Fighting for Tobacconists

More than twenty years ago, when Tobacconist University began providing professional education and certification for the organization then known as the Retail Tobacco Dealers of America, the industry was under extraordinary pressure.

Government regulation was growing. The FDA loomed over tobacco. Even the language surrounding the profession was changing.

The RTDA itself would become the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association, and later the Premium Cigar Association. During that transition, we were asked whether Tobacconist University would consider removing the word “tobacconist” from our name.

We would not.

That wasn't stubbornness. It was the point.

Tobacconists stand at the place where everything this industry creates finally meets the customer.

Think about everything that happens before that moment.

Seeds are selected. Tobacco is cultivated, harvested, cured, fermented, aged and sorted. Cigars are blended and rolled. Generations of agricultural knowledge and craftsmanship are brought together. Manufacturers build brands. Importers, distributors and retailers invest enormous resources bringing those products to market.

And then comes the handoff.

A customer walks into a store and stands across the counter from a tobacconist.

Everything that came before can be elevated in that moment or diminished.

That is why the tobacconist matters.

Education and Profession

Today, cigar education is everywhere.

There are books, videos, personalities, “masters,” “master classes” and online learning experiences devoted to premium cigars. Manufacturers and retailers are sharing knowledge. Enthusiasts have access to more information than ever before.

That is good for cigars, good for consumers and good for the culture.

But not all education exists for the same purpose.

Education can be a product itself, sold behind a paywall. It can support the sale of cigars or other products. It can build a brand, an audience or an organization. There is nothing inherently wrong with any of those things.

Tobacconist University was built differently.

Other organizations may use education to advance their objectives. Tobacconist University exists to advance education.

That is why our educational curriculum is free and open to everyone. Knowledge isn't the product we sell. It is the resource we exist to provide.

And there is another distinction that matters.

Cigar education teaches people about cigars. Professional tobacconist education establishes a standard for the professionals who put that knowledge into service.

Those are complementary missions, but they are not the same mission.

An individual educational experience can explore a subject beautifully and in great depth. Our responsibility is to see the whole field: how subjects connect, how terminology is defined, how knowledge is organized, what belongs in the professional standard, and how that standard is taught, tested and certified.

And our field is larger than cigars.

Tobacconist University exists within the broader world of luxury tobacco: its products, accoutrements, traditions, history, service and culture. Cigars are central to what we do, but understanding the larger world around them gives us a better perspective on the cigar itself and the professionals who serve it.

The broader perspective informs the narrower one.

We don't create cigar education experiences. We build the educational infrastructure of a profession.

Our Campus is the free educational foundation of that mission, and we continue building it as an educational platform for luxury tobacco and a cultural archive for its history, traditions, language and knowledge.

Certification serves a different but connected purpose.

It asks what a professional tobacconist should know. It establishes a standard. It gives people a path to reach that standard and, when they do, recognizes their achievement with a professional credential.

We welcome more education, more voices, more teachers and more opportunities for people to discover and understand premium cigars and luxury tobacco. They enrich the culture we all share.

But our responsibility is different.

We are building the profession.

The Professional Standard

For 30 years, Tobacconist University has educated people across virtually every level of the premium tobacco industry, from people entering the cigar business for the first time to professionals at legacy tobacconists that have been operating for more than a century.

We have seen extraordinary differences in experience, education, aptitude, language, learning styles and existing product knowledge.

That experience has taught us something important:

Do not underestimate tobacconists.

Give them access to a professional standard.

Some will absorb part of it. Some will absorb most of it. Some will master it. Some will distinguish themselves in ways neither they nor their employers expected.

Not everyone will reach the same destination, and they don't have to.

Education is valuable before the diploma is earned.

Someone who learns how tobacco is cultivated and fermented, why construction matters, how cigars should be conditioned, how to properly cut and light a cigar, and how to communicate that knowledge to a customer is a better tobacconist than they were before.

Certification recognizes achievement. Education creates it.

Raise the Standard, Not Lower the Expectation

There will always be pressure to make professional education shorter, easier and less demanding.

Some of that pressure is understandable. Retail businesses have limited time. Employees have different levels of interest and ability. Turnover is real. Training has a cost.

But the answer cannot always be to expect less.

A professional standard should be attainable, but it should also mean something.

The objective isn't to design education around the person least interested in receiving it. The objective is to make meaningful education accessible to everyone and give each person the opportunity to rise as far as they can.

Because sometimes something remarkable happens.

An employee discovers an aptitude nobody recognized.

Knowledge creates confidence. Confidence changes the way that person engages with customers. They become more interested in the products they sell. Customers begin seeking them out. Colleagues begin asking them questions. They become more valuable to their employer and, perhaps most importantly, begin seeing themselves differently.

That is professional development.

Multiplied across thousands of tobacconists, it becomes industry development.

The Keystone

Growers can produce extraordinary tobacco. Manufacturers can make magnificent products. Brand owners can invest decades building reputations. Importers, distributors and retailers can bring it all to market.

But none of them controls that final conversation at the point of service.

The tobacconist does.

The tobacconist is not merely the last link in the chain. The tobacconist is the keystone connecting everything that came before to the person for whom it was ultimately created.

Product knowledge matters because the product deserves it.

Service matters because the customer deserves it.

Professional standards matter because the profession deserves them.

When we refused to remove “tobacconist” from our name more than twenty years ago, we were defending a word.

Today, we are still defending what that word represents.

The industry has changed. The organizations have changed. The regulatory environment has changed. Tobacconist University has changed enormously.

The principle has not.

Set the professional standard. Give everyone access to it.
Help them rise.

Everything we do at Tobacconist University begins there.

We are still fighting for tobacconists.