Fundamentals First: Products & Customers

It sounds simple enough, "Fundamentals First", but it is paramount to success. My favorite cigar maker quote is from none other than Jose Orlando Padron; the simple translation is 'you must crawl before you walk, and walk before you run, if not you will fall on your face'. Truer words have never been spoken, in my humble opinion.

Sr. Jose Blanco has his 5 Keys To Retail Tobacconist Success, and I think those are powerful and accurate. But I also think Tobacconist success can be distilled further into only two necessary fundamentals: PRODUCTS & CUSTOMERS. Focus on Products, Focus on Customers and you will never fail. Those are the two fundamental principles for success: PRODUCTS & CUSTOMERS. That's all you need to know. Now, get to work....

The Absolute Present

At this moment I am about to light up a Padron 1926 no. 40. I must confess that I have a profound love for these cigars, but they require my full attention: they are too good to smoke while dilly dallying. In fact, the 1926 series, like other great cigars, COMMANDS your attention... and that is a spectacular compliment. Anyway.... a few weeks ago I visited Jose Orlando Padron in Miami and I asked him to cut my no. 40 to show me exactly where he thought the cut should go. Obviously, you can cut your figurados however you want... but I wanted first hand advice on this cigar. He took his guillotine and cut mine at about a forty ring gauge: so, to me, this must be the perfect cut. I have just replicated the cut on my new (actually 2 year old) no. 40 and I am staring at it wondering how in the world anybody can create such a firm cigar with a perfect draw, especially after box pressing. As I look in wonder, I put the cigar in my mouth and start to draw... then I put my hand on the foot to see if I could feel the suction. Lo and Behold... the skin on my palm starts to be sucked into the cigar!!! The wonders never cease with great cigar makers. It's like MAGIC.

I'm reminded that I got into this business so I could be privileged enough to smoke cigars like these.... and I'm glad I did.

Miami Cigar Heaven

I just returned from five days in Miami, and for those of you who don't already know: Miami is Cigar Heaven. In South Florida even people who don't smoke cigars enjoy the smell of them. I suppose it is part of the culture and tradition. In addition, people are not as obsessed with limiting others' freedoms in a place where they have gone to escape oppression.

I did the usual cigar rounds while visiting: Little Havana, visited the Padrons, and smoked amazing cigars! I'm just about to light up the Padron 80th Anniversary 1926 Diademas/large-perfecto that the Padrons made to commemorate Jose Orlando's birthday. It looks too good to be true: the absolute picture of perfection... I'm hesitant to cut it... but I will. I am reminded of being in Nicaragua with the Padron family a few years ago and seeing the Anniversary Torpedos being rolled. There were finished bundles of Maduro Torpedos sitting on the roller's table. The cigars had not yet been box-pressed so they looked like rounded and tapered black shafts of steel. They were so oily they looked like they were sweating!!! I have never seen any cigar look as beautiful as those.... and maybe I never will again (unless I get invited back).

My trip was refreshing, to say the least. There is still hope in this country. Our cultures, freedoms, and acceptance of others (who are different) continues to be preserved in South Florida. If you are a disillusioned lover of luxury tobacco who feels your rights are being trampled upon and slowly revoked, take a trip down south and you will receive a breath of fresh, aromatic air.

Great Cigar Makers continue to be the most honorable FREEDOM FIGHTERS in America. They labor tirelessly to make some of the world's most extraordinary delicacies, while the society they live in demonizes them. My only hope is that we can get these American heroes to speak up a little louder and project their Credibility a little wider so that we can preserve this great industry for generations to come.