Photo Credit: Rigby’s
September 17th was National Voter Registration, so the Paris Smokeasy Club got together to vote on how good September’s Cigar was! We welcomed a first–time cigar rep, Austin Borgstede, to present us with his line of cigars. Austin reps for Forged Cigars and covers Texas,
Oklahoma, Arkansas, Colorado and New Mexico. He brought his boss with him, John D’Oliver, who is the Western US Regional Manager covering everything West of the Mississippi River and Hawaii. Forged Cigars is a subsidiary of Scandinavian Tobacco Group, the largest cigar and pipe tobacco seller in the world. ST–Group owns General Cigars, Meier & Dutch, International Cigars, Thompson cigars, to name a few. They employ over 10,000 people worldwide and are the #1 supplier of premium cigars, pipe tobacco, online sales, and about every other tobacco category in the US. General Cigars had gotten so big that ST–Group formed Forged Cigars and put some of their labels under it, the biggest of those names being Alec Bradley, La Gloria Cubano, and Partagus.
Our very first cigar night was back in November of 2017. JR Elliot, who helped me start the cigar club, brought 6 different boxes of cigars for us to choose one from. We had 6 people show up for that first event. The winner of the night was the Alec Bradley Black Market in a 6” x 60–gauge. January of 2018, we had the Alec Bradley Prensado Lost Art Torpedo in a 6 ½” x 52– gauge and was that night’s winner. October of 2019, we had the Alec Bradley Prensado Toro in a 6.1”x52. Then for the next two years, Gary Flynn went theme based and for our Saint Patrick’s Day smokes in March of 2021 and 2022, we had the Alec Bradley Black Market Filthy Hooligan and Alec Bradley Filthy Hooligan Shamrock respectively. The Hooligan had two different shades of wrappers to give it the Barber Pole look, while the Shamrock adds a third candela wrapper (it’s green) to the mix giving it a 3–color look.
Alan Rubin, the son of an importer of hardware supplies based in Florida, started his cigar line in 1996 after the family’s business was sold. It is named after his sons Alec and Bradley. He struggled for a few years with his new endeavor, as it was at the end of the cigar boom and the cigar market was flooded with companies. In 1998, he brought in Ralph Montero, a pro in the cigar industry, to help realign the company and get them into retail shops.
Alec Bradley has a well–established spot in the Cigar Afficionado’s Top 25 Cigars of the Year with
their Prensado line leading the way. The Gran Toro was #20 in 2010, the Churchill was the #1 Cigar of the Year in 2011, the Robusto #24 in 2013, and the Torpedo was #8 in 2023. Some of their other lines making the list are the: Tempus Centuria #25 of 2008, Family Blend #16 of
2009, Fine and Rare #21 of 2012, Mundial No. 5 was #16 in 2014, Sanctum Toro #15 in 2015, Coyol Petit Lancero #18 in 2016, Natural Centuria #5 in 2017, Black Market Esteli Torpedo #9 in 2018, Project 40 06.52 was #24 of 2019, Gatekeeper Robusto #7 in 2020, Kintsugi Corona Gorda #25 in 2021, and the Black-Market Churchill #6 in 2022. That’s putting a cigar on the list of Top 25’s every year since 2008!
For September, we had the new Alec Bradley Safe Keepings Toro in a 6” x 52–gauge. It is a Nicaragua puro with a Habano–seed Wrapper, Jalapa & Condega region Long Filler, and a Criollo 1998 leaf from Esteli. It is listed as a medium to full–bodied cigar. With 55 people present it received a Redneck Ratin of 88 out of 100!
Our sponsor for the night was David Cannedy with Cannedy’s Garage located at 205 Evergreen St in Paris. They work on cars, trucks, diesels, tractors, basically if it has an engine, David said they can fix it!
https://alecbradley.com/
https://www.st-group.com/
Written by: JD Marrs
Hosted by: Rigby’s Cigars & Lounge
