The New Website

 

"Behold, the future of awesome! The brand new, revolutionary, technologically advanced, streamlined, enhanced, cutting edge, automated, bedazzled, wondrous, and sexy new Tobacconist University website must be seen to be believed!!!"    -  Jorge Armenteros, CMT

After nearly a decade in development, the TU website has been re-focused, re-fined, and re-developed to meet our tobacconists and consumers needs well into the future.  New features and functionality include:

- Multiple CRT listings rotating above the fold on our homepage
- Automated and streamlined certification sign up processes
- Enhanced search features & new content
- Expanded Campus Store
- Exponentially improved Certified Tobacconist listings, including
     - www, blog, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram links
     - Final Exam and R&D badges
     - Mapping & directions links with Google Maps for CRT retail stores
- New academic content, blog, and upgrades too numerous to mention
- Hundreds of Tobacconist Tips rotating throughout the site
- New About Us section, introducing our new Certified Director Juice Ford, CST.  Juice is here to help our Certified Tobacconists in any way possible!
- New Contact Us section for easy communications
- Major streamlining of content and verbage
- The R&D Lab ... more to come on that topic soon...

And there is still much more to come.  This new website will be the foundation for many exciting new educational projects which we have been developing for nearly a decade.  Please enjoy the new site, tell your friends, and let us know if there is anything we can do to make it better.

Above The Shadegrown Tobacco

The side canvas on this large and extraordinary shadegrown tobacco field has been partially lifted for a short while to allow excess humidity out.

Reverse Cigar Blending: "Tasting Components"

The process of blending a premium cigar is extremely challenging.  Some cigar makers and blenders have a natural talent for it – others don’t.  One of the unique talents a good cigar blender needs is flavor (taste + aroma) memory.  Flavor memory is the ability to recall a certain flavor profile in your mind.  With good flavor memory a cigar maker can remember what a particular seco from Esteli tastes like, versus another seco from Jalapa or Condega.  Then, a cigar blender must be able to project, in their mind, what that seco will taste like beside a viso, ligero, volado, binder, or wrapper, from another farm, country, and/or varietal family.  Further confounding the recipe is the fact that there are countless nuances to priming, air-curing, fermentation, aging (añejamiento), tobacco burn rates, and even proportioning and placing the tobaccos in the finished cigar.

The process of creating a cigar blend is daunting and there can be thousands of failures before a final blend is deemed worthy of production.   Yet, this is just the beginning.  Once a master blend recipe has been created, it must be tweaked to deliver its flavor and character in different vitolas.  Some cigar makers will further complicate the process by engineering each vitola to deliver a similar taste while others will tweak the blends to emphasize certain aspects of the components.  Lastly, a great cigar maker will be able to replicate the cigar’s flavor profile consistently, year after year.  Ultimately, cigar blending is its own art form which requires a lot of experience and talent.

While cigar blending is the process of putting tobacco leaves together to create a cigar, reverse blending is the process of deconstructing a cigar and analyzing its’ component leaves.

The TU method for reverse blending and studying a cigar’s components is called Ashtray Analysis.

Ashtray Analysis is the process of removing the cigar’s component leaves one at a time and burning them in an ashtray.  You can smell the tobacco leaf’s characteristics while it is burning in the ashtray.

WARNING: use a bucket of water to extinguish the burning tobacco leaves and keep a fire extinguisher at the ready.

Method
Wrapper and binder leaves will separate fairly easily and it should be easy to distinguish between them.

Burn the wrapper in the ashtray and smell the smoke.  After you have smelled enough,  put the leaf in a bucket of water and make sure nothing is left burning in the ashtray.  Repeat this step with the binder.  Once you remove  the binder, the bunch will continue to hold its cylindrical shape and you will have to finesse the filler leaves apart.  Try to separate the different leaves from each other: segregate by color and texture.  Once you have three to five filler leaves distinguished and separated, you can discard the smaller pieces of tobacco.  Don’t get discouraged if you can’t differentiate between all the filler leaves.

Hint: the ligero will be black(ish) and should be towards the center of the cigar.  It will have the strongest and/or most pungent aroma of all the filler leaves.

What did you learn?  In the end, this exercise will give you some insight into the individual leaves that went into creating your cigar.  And, hopefully, a new appreciation for the millions of tiny steps that go into creating a great cigar.

Tobacconist Truths About Customer Service

Donny Muse, CMT Academic Contribution
Certified Master Tobacconist #1915
Tobacconist Truths About Customer Service

 

 

 

As a Tobacconist, everyday we meet, greet and interact with the general public. It is our commitment to the ethos of a Tobacconist that we provide an experience that not only sets ourselves apart from other retail professionals but as well as other customer service specialists. One of our core responsibilities is to ensure that customers in our shops feel like they are our guests and not just another face in a sea of sales.

Proper customer service is crucial to every shop and every tobacconist. In my 10 years in retail, I have found that there are certain truths that must be followed to ensure that a one-time customer becomes and returning guest. Below are 5 truths that every Tobacconist should know to ensure the highest quality experience for their guests.

5. Give Correct and Timely Responses to Customers. When a customer comes to your shop, they expect you to know exactly what they are looking for, whether it is a certain cigar, a cutter and/or a lighter. While it is impossible to know everything, the worst thing you can do is to provide false information in order to make yourself appear informed. Utilizing cigar publications and websites will help fill in holes that you may have concerning certain areas. Customers will forgive you for no knowing something if you are honest about it. Customers also do not want to have to wait a week to see if you have or can get what they want. Having a customer call everyday for a month to see if you have their cigar in is a quick way to lose a customer forever. Being honest will always win a customer over when time or lack of information causes a hiccup.

4. Listen to Your Customers. All too frequently, retail professionals get into a rut and begin making assumptions for their customers. Pushing product that is new or not selling well is a great way to make quick sales but if you have not yet understood a customers tastes and dislikes, you can very well lose their trust for later purchases. Always listen to a customer and push them towards what you know they will enjoy, not just want is on sale. Once you know what your customers like you will be able to pinpoint the right customers for what’s new and what’s on sale.

3. Act like a Person, not a Company. No sale is ever the same and no customer is the same, so neither should be the way you do business. If a customer has a bad experience with a cigar (canoeing, busted wrapper, etc.) don’t just sweep them away under a store policy and act like it never happened. Replacing a cigar may be a way to earn the trust of that customer and make your shop stand apart from other big chain stores. Showing your customers that you relate to them and care about their opinion will endear you to them and increase sales in the long run.

2. Remember Your Customers. Sometimes customers can become apathetic about a business when they feel like they are just another cow in the herd. Customers return to businesses that show interest in them and what they purchase. Remembering a customers name and what they buy the most shows that you take the time to think through what you suggest in a cigar and that the customer has a unique place in the shop. Once you have a customers trust, it will be easier to suggest box purchases on cigars that you suggest to them.

1. Encourage Proper Customer Service in Others. Most shops have more than one employee on a single shift. It is important that every employee show the same passion to inform and serve his or her customers. Even if you give a stellar experience to a customer, that can be all undone by one unsatisfactory experience suffered by a friend of that customer. Tobacconists have to be consistent in their performance and ensure every customer receives the best service. It is a Tobacconists duty to educate ad inform their customers but also to teach their fellow employees.

Fresh Rolled Cigars - Smoke Fresh Or Wait?

Rob Roth, CMT Contribution

Certified Master Tobacconist #1801

Fresh Rolled Cigars-Smoke Fresh or Wait?

What is a fresh rolled cigar? A fresh rolled cigar is a cigar that is handed to you by the roller or rolled within a couple of hours. Although not for everyone, I think every lover of the leaf should experience a truly fresh rolled cigar. A fresh rolled cigar has unique characteristics that are only found straight from the table. The flavor and characteristics of a fresh rolled cigar cannot be obtained any other way. Many will argue that a fresh rolled cigar is too moist because wrapper and binder tobaccos are at humidity levels much higher than 70% RH for rolling purposes.  Obviously, this is a personal opinion that must be experienced individually.

Is it worth waiting a few days to let the moisture content ease? One word, NO! Once the cigar moisture content begins to subside the wrapper leaf and binder leaf become bitter and unpleasant. This period is referred by many as the “sick period”. This causes the natural by-product of ammonia. Not a pleasant smoking attribute. As the sick period begins, it helps the filler and binder tobaccos to meld with the wrapper leaf to complete the blending process. Many in the industry refer to this stage as marrying. Once the marrying process begins the tobaccos get “sick” (sound familiar?). This sickness typically starts around 24 hours after the wrapper leaf has been rolled onto the bunch and last about 60 days. During this period the tobaccos are settling, seeking humidity equilibrium, and releasing ammonia and other impurities.

 When I obtain fresh rolled cigars I always try at least 4. The first one I try that day. The next three I try in one month intervals. Take notes on each cigar and observe the progression of the flavors of the cigar congruent to the aging process.  In conclusion, give a fresh rolled cigar a shot. You’ll be surprised at the unique flavors you may find. Smoke it within 24 hours or wait at least 30 to 60 days for the cigar to recover from the sick period.

Another Great Success!

Surpassing our goal of 1,000 Certified Tobacconists & Apprentices at this years IPCPR tradeshow was a huge achievement for TU! Thank you to everyone who signed up to become an Apprentice at the show, took their CRT exam with us or even simply stopped by the booth to show support. An impressive twenty five apprentices passed the final, attaining their certification. Follow this link to see a complete list of our Certified Tobacconists.  Haven’t begun your certification process yet?  Get Started!

Casings & Toppings Are Not The Same: Kevin Godbee, CMT Contribution

Casings & Toppings – Not the Same – CMT Contribution, Kevin Godbee
 
 On page 84 of The Tobacconist Handbook, it states in the Tobacconist Tip:
 
“Casing is another term for flavorings that can be added to pipe tobaccos, primarily aromatic blends. Casing usually involves applying flavored liquids, like honey, liqueurs, and extracts.”
  
I’d like to expand on this.
 
Casings and Toppings are two different things. Toppings are actually what is more associated with the stereotypical sweet flavor or aroma of an “aromatic” pipe tobacco blend. For example, a Cherry Tobacco will have a cherry topping. The topping is applied last, at the very end of the processing just before the tobacco goes into the tin or pouch.

Casing, on the other hand is done to ALL pipe tobacco blends – NOT just AROMATICS. Casing happens around the middle of the processing, and it is not meant to add anything that is detectable to the flavor. Casing is applied, and then the tobacco is left to sit for about a day to absorb the casing. So, casing is absorbed into the tobacco, and toppings, as implied, sit on top of the tobacco and quickly burn off. You don’t so much as taste the topping as smell it.
    The most typical casings are as follows:
    Virginia tobaccos (which are not strictly from VA, but that’s another lesson), are typically cased with sugar-water.
    Burley tobaccos are typically cased with a solution that contains chocolate and / or licorice.
    Even though chocolate and licorice do have distinct flavors, they are not detectable as a casing.

Casings serve the purpose of enhancing and bringing out more of the tobacco’s natural flavor. Toppings serve the purpose of adding an additional flavor (taste+aroma) to a blend. The simple way I use to remember the difference is to think of casing as a marinade, as it is added during the processing, and soaks into the tobacco. And think of toppings as a sauce. You could marinate (casing) a steak, then grill it, and after it is cooked, you can put some A1 sauce (topping) on it.

Here is a photo of tobacco being cased at the Orlik Factory in Denmark.