Told By Lew Rothman

I hadn’t planned on writing anything this week, but I just smoked a really wonderful cigar. It was called an Optimate, but don’t confuse it with the machine-made short filler Optimo brand that you see in supermarkets or drugs stores… this was a real quality cigar. I looked up the …

Well, it’s that time of the year again. Time to head to Kansas to visit relatives, then out to Wyoming to see our son Shane, and then to pack up here in New Jersey and head down to Florida.  So, I may not be writing this blog thing as often …

A few weeks ago, I wrote about grabbing a taxi to go uptown years ago and finding that Ramon Cifuentes (Cuba’s most famous cigarmaker before the embargo) was my taxi driver! Well, I’ve started going through all my old papers and collectables and throwing stuff out so I don’t leave …

In the early 1970’s probably 90% of the handmade cigars sold in America were sold in New York, Chicago, Miami, and L.A. The rest of the nation was what I called “Roi Tan Country” … and although I’m best known for my career dealing with imported handmade cigars, I had …

I imagine everyone is getting bored with Trumps’ on and off war and peace with Iran, and is at least somewhat familiar with many of the historic wars like The War of The Roses, The Napoleonic Wars, the two World Wars, The Korean War, The Vietnam War, etc.., etc.… or …

I was looking at something on a cigar site and the question was raised as to who invented the Excalibur brand and the answer that Google gave the poster was Dan Blumenthal and the Hoyo de Monterrey Team. So, apparently Google doesn’t know shit about any subject, it just copies …

No, it’s not a new stupidly named cigar brand. There are already more than enough stupidly named cigar brands, cigar sizes, and “limited” edition cigars that seem to be made in a never-ending salute to truly trivial events in the imaginary history of some of today’s cigar vendors. No, the …

There are some great stories that have gone untold in the cigar industry and I guess it’s up to me to write about them at some point, but each of them deserves more than just a passing mention. No one else seems to be interested in the real guys in …

As you’ve no doubt read, there’s been a terrible earthquake in Venezuela and American do-gooders are out in force trying to help these people. Believe me, I respect these well-meaning people, but I know from experience that most of the effort and expense they go through is of little or …

Well, it’s July 4th and I’m out here smoking a cigar that I may have actually made myself! It’s a 5.5 inch Por Larranaga with a 38 ring and I guess they were made right around the Winter of 2000 or 2001. I was at the Altadis factory in La …