SS: In addition to the blending, you also use a rather unique process in the rolling of the cigars, or actually in the bunching of the filler; I can tell when I look at the foot, I can almost see like tubes of tobacco going through the cigar.

SM: Exactly. Our cigars are not bunched, nor do we use a book method or book form. What we basically do is tube-roll each one of our leaves. As a result, it slows the manufacturing down.

SS: Explain the "tube-roll", because a lot of people might not be familiar with that.

SM: Essentially, we take each filler tobacco leaf and form it into a tube shape.

SS: Isn't it a traditional Cuban-style of making the bunch?

SM: Well, there is a difference. In Cuba they do a form of tubing, but it's been our observation, based on the cigar-makers who have come from Cuba and that we've had knowledge of, when asked to demonstrate their method they tend to do flat tubing. Flat tubing puts the tobacco leaf into somewhat of a circle, but when incorporated into the filler, it tends to flatten. It's analogous to the difference between a plastic straw that is round and maintains its shape and a paper straw that tends to collapse when it gets wet. We are trying to be more circular.

SS: Sharon, you have some of the most unique packaging. Most manufacturers put their cigars in either traditional boxes or they put them in very simple paper bundles, but yours are like a foil wrap... why don't you describe it?

SM: The description goes to its roots and why it became the way it is. When we introduced the cigars and had the thought in the early part of '92 that we were going to introduce the cigars to a retailer - our first being David P. Ehrlich in Boston. We had these beautiful pyramids that just didn't fit in a box, and we wanted the pyramids to go with us to introduce the cigars. I knew that a box was out of the question; at the time, we were introducing the cigars with the only boxes that had been sent by the box manufacturer as samples. I thought that if we put the pyramids together with a band of cloth material, maybe a "felt" would be best. Since then we've elevated the felt to the highest wool content, which is softest on the wrapper, etc. In other words, time has a way of redefining things. Then we took the bundle of ten pyramids in felt material and closed it with a seal. We put the bundle in foil because we wanted it to stay fresh. The foil, of course, needed some covering, so we used white paper, but laminate would look so much nicer, wouldn't it? We used white paper because to me the cleanliness and smoothness of the plain white is extremely elegant. We sealed the bundle with the same medallion. I didn't want the paper to be wrinkled by the time we got there, so we wrapped it up in bubble wrap, assuming once there we would take the bubble wrap off and then the bundle would be presented. We get to Boston, and meet Paul and Claire MacDonald. They receive this bundle of pyramids, and start to open up the cigars. We wait. After seeing the cigars in the elegantly embossed wooden box and the absolutely gorgeous, extremely old, beautiful No. 10's that were in the box, Mr. MacDonald decides he wants to place an order. He requests four bundles of all the sizes we were offering, but only bundles, no boxes. I was a little perplexed. He said, "This is beautiful. Most of my clientele are avid cigar smokers and they have their own humidors. They really don't have that much use for the boxes after they've taken the cigars out."

SS: Is there any advantage to using the slower tubing method rather than using the more common Spanish book style of bunching?

SM: We feel it helps the cigar, especially with the draw. Let's just say that in the industry, the manufacturers are aware that there are different methods of manufacturing and putting cigars together, but they don't all choose to use those particular methods. Here we're extremely eccentric, our goals are for art form, ours are not for how many billions of cigars we can produce. This is the difference. When someone says, "Slow," we say, "Okay, so it takes longer." That's not really the norm right now.

SS: Plus, also they're unique. It gives the cigars shelf presence, which I'm sure you didn't even think about...

SM: We come back and next thing I know we're in Miami in the "packaging in a bundle fashion" business and I had no idea it would turn out that way. Mr. MacDonald said, "Oh no, boxes are simple, everybody has a box. You just open it up and there are the cigars. But this is like opening up a little treasure...because you go through these layers and finally, you get to this secure product."

SS: One of the things maybe for someone that isn't familiar with your cigars is to understand that even though these are packaged into bundles, they're not...

SM: They are not traditional bundled cigars, they are not seconds. These are absolute firsts and we do have boxes. We have a corona-sized box, which is fully wrapped, and also number ten boxes. One of the things on our packaging, it's important to note is that we do not put rings on our cigars. We have trademarked our own seals; we now put end seals on the cigars. Those seals are on there because we experienced people taking our cigars, which did not formerly have any identification on them, and ringing them with their own brands. The seal that we put on the end of the cigar is designed to tear the wrapper when it is removed. It's designed to take a little piece of the wrapper. On the cylindrical cigars it's on the top of the cap, which would have to be cut anyway to smoke it. On the "Thirty Four", which is a very slender cigar with a butterfly twist-top, those seals are on the side; the best that we can do currently is please advise people that they're high enough up that you do not have to remove the seal. Also, on the pyramids, we put the seal on the side of the cigar. Again, try to maintain the seal on there unless you're smoking it past that point. Some people say, "Gosh, I took it off, but it tore the wrapper, " well yes, it's designed to do that. Bravo!" (Laugh) That's what it was supposed to do to keep unscrupulous types of people from taking our work and putting their own names on them.

SS: It's a very common practice in the industry to fumigate tobacco, but to my knowledge you're the only one that does not. What are your opinions regarding fumigation?

SM: I think that most people who would read this would say, "Fumigation? What are you talking about, oh, the tobacco leaf in the field?" No. No, I'm talking about after cigars and cigarettes are manufactured. It is customary to fumigate with certain chemicals that are of a gas/tablet form, to ensure that there are no live tobacco beetles, eggs, or larvae in the tobacco product. It's absolutely normal that tobacco, since it grows in a field, would have some type of little beetle, possibly. Personally I don't want to smoke a cigar or ask a customer to smoke a cigar that I know has been fumigated. That's not the goal, here. The goal is to try to make and produce as clean and as natural a product as we can. So our method is to deep freeze our cigars. When we deep-freeze them, we literally freeze whatever bugs or eggs there are without harming the tobacco. It does not harm the cigars. Essentially, as long as the cigars are well sealed in a container while being frozen and then allowed to come to room temperature before the container is opened, whatever moisture has been extracted from the tobacco goes back in the tobacco, and the cigars are beautiful. Currently, you're smoking a cigar that has been deep-frozen. I have noted that some people in the industry think that deep freezing works fine for a small limited production. But the reality is that even if you were the largest manufacturer, you could still use the freezing method. It merely requires a greater commitment, necessitating careful attention in handling the cigars and the cost of maintaining freezers.

SS: Freezing is very common for people that find bugs in their cigars and they don't wish to discard the entire box. It's a very common practice to put them in the freezer and allow them to stay for three four days; then to move them to the refrigerator to let them come a little more, then to let them go to room temperature and then open the package. It definitely works, there's no doubt about that.

SM: The important thing is that from this manufacturer's point of view, and I truly feel very strongly about this; it should be the obligation of a manufacturer of basically any product, to do their best at trying to ensure as good and as natural a product as they can get. I believe that the right thing with cigars is to make sure that the methodology is not one that adds more chemical and pesticide to the product. It should be the support of all cigar smokers to say, "Yes, please, deep-freeze, because it's natural and it doesn't add more pesticide and more toxins to my cigar." I just wish that the entire industry would pay more attention to what they're doing with cigars and tobacco in general.

SS: As an avid smoker of your cigar, I must admit I've been waiting to see where CA was going to put your cigar in the pack. I open every issue and even though you have cigars that fit almost every single size, I never see any of your cigars. Why is that?

SM: We were asked, requested, by the publication you're speaking of, to please submit a sampling of our cigars. I believe that in light of the fact that we had the seals on the cigars and it's difficult to blind test it if it's going to have a piece of wrapper torn off of it, which might be an indication that it's one of ours. We did submit the cigars, along with an information sheet that's asked of the manufacturer to please list what their origin on wrapper, binder, and filler is. To the question as to wrapper, we stated that it was Connecticut shade grown in Connecticut; but concerning the binder and the filler, we merely wrote "private blend." The reason why we do that is because we believe the essence of a cigar and what makes it unique is its tobacco selection. If you list where you get your leaf from, then you're basically being a chef who reveals what he put in his recipe and you have nothing else unique about it. I think additionally, it's important to note we had an opportunity to write in anything we wanted to. We could have picked any country in the world and stuck in a name, because they didn't ask us to provide verification that in fact the tobacco matches what is being said. We choose not to lie about it. We'd rather be straight with our customers and know and trust that they will appreciate the fact that it's something special and unique. The reason that we do not reveal these origins is because it's what makes us what we are. I think that the smoking community is certainly mature enough to not be too concerned about it. We were informed that because we would not state where our binder and filler were from, that we could not be a part of the taste testing. As a policy of the factory, which it has always been, we do not discuss the origin of our tobaccos, therefore we have to be content with the fact that we will not be a part of that publication's taste testing.

SS: One final question: what do you see in the future, for you, your husband, your cigars? Let's say twenty years down the road, I know that's a long time away, but what do you think? What are you dreaming?

SM: I have always felt my own personal responsibility is to provide a solid foundation. There are still so many things that we need to do to provide this solid structure of policy, improve the work itself, and build a stronger reputation. We, Robert and myself, feel that our children will continue by constructing the building on the foundation that we have made for our family if we do it properly. Hopefully they will share our vision and help to give structure to our family's work.

PART 1 | PART 2 of 2