- There's a story inside every smoke shop, with every cigar and with every person. Come be a part of the cigar lifestyle at Boveda. This is "Box Press." - This is the- - El Güegüense is Nahuatl from Nicaragua, so it's indigenous to Nicaragua, so it's not even Spanish. So even people that speak Spanish can't pronounce it. - Well, what is it? - It's a dance that's been happening. It's the oldest indigenous satire of the Western hemisphere that's been happening in Nicaragua since the late 1500s.
It's recognized by UNESCO as a cultural mastery. - So how do you get hip to this? - Living in Nicaragua since 2003. - Did you dance? - No, but that imagery is everywhere. So when I started my, you know, it was about to start Foundation, I wanted to do a brand, you know, I was never on the sales and distribution side for, at that time, 12, you know, 12 years, 13 years. So I wanted to, something that represented. I knew I wanted to do an all Nicaraguan blend, filler, binder, wrapper.
And I wanted to pay homage to Nicaragua. Nobody knew who I was in 2015, except for the hardcore smokers and the shops that had kind of been following me. So, hence, I named it something a little bit more difficult to pronounce because I knew they would get it, you know, I knew they would appreciate what I was doing. As time, you know, brands continued, I made them easier to say. - So I've been hip to your Tabernacle and your Wise Man. I hadn't been exposed to this, the Olmec.
And I smoked this last week for the first time. Dude. It's a special smoke. It's one of those smokes. - Why, why is it so special? You know, someone told me recently, another manufacturer said, you broke the code. Because I think it has kind of all of those elements. For one, the blend is using the choice of choice tobaccos from Nicaragua, the filler San Andrés Negro wrapper. I mean the San Andrés Mexican wrapper is some of the oldest tobacco in the world.
People don't realize the Negro seed predates the Habanensis seed, the Cuban seed, and is one of my favorite wrapper leaves. And then you put the branding together with it. I think it just has kind of all those elements that make for magic. And you never know sometimes how these things are gonna hit, too. But we planned big for Olmec, but it far exceeded what our plans and our projections that we had. Yeah. - So did you notice the blue flame never touched the cigar? Yes. - You did your homework.
You did your homework. - The guy's pet peeve is, well, do not let the blue flame the 3,500 degrees or whatever the hell is. - Because the blue, it's 3,500, 4,000 degrees that blue flame, the soft flame is probably around 800 degrees. So it's just such an intense amount of heat to be applying directly to the tobacco. And you see the changes. - Well, I'm not saying you're a freak because it's a pet peeve.
- No, no, no, no. I appreciate the guidance because I'm looking at it and I'm going, okay, tomorrow, I'm not gonna be putting the blue flame because I'm one of these guys that's like, ah, you know, because you can feel it too from really far away that flame. Yeah. And it's just, I just think it has some effect when initially when you're smoking on the, how hot the tobacco smoking. And then it affects how the blend, what the intention of the blend is.
So that's why, it's like when you smoked, you know, two, puffing, puffing, puffing, puffing, you get the tobacco too hot, you're gonna affect, look at here in Las Vegas. So we've been, I've been smoking some of the new blends we've introduced all year. Again out here, it's a whole different smoking experience because we're dealing with- - 11% relative humidity. - 11% relative humidity, maybe. I mean, that's an extreme. Tobacco needs moisture. Can't have too much moisture.
That's what you guys do beautifully, right? It can't have too less. I mean, this temperature and moisture from the beginning, from seed to the farms, to the curing barns, to fermentation, right up to the humidors is such an important factor. And that's why, you know, you guys have really crushed it because you made it so easy to maintain this humidity, which I did not talk to Nick ahead of time about. - No, not at all. - Yeah, but thank you. Not at all, not at all.
Appreciate that. But we of course, you know. So here's one of the reasons why I'm so excited about you. You started in a store. - Yep, 1996. - I can't tell you. - Are we live by the way? - We've been live the whole time. I can't tell you. - Can we swear on the show? Yeah, you can do whatever you want. And if you want we'll bleep it out. - No, that's all right. Sometimes I have a potty mouth, but not always. And I get carried away once in a while too. Who doesn't? - You gotta get into it.
But I have much respect for the idea that you started in a store and it shows in the craft that you've created. So you're in the, you do the retail thing, you understand the consumer, you fall in love with cigars. - Yes. Yeah, that was, I was 18 - And you fell in love with cigars. - Hard, hard. - You're still in love with cigars. - Big time. Yeah, big time. You should see me around tobacco.
Hand to tobacco. - Yeah, you did a little diddy about Connecticut Broadleaf and you talked about getting lost in the smell of Connecticut Broadleaf - Ah, so good. when you're holding it up to your face. So good. I could eat it. But yeah, I love, you know, I love cigars. My grandfather's is really, was the beginning of... Being able to smoke a cigar with my grandfather was, - He was a cigar guy. - They both were. And my great-grandfathers were all cigar smokers.
So Connecticut had a, it still does, but you know, back throughout the 1900s, there was a lot of cigar brands in Connecticut, a lot of cigar factories. So you had the growing region north of Hartford in the Connecticut River Valley. And then you had factories in Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport, tons of factories. They were all using Cuban fillers before 1959 and Connecticut wrappers. I mean, that was the, they called them Clear Havanas. That was the combo.
- So your bobber goes down for cigar flavor, for cigar experience? - Yeah. - At a young age? - Yeah. - And then you do the retail experience. - Yep. - Just going to school, working the store. Wasn't in class, working a shop. - And then? - And then I traveled the world. And in the process, you know, I met Jon Drew when I first started working the shop. He was first starting and he had a brand called Samaro. It was God awful, but he kept at it and he kept coming back.
They then came out with a brand called La Vieja Habana, which Nick Perdomo was making at the time. This has gotta be about '98. And I took that into the store because the women I worked for, they put their full confidence in my love for cigars and my knowledge. By 18, I had known everything I could about cigars, you know, from a book. And that was the height of the cigar boom, so it was a crazy time to, to start in the industry.
So we brought on this brand, I met Jon for an event one Saturday from '98 to 2003. We kept in touch. I graduated school in 2000 and wanted to get outta Connecticut. You know, when you want to travel, I worked in and lived in Rome and then bought an around-the-world ticket for $1,500. Went to from Paris to India to Thailand, Overland down the Mahjong River into Laos, Vietnam, China. So Jon and I were communicating on email. So I think the light bulb went off in his head.
In the early 2000s, nobody wanted to go to Nicaragua. He said, "Oh, this kid will go to Nicaragua. I'm sure he knows what the product needs to be at least." And I was traveling the world for a year and I get an email from Jon, "Do you want to come down and be my right hand man?" I was 24. - How long did it take you to answer that question?
- Right away I was in, because my next dream trip, after traveling the world, I wanted to travel through Central America and learn how to roll and bunch cigars. That was like my next, I had to learn how to roll and bunch cigars. So it came at a perfect time. So after traveling the world for a year, I was back in the States for a month and a half. Flew down to Nicaragua. Jon said, you want the job? You gotta start now. And I didn't. I started right away.
Didn't leave Nicaragua for two years before I went back to the States. And you know, Drew Estate was tiny that time. We were working out of the back of Nick Perdomo's house. The back was kicked out rolling tables. I lived upstairs of the factory. There was two bedroom for about two months until my farmhouse is ready. Moved to a farmhouse because I said, if I'm gonna live in Nicaragua, I wanna live on a tobacco farm.
That farm is actually, I use a lot of tobacco from that farm in my blends to this day because I work with Abdel Fernandez now. So that farm, he grows on that farm. So I nestled in, you know? Here I was, 24 amongst all these legends that I'd only read about in books. And here I am a sponge ready to learn how cigars are made. - And you're living with the plant? - Living with it. Living with it. And that's how you know tobacco. You have to be a good listener, observer.
Your senses have to be unbiased. You have to be an observer because that's, you have to be able to communicate it. Not to get weird, but communicate and listen to the plant because it's very fickle, very fickle. - So you probably know personally the plants that made up that Willy Herrera red and white label that I fell in love with. - Yeah, I worked with that with Willy when he first came on board. Yeah, yeah. I helped a little bit. - Beautiful cigar. - It's great smoke, great smoke.
- So, okay, so now you go, you do the Drew Estate chapter. And then, and the wanderlust continues. You want to keep rolling? - Yes. - Or do you wanna immediately go start your own? - No, I was with Drew Estate for 12 years. You know, we went from working out of the back of a house with maybe making 5,000 cigars a day until 12 years later, a hundred thousand square foot factory, 105,000 cigars a day.
So I had been in charge of, eventually evolved into the tobacco purchasing, blending- - Did you guys start that safari thing during the time that you were there? - Yeah, yeah, of course. Because the guys rave about the trip that they took. - Yeah, of course. That was '08, '00. You know, finally we were, so from '03 to about '08, there was so much growth happening. And they would call me from the States, and say, Nick, we need more production.
We would rent out another house, we would knock down another wall. We would expand and expand, and finally we came to a point, we had about 10 different buildings throughout Estelí. And I said, guys, this is as far as I can take it without jeopardizing quality, consistency, and having problems. Like we're, we're, we're working well and- - What's your role at that point? - Director of Tobaccos and Production.
So over three years, I had just gone hard into learning everything about the leaf, right. So I sort of reverse engineered the cigar coming from the retail. I then started to reverse engineer and really focus on quality control. That was one of my main jobs, was quality control. I implemented different filters. So here I am, you know, in Nicaragua, sort of, Jon left after the first two weeks and said to kind of figure it out.
I had just come off of an international business degree and my love for cigars. So I was out to prove myself. But the international business degree came in handy because I was able to, there was not much organization happening at that time. There was not production planning, shipment planning. And I'm kind of a freak when it comes to keeping everything organized. So I started implementing a lot of organization.
I planned all the production, worked with the sales team to take those projections, make a production plan, tobacco purchasing plan, and then I oversee quality control, and then all the blending. - So all the capacities from the- - Yeah, everything to do with the production. - Yeah. - Yeah. So- - But that's a beautiful thing because you've done everything along, I mean, you started at the retail, you go through all the capacities in the production end of things. - We built this amazing team.
You know, it's not, it wasn't just me, but all of the team down there. We were all around the same age, young team, and we all, they appreciated me coming from the U.S. side to add the perspective of kind of what they were missing, right? If you're always in, in the Nicaragua side or that side, you don't understand what's going on in the stores and the tobacconist and what customers want.
So everybody was real excited to have me on board because I was bringing this perspective that kind of connected all the dots for them. And we built up, the team that runs that factory today is still the team that I worked with. - Well, and and you're birthing cigars. I mean, you're birthing legendary names like- - Yeah, Liga Bravada's a big one. Yeah. And before that we were known as just the flavored guys.
But I appreciated flavored cigars from the retail perspective and finding, but I didn't smoke them. I was a hardcore traditionalist. So from '03 to '06, I was just blending, trying to figure out where the flavor profiles of cigars that I loved and where those flavor profiles were coming from. - So when you were back in the retail store, what, name a couple of brands that were your go-tos when you were in the store? - Oh, Padrón 3000 was my staple.
I was a big Fuente Opus X since, you know, that cigar was launched, I think '94. So yeah, I was a big Fuente fan. I smoked a lot of Excaliburs at that time, Excalibur 3s. Hoyo de Monterrey. Rothschilds were big. Henry Clays. Yeah, it was a Mac, you know, I started on Macanudos in early on when they were being made in Kingston, Jamaica. And the wrapper was coming right from the Connecticut River Valley. It was shade from the Connecticut River Valley, San Andrés Mexican binder, Jamaican fillers.
So yeah, I, there were so many great cigars there and there were so many bad cigars because it was the height of the cigar boom. You had to be careful. We called them Don Nobodies. There was so many people trying to make a quick buck, get into the business. And I always said at that time, this is about, if you can put your heart and soul and passion into this, you're gonna have a chance. You can't just wanting to come throw a band on a cigar and expect to make it in this business.
I mean, it's just, that's too much. So 12 years built this family, you know, living abroad and working abroad is different than I think living and working home and people you work with, you become even closer, that becomes your community even more. And it was really difficult to make the decision to leave Drew Estate. I had a great position. I had a great salary. I had all the perks and I saw the FDA regulations at that time.
So this is 2014. And there was so much talk about, potentially not being able to start your own company, cut off dates that the FDA would. So I said, if I don't do this now, I probably will never do it. And I knew the experience that I had built at that time that I could, if I failed, I could get another job on the leaf side of things. You know, I knew I had some security. Now, a 21 year old wasn't gonna come and take my job because of all the experience that I built up.
So it took me a couple years to make the decision, and then I finally left in May 9, 2014, and then spent the next year developing what would be Foundation Cigars. We launched at this trade show, PCA 2015, with one brand. El Güegüense. - El Güegüense. - El Güegüense. It's not Elgay Gunsei. - That's a great pasta sauce. Yeah. - Golognese is a great pasta. El Güegüense, El Güegüense, The Wise Man. - That was your launch? - That was our launch. I wanted to do a a hundred percent Nicaraguan blend.
I felt at that time, you know, I knew I was gonna come out with Broadleaf blends. That's kind of what I was really well known for being from Connecticut you know, being connected to Liga. But it, the Broadleaf wasn't ready curing at that time, but I thought this experience of Nicaragua, I wanted to bring to this part of the world, to the consumers, to the retail shops, to really show them what living in Nicaragua is about. And the heart and soul of Nicaraguan culture is El Güegüense.
It's everywhere. It doesn't matter where you come from in Nicaragua, what your cultural, religious background, political background, everybody identifies with El Güegüense as being distinctly Nicaraguan. - So this the, this subject of discussion with different leaders in the industry, the shift in Nicaragua being perceived as a second rate provider of tobacco to being a world class provider of tobacco, that happened under your watch? - Yes. - You were there for that?
- Yes, because, you know, there, the country really started to open up in 1990, 1991. The 80s was a disaster. The 70s was a disaster. So when the country was opened up to elections in 1990, that was the beginning of the cigar industry coming back. I mean, they had nationalized the cigar industry, I believe during the 80s. So it really wasn't until they started giving land back, factories back. So 2003 when I moved to Nicaragua, it was just starting to really get on its feet, and, yeah.
- Well, and I would assert that this craft that you've built into the Foundation DNA, this is as good as any cigar you're gonna smoke anywhere. - Yeah, there's a very, you know, I am a tobacco man. This has been my experience. - Sounds like a song. Purchasing tobacco from all over the world. So Ecuador, Brazil, premium, we call it black tobacco. That's cigar tobacco. Where you have Blond and Burley, that's all cigarette grades.
And so from a standpoint of dark air cured black tobaccos, there is a big misconception, you know, and mystique around Cuba. Nicaragua is very unique. It's the land of lakes and volcanoes. That's what Nicaragua means. Most active volcanoes in Central America. The soil is just so you can drop seeds by accident and things are growing. So what makes Nicaragua very unique compared to any other growing region is in the world is between the lower primings of the plant and the upper primings.
So usually the lower primings are milder. The middle of the plant is medium bodied. The upper part of the plant is the strongest, your Ligero. The diversity from the lower primings to the upper primings is unlike any other country. So the strength levels, the flavor going from the lower level. So, for example, the upper primings of the Nicaragua plant, the Ligero, the strongest, that would be like the Dominican's middle part of the plant, or Cuba's middle part of the plant.
I'm not saying one is better than the other. I don't see that tobacco as being better or worse per se. What makes something better or worse is your care in the field, your growing practices, your quality control, your fermentation. That's what makes tobaccos. They're just different, right? But Nicaragua, from a strength flavor-fortaleza -we say, there's nothing like it.
That's why you see all these brands, even before Nicaragua became Nicaragua, Dominicans always used it for blending, Honduras, all these other countries. - And it's all about the terroir. - It's all about the terroir. Yeah. I mean that's what makes Connecticut unique. Connecticut is a Mohegan word that means the great tidal river. The Connecticut River's 406 miles long. Starts on the border of Canada, cuts through New Hampshire.
It's the border of New Hampshire and Vermont, cuts through Massachusetts, through Connecticut, into the Long Island Sound. That was a gigantic finger lake at the end of the last glacier period. So it was this huge lake. The lake bed eventually settled into 30,000 acres north of Hartford. That's where the Connecticut River Valley is. And it's because of that glacier that makes for a very sandy loam soil. So the sand, when you see the sand, sometimes, you think you're at the beach.
When you look at the terroir, you're like, what? This is so sandy, how does? The sand is about this, say for example, this high, then you have clay at the bottom. What happens is, is that the water filters through easily before you get to the clay. Whereas if it was all clay, the water would settle up. The root system of the plant is following the water, so it goes deep.
That makes for sweeter, tastier tobacco, which is unique because most of the black tobacco growing regions, cigar tobacco, are more volcanic in nature. Connecticut's unique because of the glacier soil. So all of this plays a huge factor, but Nicaragua has become very unique in that the volcanic soil is, it's so rich, it's, you look at, it's just you want to eat it. At least I do. (Drew laughing) Some people don't want to eat soil. But it's, you know, it's thriving. It's amazing.
And then you have different regions within the country. Estelí is very volcanic, whereas Jalapa was much farther away from a lot of these volcanoes. I mean, you can literally see in Estelí remnants of rocks that were just blown from some of these volcanoes. And you can see volcanoes, some of them, they're some of the most perfect formed volcanoes, iconic volcanoes. - So did that have anything to do with the logo for Foundation? - A hundred percent, yeah, yeah. - Is that, I jumped to that.
I didn't know that. No, no, a hundred percent, yeah, yeah. So, because for me, the foundation of this is the leaf, right? Good leaf, time, fermentation. So within the Foundation logo, you'll see water, necessary, volcano, the volcanic soil and the sun. This is, this is the foundation for growing, you know, tobacco. If you don't have those elements, you can't grow good tobacco. And it's part of the, the logo of the crest of Nicaragua, very similar to that.
So, and then the pyramid is the balance between polarities, right? It's one of the- Okay, okay, and then we shift into some of your meditative practices. This is, are we getting on the edge of that? - Sure. - I mean, talk about that a little bit because you are not your run of the mill. - I mean, I got very big into like metaphysics, studying culture, history. Those things always fascinated me from a young age. I just always had a quest for understanding why things were the way they are.
I was that pain in the ass kid. "Mom, why is this?" - If you were a priest, you'd be a Jesuit. I mean that's like a basic - Yeah, there you go. - It's that kind of discipline around. - Yes, and mysticism, the occult, all of those kinds of things very, very much interest me. And mathematics and geometry are very interesting. And the pyramid is that structure. It, you know, the Trinity, people talk about the Trinity having more of a religious context.
But I think it's, when you trace it back, it has a very metaphysic-type meaning, and that's the balance. It is the balance between polarities, right? You have two extremes, and then the balancing point is the pyramid, the balance of polarities. This is, you know, the Great Pyramids are the oldest, one of the oldest structures, the- - And it's part of the discipline that goes into your cigar making. - A hundred percent. And balance for me with the blends is crucial.
- This is absolutely- - This is a tasty one. - This is- - This is the Claro. - Do you smoke this? I mean, what do you smoke more than anything out of your own line? - You know, I have weeks where I get on different kicks because I don't like to neglect all my children. So I will, you know, the Robusto and the Olmec, I've been smoking. Recently, El Güegüense Coronas, what you have. So I'll switch up. Last week it was Tabernacle Double Coronas. We sell so many Double Coronas, it's bizarre.
Usually Robusto, Toro is the top, but in Tabernacle and Olmec, the Double Corona size, we sell just as many Double Coronas as Toros and Robustos. It's wild. - Why? - It's a great question. I think the price point definitely is an influence between, and if you have the time and you look at the price of the Toro between the Double Corona, you're like, okay, the price point is not that great of a jump, and the cigar just keeps going. - Well, I smoked this in a larger format.
It was something like a Double Corona or a- - Was it a big? We do do a 60 in this. - No. - It was probably- - It was longer than this. - It was a Toro or the Double Corona. The Toro's 6x52. That's 5. So we have a 5, a 6 and a 7. - Yeah, I think it was a 7. - Yeah. - But it was an adventure.
And I had this moment where I stopped and I get, I get, I'm a, I'm a creature of habit, you know, I go to certain bins when I'm in the humidor, and I pass this up, never tried it, and I had the experience last week and then I have the privilege of talking to you today. It's like, hello? - Yeah, yeah, that's great. Thank you. Yeah, my pleasure. Yeah, Olmec. - Olmec. - And now what's the significance of the name Olmec?
- So this imagery here is, these colossal heads were discovered in the late '30s, '40s in Mexico. So I used to go to San Andrés every year for tobacco purchasing in Mexico. In this same region where Negro tobacco is used for all of the Mexican tobacco that's used in our market. This was the land of the Olmecs. The Olmecs were the mother culture of Central America, pre-Mayan, Aztec, Inca. In the late '30s, they started uncovering these colossal heads. These are gigantic heads. - Heads?
- Yeah, if you ever get a chance- - Like human heads? - Not stone. - Yes, human heads. - Carvings? - Carvings, stone. Not actual heads? - They don't know... No, no, no, no, carvings. They don't know much about them. Which is, I'm gonna give you a quick look at these. - Oh, far out. - Yeah. They started uncovering these heads- - These carvings. - And they were like, these are not Mayan. These are not, they discovered a whole nother civilization that predated the Mayans.
They were the first calendars. - So this becomes part of your story? - These are the first cigar smokers. That image of the cigar, that in the mouth of the lo, that's the first image of a cigar that I have studied and researched ever. - Circa when? - 3000 B.C. Yeah. 2000 B.C. Yeah. - Fascinating. - So I thought they were worthy of a- - Yeah, yeah, no, Of a brand. this is good. Let's name a cigar.
- Yeah, I mean, for me, you know, having been on the blending side for so many years to then create my own brands, you know, for me the packaging is a complement. I want to complement the blend. It starts with the tobacco always. But to be able to use things that I've been passionate about, history, culture, and use them on my brands. I have an amazing art team in Nicaragua. One of my best friends, Alex Garcia, incredible artist from from Estelí, we work hand in hand. I'm like the conductor.
He's the one that man manifests the art. And we have a lot of the same interests, so it's just exciting. - I could talk to you all day, but you gotta go. But I want just touch on one thing. - Yes, sir. - Introducing new people to cigars. Going back to your retail experience and your attitude about how we keep from, I mean, there's all sorts of new lux announcements coming in the industry, higher price points. It's natural. I'm not deprecating that at all.
But how do we continue to introduce new smokers? Yeah. - You know, for me, I think the cigar shops and the retail shops are very crucial in creating the right environment. It is very intimidating for new people to come into this industry. There are so many blends, there's so many brands. So creating that right environment in the shop. I see those shops that do create that right environment have the most success in getting new people, because it's intimidating. It's like me with wine.
I don't know wine that well. If I go into a wine shop, it's, it's overwhelming. So you have to get the right blend to the right consumer, because that's another, if you don't get the right blend to a new consumer. If you give them a Tabernacle, that's a full body, full strength blend to somebody that's never smoked cigars before, that becomes their image of what a cigar is. And it's not necessarily what all cigars are. There's so many different styles.
So you have to get the right, unfortunately, a lot of people like get cigars at a wedding or they're at a party and then it's sitting in their desk drawer and then they try to light it up and it's not humidified, and it's a terrible experience. So, but the cigar stores, I invite the cigar stores to be less cliquey, less pretentious, and more open to welcoming new people. I think new, you know, podcasts and our cigar has been featured many times on Joe Rogan's podcast. It's been amazing.
- I'm a Rogan freak. I watched everything. - I am too. He mentions you regularly. - It's crazy. Joe has been amazing. I don't pay him. - How'd you, how did that happen? - It just happened three years ago. We were able to, a friend of mine, we met another friend that was a cigar smoker. Cigar smoking brings people together. And he happened to be going to visit Joe in Austin. Joe had just moved to Austin, brought him a couple boxes and that's where it started.
And I eventually made him his own smoke. Unfortunately it's not available to the public, but hopefully one, maybe one day. - We've tried to go through the front door and dealing with his people. - Oh, I've given him Boveda before. Well, and he's, he's gotten packs, so. - But, and we don't need to, we'd love to continue to support Joe's cigar freshness through you.
- I ended up getting him a couple humidors, but whenever I send him, you know, some sample packs of different stuff, I always send Bovedas to him, so. - And he's such a great ambassador for the cigar industry. - So that's, you know, these different channels I think are crucial for exposing people to cigar smoking. I mean- - I'd love to sit and listen to you and Rogan have a cigar. - That would be awesome. - What a trip. - That would be a trip.
- I would freak out. - I mean, start 3000 B.C. and work your way forward. - You know, we've talked, we chat sometimes on Instagram, a little bit. He sent me a message this morning because I made him a new box for his new comedy store that called the Comedy Mothership. But we've chatted about Connecticut, the River Valley because he hates Connecticut, because the comedy scene has been, I think he's had a lot of bad experiences there and whatnot.
But now he's seeing, I think, you know, the history of tobacco there, which we just opened up our new office on a 300-acre farm. Would love to have you guys come up at some point. Right in the heart. - Pay attention. Pay attention. We're going. - Yeah, that would be great. 300-acre farm in the Connecticut River Valley with my good friend Jon Foster. So he's been a tobacco grower there since the 1600s. So educating people about cigar smoking is crucial. There's so much to know.
- We would jump at the opportunity because we're an asterisk on the cigar industry. On all the industries we serve, we're a side show. We're not the main event, but we are all about accentuating other people's experience. - A hundred percent. You guys do it well. - And whatever we can do to support you and continuing to flourish with Foundation and the ambassador to the industry that you are. It's a tremendous privilege for us to talk to you. - Same here, same here.
- And to smoke your cigars. - Likewise. You make spectacular cigars. Thank you, thank you. - Thank you. - Thank you. I can't thank you enough. I'm glad we got to talk. Sorry I was late. - Dude, I, you're gonna get on your scooter and get onto the next thing, but this has been an absolute privilege. - Same here. Nick Melillo. The Meli, Meli, Melillo. - Melillo. - Melillo. - There you go, that's the Italian. - The founder and the head chuchi at Foundation Cigars. And I am smoking the Olmec.
I have the El- - El Güegüense. - El Güegüense. - Yes, sir. Thank you. I will practice that. I will never do that wrong again. - No, no, you're good. - And- - You're not the only one. - Yeah, you are a wise man when it comes to cigars. - No, no, no, no. - Thank you very, very much. - My pleasure. Thank you guys. I appreciate it. - What a treat. - Yeah. (snazzy music)