Experiencing a fine cigar alone can be a bit boring, but lighting up in the company of other enthusiasts makes puffing a bit sweeter. Just ask the members of Monocacy Cigar Lodge, a new club with the sole purpose of enjoying cigars and conversation with other stogie lovers in Frederick County, MD.

At the club's first event Saturday, the air was thick with the smell of Ashtons, Nat Shermans, burgers and bratwurst as members mingled on the deck of the club president's home in Adamstown.

"The camaraderie is really what makes it enjoyable," said Tim DeBlois, a club member, said during the club's first "Cigar-B-Que."

The Monocacy Cigar Lodge is taking a cue from the Metropolitan Society, the oldest non-commercial private cigar club located in Fairfield, N.J., to create a luxurious place for members to enjoy cigars other than in their basements or garages, and in the company of others who share their vice.

Greg Elder, president of the Monocacy Cigar Lodge, said the club wants to find a central location in Frederick County that members can access 24 hours a day to meet, sit back and relax and watch sports in furnished smoking rooms.

The goal, he said, is to have a place by winter. For now, the Monocacy Cigar Lodge is focusing on building membership and publicity with more Cigar-B-Ques, a golf tournament on May 31 and cigar dinners in Urbana throughout the summer.

The club grew out of small, informal gatherings of cigar aficionados at local cigar shops and lounges. By March, members wrote the club's bylaws, established a board of directors, a Web site and received nonprofit status in April. Membership is currently $50 per year.

Elder noted that more than 50 men and women have expressed interest in the club, including more than 30 cigar enthusiasts traveling from as far as Leesburg, Va., to the Cigar-B-Que Saturday.

Nearly a dozen people sat around Elder's outdoor dining table, covered with wooden and metal cigar boxes, hamburger buns and wine. Classic rock music played in the background and a game of horseshoes had already begun in the backyard. Craig Goodman of Point of Rocks sat near the table, smoking a robust Partagas cigar and following the group's conversation.

Goodman - who added cheerfully that his first name is "cigar" with the letter rearranged – said he has been a cigar smoker for nearly 15 years and mostly smokes at home in his basement. Goodman said his brother-in-law is a member of the Metropolitan Society.

"I always hoped that one day a similar group of people would form down here," he said, noting that it provides another place to smoke that does not infringe on other people's preferences.

Elder described the local community of cigar enthusiasts as more "grassroots" and casual than the high-fashion, chic cigar culture featured in popular cigar magazines such as "Cigar Aficionado."

However, smoking cigars is not a poor man's hobby, Elder noted, since one can pay $7 for a good stogie.

Some cigars can cost as much as a bottle of wine. For Monocacy Cigar Lodge members, there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to the types of cigars they enjoy –personal preference dictates their choices.

The amount of sun the tobacco plant absorbs and the soil conditions and different processes cigar-producing countries use affect how strong or mild the cigars are, DeBlois noted.

"There are literally thousands of types of tobacco," Elder said.

Visit www.themonocacy-cigarlodge.org for more information and upcoming events at the Monocacy Cigar Lodge.

Made from the same wrappers as the Diploma, 11/18 and 07/05 – The Corona leaf (fifth priming) of the AUTHENTIC COROJO seed available only from the Eiroa family! The newest additions, the Camacho Scorpion and the Diploma 60×6 , will finally be distributed nationwide. Previously available in only two stores, you may now receive these limited production cigars. It is well known that the Camacho Corojo Diploma is Christian’s absolute favorite cigar because of its strength, complexity, and smooth finish.

CAMACHO SCORPION
Named in honor of Mr. Carlos Escalona, after he was stung by a Scorpion 4 years ago while hosting a rowdy group from N.C., this is a beautiful Perfecto that should be acquired by the box!
Suggested Retail: $10.95 per cigar

CAMACHO DIPLOMA
60×6Available in only limited quantities a few times a year, this cigar is the exact same blend but in a larger size. The limit is due to the small quantity of large 23” leaves
that are harvested from the Authentic Corojo crops from Eiroa’s plantation in Jamastran.
Suggested Retail: $11.35 per cigar

CAMACHO DIPLOMA	CAMACHO SCORPION

John Vogel, 40-year tobacco agronomist and current director of Costa Rican tobacco and cigar producer Tabacos de la Cordillera (Mountain Range Cigars), has developed a startlingly effective method of bunching premium cigars, called “Bull’s-Eye Ligero”™ (patent pending). Vogel claims it places and locks the ligero “dead center” in the bunch, which virtually eliminates uneven burning cigars, the top complaint by cigar smokers. Vogel further claims to have improved “draw” as well, by incorporating the little-used, old-Cuban school entubado bunching technique.

“All our new Fundación Ancestral™ series of cigars feature the unorthodox, yet common-sense Bull’s-Eye Ligero method of cigar construction. Its benefits are further enhanced by the more precise entubado method of building base filler, with superior burn and draw characteristics.

“Bunching with Bull’s-Eye Ligero creates a cigar inside a cigar,” explains Vogel, which he believes has never been done before. “First, the worker makes a small bunch out of the ligero leaves. He then wraps them in their own, small binder, forming a ‘cigar’ that is then centered within the base filler leaves.

“To bunch the base filler leaves in the entubado method, our worker doesn’t lay base filler leaves across the hand upon which he lays loose ligero leaves. That relatively loose bunching style often permits the ligero to shift off-center during bunching, binding and pressing.

“Instead, our unitized ligero rests in a concentric array of base filler leaves that have been previously entubado (rolled into ‘soda straws’). The leaf tips are at the foot end of the tubes, the leaf bases at the head end. During manipulation and pressing, the ligero stays put in the Bull’s-Eye of the bunch ... you can see it as a darker, round spot on the foot, about half the diameter of the cigar. It’s assuring to the smoker to see visual evidence ... the dark round spot at the foot ... he knows he’ll get an even burning cigar, with no problems or bad taste.”

Vogel, in whose name the patent application was filed, believes, “this simple remedy to the most plaguing cause of bad cigar experiences may become the accepted way of the future. Today’s smokers are well-enough informed to know this is a quantum leap in cigar-construction quality and performance.”

Vogel’s latest cigar series, Fundación Ancestral, is creating a stir in the industry, with the claim that its cigars are made exclusively from 100% pure, right-off-the-island Cuban seeds that date back to Cuba’s Golden Age of tobacco and cigars. Three blends are offered, in the four most popular shapes: Churchill, Corona, Robust, and Torpedo. The blends are named after the Cuban growing region and year they were developed and distributed to major Cuban leaf producers, by the now-disbanded Cuban tobacco-research institutes: Vuelta Abajo 1940, Pinar del Rio 1941, and Artemisa 1944.

Two more in the series, also Bull’s-Eye Ligero bunched, are aging now, for IPCPR 2008, the industry’s major trade show. According to Vogel, the new techniques will also be incorporated into other cigar lines from Tabacos de la Cordillera. Vogel states, “Our Fundación Ancestral cigars are priced to reflect the higher costs incurred in producing these prestige-level cigars, but also for the peace of mind they offer smokers.” Cigars from Tabacos de la Cordillera are available at better tobacco retailers, and on the company’s Web site, www.tabacordillera.com.

(Above Photo)
Cigar with revolutionary new Bull’s-Eye Ligero bunching (right) shows captive, centered ligero.

Cigar with visible Bull’s-Eye Ligero (bottom) burns more evenly than conventional bunching.

In December, 2007, the Toraño family announced the appointment of CAO International as the exclusive U.S. distributor for all Carlos Toraño premium cigars. President Charlie Toraño stated, “With CAO distributing our cigars, my father Carlos and I will be able to spend more time on the manufacturing side of our business ... producing world-class tobacco and cigars.” The Toraño family’s Honduran and Nicaraguan cigar factories annually produce an ever-increasing number of top-rated Carlos Toraño, CAO and other private label cigars.

“This agreement was a bold step forward for both companies,” reports Toraño. “Next, the key ingredient in its success was the selection of the best person we could find as Toraño Brand Manager. In early February, we were extremely fortunate to add Bruce M. Lewis to the Toraño/CAO team. Bruce is a seasoned veteran in sales, marketing, and promotion, with virtually his entire career having been in the cigar industry. His broad diversity of experience in key sales and marketing management roles made him the perfect candidate.”

A 38-year old Australian native, now working in CAO’s Nashville headquarters, Lewis relies on the seasoning he acquired at several prestigious cigar companies over the past 17 years. They have afforded him an enviable career in the retail, wholesale and manufacturing sides of the premium cigar industry. Havana House, Australia’s first true specialty cigar shop, gave him his initial training at selling prestige products in a prestige setting. Positions at Alfred Dunhill of Australia and mega-giant Swedish Match saw him rise to Director of International Business Development at General Cigar Company.

Lewis remarks, “Following my five-year appointment with General Cigar in New York, I repatriated to Australia at the end of 2005, to start my own sales and marketing consultation business in a different field. But daily, I wondered what was happening in the cigar industry. It was at that point that I came to the realization that I would not be truly content working in any other industry. As they say, ‘When the tobacco bug bites, it bites hard.’ This is the industry I love ... this is my home.”

Toraño adds, “Bruce and I are equally thrilled to be partners working closely with each other to expand the Carlos Toraño brand. In our opinion, his breadth and depth of knowledge and ability, as well as his initiative and love of the business, make him an extraordinary team contributor to CAO and Toraño.”

Bruce M. Lewis, appointed Toraño Brand Manager at CAO, now exclusive U.S. distributor for Carlos Toraño premium cigars

Step inside Park Lane Tobacconist and you’ll find a haven for cigar smokers, complete with high-definition televisions and comfortable lounge chairs.

Faint traces of cigar smoke waft in the air while ashtrays dot small wooden coffee stands, their bowels home to gray ash and extinguished cigars.

It is, for smoking aficionados and members of the store’s cigar club, one of the few places left for them to smoke indoors.

"People are paying for the privilege of having a place to smoke in comfort, and they’re doing it in droves," said James Kommer, who owns the Saratoga Springs business, located on Broadway since last summer.

His store’s popularity highlights the dichotomy between public policy, increasingly aligned against smokers, and those who continue to blow smoke in its face.

Several recent examples of the anti-smoking lobby are taking hold locally.

Smoke-free apartments are springing up in Saratoga Springs, Queensbury and elsewhere.

The Town of Greenfield recently passed a resolution encouraging retailers to better camouflage their tobacco advertisements, a move some other local governments are likely to consider in the months ahead.

Anti-tobacco groups are lobbying grocery store chains to remove tobacco from their shelves, a movement that has already taken hold in central New York.

Public spaces like Derby Park in Hudson Falls and the Great Escape amusement park in Queensbury now usher smokers into designated areas to keep them isolated, and area hospitals have instituted campus-wide bans on smoking over the last two years.

In perhaps the boldest recent move, the state this week budgeted a tax increase of $1.25 for every pack of cigarettes, bringing the total tax to $2.75 — the highest in the country and well above the national average of $1.11.

It’s a siege on smoking that appears to be picking up steam — to the cheers of some and the jeers of others.