar delivered the goods.

So what's the deal? Is this cigar worth it's 22$ MSRP? The answer: yes, but not every day. The occasional treat of a super premium blend re-calibrates my palate and allows it to appreciate what a great cigar truly is. If I smoked these sticks all the time, not only would I rapidly drain my bank account, I'd also lose my appreciation for the little guys. But if you have the bankroll to smoke premium blends all the time, and don't really care about what's on the middle of the shelf, let me explain why you still shouldn't do it.

Many blends, especially those blended for the American palate utilize bold flavors that really embody what a specific leaf can really do for your blend. The Camacho Corojo, for example, really sets the bar for what a Corojo can taste like. Ashton's Maduro does the same for the fermented leaf. Are there better Maduros out there, better Corojos? Absolutely, but these blends personify what those leaves taste like in a sort of "clean room" environment.

Not only that, many mid-range blends are either one-hit-wonders or get tweaked into overall fantastic cigars, with time. Pepin Garcia's Flor de las Antillas was a premium blend at a stupidly-low price right off the bat.

The super premium Davidoff I just finished was a complex muddling of many different flavors to produce an overall quality cigar. Would I smoke it every day? Can't. Won't. Will I enjoy it as the occasion merits - bet your ass I will.

-Ephram Rafael Nadaner
Current Smoke: Davidoff 25th Anniversary Geneva Robusto

New Beginnings

"I have made it a rule never to smoke more than one cigar at a time." - Samuel Clemens

Greetings fellow Brothers of the Leaf. I have often posited that among all things in life, a cigar is one of the few that truly equalizes men - makes us brothers (and sisters!)

Think about it. Two men walk into a bar, one smoking a super top end premium cigar, and the other smoking a real cheap bundle short fill. Their backgrounds don't matter. Social status becomes irrelevant - for between them, they now have at least one thing to talk about. Not all men are equal, but our love of a cigar makes us equal.

So why am I here? What about my person, my message, makes me qualified to write this blog? Well, I manage a Central Florida cigar shop, smoking an average of 3-5 cigars a day. I see into the industry, speaking with the reps and the rollers. I deal with customers, some delighted, some furious, and love to hear their opinions. I'm here to form a nexus of all the information I've acquired, and offer it to you.

So I guess, in short? Nothing. This isn't a communist forum. I am no more equal than any of you. If you're here to listen, I'm here to speak.

-Ephram Rafael Nadaner
Current Smoke: Ashton Virgin Sun Grown Wizard 6 x 56