60
TOBACCO BUSINESS
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2013
Royal Gold’s Full HousE
TB
recently spoke to Alex Goldman about the development process and the four cigars
that it yielded. Here, without further ado, is a primer on Royal Gold Cigars’ portfolio:
Casino Gold HRS
Wrapper:
Habano Rosado Jalapa
Binder:
Cameroon
Filler:
Ometepe, Jamastran, and Esteli
Price:
$5.45-$6.60
“Casino Gold is a trademark that Swisher has owned for about a decade,” says
Goldman. “We basically scrapped that cigar and reblended and repackaged it,
using the samemanufacturer: the Plasencia family inHonduras.” Themedium-
bodied cigar comes in five sizes ranging from 6x44 to 6.25x62, which are
dubbed Ace,King,Queen, Jack and Joker in keeping with the theme suggested
by its name. “I believe that it is much easier to get a great blend in a larger ring
cigar because you’re working with more tobacco,” notes Goldman. “The trick
with this cigar was to get the consistency across all the sizes,which we achieved
thanks to the Plasencias’ knowledge—Nestor Sr., Nestor Jr. and Conrado.”
Kismet
Binder:
Dominican
Filler:
Dominican
Wrapper:
Dominican Corojo
2006
Price:
$7.10-$8.50
Notable as a Dominican Puro,
Kismet is produced by the
Augusto Reyes family. “When
I test cigars, I don’t ask for the
components because I don’t want
to be influenced by knowing
what is in the blend,” says
Goldman. “We went through
several rounds of blends before we
chose this one and only then did
I ask what was in it—I couldn’t
believe the answer. I’d never seen
a Dominican wrapper burn this
well on Dominican tobacco.”
Kismet uses six different
tobaccos grown by the Reyes
family at various locations in the
Dominican Republic, a country
known for its varied climates and
rich soils. The name comes from
an Urdu word meaning “fate” or
“destiny,” and the cigar’s sizes—
ranging from 5.5x46 to 6x60—are
named accordingly: Fate, Destiny,
Luck, Fortune and Chance.
Nirvana Cameroon Selection
by Drew Estate for Royal Gold Cigars
Binder:
San Andreas Negro - Mexico
Filler:
Nicaraguan - Esteli and Jalapan
Wrapper:
African Cameroon
Price:
$9.15–$10.85
“Drew Estate is the hottest cigar company on the planet right now, so we are
really excited about this limited edition cigar,” says Goldman. “We had hoped
to have a cigar ready in time for sampling at the 2013 IPCPR [trade show],
but we also wanted it to be perfect, and it just wasn’t ready. It was worth the
wait.” Nirvana features rich plantation tobaccos from the most precious and
fertile growing regions in northern Nicaragua and Cameroon, a silky and
voluptuous Cameroon wrapper, and a San Andreas Negro Mexican binder.
Gold Strike
Wrapper:
Indonesian Sumatra
Binder:
Indonesian Besuki
Filler:
Nicaraguan
Price:
$6.75-$6.99 (3-cigar pouch)
WithGold Strike,Goldman sought to develop a lower-cost,handmade cigar suitable for the kind of wide distribution that Swisher
was uniquely positioned to provide. “Swisher has 400 sales reps across the country working with c-stores, smoke shops, chains,
[and] distributors,”he explains. “We saw that many of our competitors were coming out with single cigars or bundles packaged in
foil so that they could be sold in stores without humidification, and we thought, ‘This is a market Swisher understands better than
anyone else.’”
Those competitors’ cigars were plagued by two problems: relatively high price points for the target audience, and packages that
didn’t allow consumers to see the cigar. Goldman set his sites on solving both issues. “We decided on a mixed filler cigar,” he
recounts.“If you make them right, they taste just as good as a high-end premium.”Since J.C.Newman had taken production of its
Quorum cigar in-house,Goldman was able to take advantage of the hole left by this move and approach NASCA, a factory jointly
owned by several well known cigar-making families. Next, he approached Swisher’s packaging division with a challenge: create a
package that maintained humidification as well as foil but also enabled consumers to see the cigars inside.
“We were able to design a resealable pouch that holds three cigars but has a see-through front and which sells for $6.99,”he says.
“You can walk into a c-store on your way to the golf course,smoke one on Saturday [while golfing],and throw the other two in your
bag for next week. It’s a phenomenal value.” (Note:The cigars are also available in bundles of 15)
