Welcome And Why This Cigar Matters

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hi, I'm Nicholas Perdomo with Perdomo Cigars, alongside my dad, Nick Perdomo, and you are listening to the Prodomo podcast. Dad, today we got something very special. First of all, it's great to be with you again, and this is episode number three. But we have something very near and dear to our hearts that we're going to be talking about. We're talking about a brand that really was the first of its kind, something that you really went outside the box and created over two decades ago. And Dad, this this episode's about the Perdomo Reserve Champagne story. So, Dad, you know, going back and looking, you know, at what you were able to really do something totally different. You created Perdomo Reserve Champagne. And it was a different time. You're looking late 90s going into 2000. Explain a little bit in terms of why you wanted to create Perdomo Reserve Champagne.

The Inventory Call That Started It

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Well, really, the way it started was a phone call from my father where we had a tremendous amount of inventory of Connecticut seed wrappers, because back in the late 90s, we were usually using mostly uh Habano and Maduro and Cameroon seed tobaccos. And we had all this wrapper that was really well aged, and we're talking 1999, and we had wrappers from the 92, 93 crop. Certainly wasn't because of my infinite wisdom. And my father had a great pout. I asked him to make some cigars, and he said, Wow, these are different. You know, most Connecticut that you smoke, you'll see it's kind of like that egg yolk color. Yeah. And these these wrappers had a honey or butterscotch type color, really beautiful. And my father said, Man, you can really taste the essence of the wrapper, the creaminess and so on and so on. So he had sent us some cigars up from Nicaragua before I went down there, and the whole staff loved them. And we decided to make a blend. And what we wanted to do is we want to do something different. Look, I was just talking to Arthur earlier, and in the in the mid-90s and the late 90s, 80% of the humidors were Dominican cigars with Connecticut shade wrappers, Dominican tobacco with Mexican binders and Connecticut shade wrappers, very mild to say the least. And I want to do something different. I wanted to blend it with Nicaraguan tobacco because it was unheard of, to be quite honest with you. And I think we hit a home run out of that cigar. We loved it. It had a lot of flavor. It was something that was totally different, kind of out of the box, because I would talk to customers. You know, it was the most important thing was being there and being able to talk to your consumers and your retailers. And people wanted more and more flavor. It was kind of very similar, all the cigars. I'm not saying they were bad, but I always think people are always looking for more flavor. And that's how we came out with Perdoma Reserve Champagne. 26 years later, it's still our number one seller, and it continues growing. And I'm very proud of the brand. And I love it. And I'm really excited. We're smoking Perdomo Reserve Champagne on the on the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Yeah, it's an incredible cigar, continues to grow every year. But I think the more I look at it, Dad, and when you really look behind, and it's a story that we really never talk about, but it's the truth. You know, you mentioned in the old days it was the it was Connecticut Shade Wrapper over Dominican binders, Dominican fillers, or Connecticut Shade wrapper over Mexican binder and Dominican fillers. You were the first to create a brand out of the country of Nicaragua that was specifically a Connecticut rapper over Nicaraguan binders and Nicaraguan fillers. So you were the first to do it. And Perdomo Cigars, our family, we were the first to do it. So I think that's something within itself that's absolutely incredible. And if you can, if you could talk a little bit more behind the blending side of

Blending Connecticut With Nicaragua

SPEAKER_01 3:40

it.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

Yeah, so I wanted to have something where the Nicaraguan fillers wouldn't overpower the cigar. And that was kind of a challenge because I wanted to be able to pick up that creaminess that my father was talking about. But I also wanted something that was extremely flavorful. And there was risk because it was unheard of at the time. Like I said earlier, everything was very mild at the time, but I knew and I felt really good about it that people were, like I said, want more and more flavor. And we worked really hard and we did it in lot numbers. So we didn't just take regions and say that I'm going to use Seiko, Tobacco, Visa from Halop, I'm going to use Lihero from Esteli. We we truncated them in lot numbers, and we really worked hard. It took us quite a while. And that's how it came out. Took us to 2000 or almost part of 2000, the RTDA show when he came out with the with the brand. And it's been it's been a winner. And what I love about the cigar, I would say it's medium-bodied. I think it hits every flavor characteristic from somebody from the from the newbie who who's starting to the guy who's been an experienced smoker. It's really an easy-going cigar. I think it's a cigar for somebody who's looking for a rich flavor, looking for complexity. And what we really wanted, Nicholas, is those well-aged Connecticut shade wrappers to really shine where you could taste the tobacco. And I think it's been consistent. The consumers love it. We continue growing. And the feedback that I get has always been astronomical. And a lot of my older friends that have been really serious cigar smokers love the ease of the cigar. Right. It has very little acidity, it's very cream, it's it's smooth. And I think that risk at the end paid off. But I felt really good about it too.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

Yeah, of course. And I think it's something that when you look, you know, people, when we've done events over the years and we've gone and we've, you know, we try to tell people what do you like to smoke to the mild, medium, full body, and they like something a little bit more mild to medium. And you tell them, well, you should try champagne, and they look at the wrapper, they go, Oh, it's a little bit. I find Connecticut to be a little bit tart, a little bit bitter. And but I think one of the things that you've done, outside of creating a Connecticut blend over Nicaraguan binders and fillers, is the way we age and the way we really ferment the tobacco and age the tobacco, specifically the Connecticut wrapper. So if you don't mind, if you could tell our audience a little bit in terms of how

Why Connecticut Needs Real Aging

SPEAKER_01 5:59

we do that.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

Look, any great tobacco has to be sorted, selected, cured, fermented, and aged tremendously. It takes a long time to do that. But what happened with Connecticut, it gets a gets a bad footing because one, it's very expensive. It's the most expensive wrapper in the world. Two, the farmers bring it from the curing barns after they pick the tobacco, they give it one sweat and they're on cigars months later. And that's wrong. Just because the tobacco burns doesn't mean it's great. It has to be well aged. Just because you put grape juice in a in a in a bottle doesn't make it a great, great wine just because you can drink it, right? Sure. So it takes a lot of patience and it takes a lot of time. And I have come to realize the great Connecticut seed tobacco needs approximately 60 months of real aging to be fantastic, where you get these beautiful honey butterscotch colors, where you get that nice, creamy, almondy, vanilla taste. And it pairs so well with the Nicaraguan fillers and binders that we make. And we the proofs in the pudding, it's our number one selling cigar, not only in America, but in all 77 countries around the world that we sell to. Yeah, it's true.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

And I think one of the things that when you take Perdomo Reserve champagne and starting and you know, using Connecticut wrappers over Nicaraguan fillers, and you gave me a great story one time when we had a competitor come and visit us, and basically what you said was is that he was looking and saying, Man, you have all these tobaccos, you know, aged for so long, you know how much weight you lose with you know from when you bought it, and it loses the moisture within the within the bales of tobaccos. But explain, you know, in terms of our whole mindset, we're driven by quality. And if you can explain that story to our audience.

Stockpiling Tobacco For Consistency

SPEAKER_00 7:42

Well, my father always said it takes 10 years to get a customer and takes three seconds to lose one. I've always been resolute about that. And a lot of people call me the tobacco hoarder. I stockpile a lot of tobacco because you're as good as your tobacco is, and you have to have really well-aged tobacco. So I had a competitor, a friend of mine, who said, My God, I can't believe the inventory. Just envision lines and boxes of Connecticut wrapper till the eye can't see. And he said, You lose about 10 pounds of moisture per bale, and if you cost you $50 a pound, that's $500 a box. And if you take all by the thousands of boxes, I don't know, the math came out to be a little over a million dollars. And I said, No, your math is wrong. And he said, Well, how do you figure? I said, What you have to do is you have to take the bale of tobacco and see how many leaves you get out of, which is approximately $24,700 cigars you can make, and then you divide it by the $500. And at the end, it's irrelevant because if you make a customer happy and he enjoys that product, you have a customer for life. How much is that worth? It's certainly worth a lot more than $500 per box, and certainly worth more than a million dollars when you look at the longevity we've had as a company. So to me, it was money well worth spending. We continue doing it, we continue stockpiling Connecticut because I want our customers happy and I want them to taste Connecticut that's not acidic, that's not acrid, it's not bitter. I want them to taste Connecticut the Prodoma way, which is smooth, clean, flavorful, and enjoyable for every palate.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

Well, it goes back to your old saying it takes ten years to get a customer, but it could take three seconds to lose one. And that mantra's the right mantra. So I think it's everything in terms of just just the mindset that we have. So I'm proud of that.

SPEAKER_00 9:24

Me too. I I love the cigar. I mean, look, I it's just a cigar that just everybody who smokes it really enjoys it. It's just right on. And we can't really make a mild cigar with it because of our volcanic grounds and how fertile everything is in Nicaragua. But we age these fillers and binders for a long time too, so we can make the cigar become so harmonious and become one, and it really has worked.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

It's true. That's true. And that's and then now taking another step back and looking, you release the cigar, you start blending Perdoma Reserve champagne in the latter part of the late 90s, 97, 98, and you have the mindset of, okay, I blended this cigar, I'm going to release it in 2000 at the RTDA show, which is now the PCA show. Looking back now, 26 years later, when did you know that Perdoma Reserve champagne became a hit?

SPEAKER_00 10:14

Yeah, that's a that's a hard question. I remember talking to Arthur many years ago. We were walking around the factory, and people asked me, when did you figure out you'd be you guys were were were hitting in stride? And I said, really about three years ago. But this is a cigar that I felt really great out of the gate. I remember when we we opened up the trade show in 2000, the lines of people, and 26 years later, the lines of people that still come to the PCA show today waiting to buy and purchase Perdomo Reserve champagne for their stores all around the world. I had a great I had a great feeling about it. It was very unique. You know, we look at the packaging.

The Gold Wrap And Trade Show Launch

SPEAKER_00 10:49

The packaging, I think, is superb. People wonder why do we have the gold cellophane?

SPEAKER_01 10:54

Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

And I'd like to talk about it if I could.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

Yes, you can.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

So that cellophane is really orange, but when you put the cigar in it, it turns yellow. And it really reminded me of Crystal Champagne, the packaging of it. That's not really the reason why I did it. The real reason why we did it was because back in those days, we all had the fluorescent lights and all the humidors around the country. And what it would do is it would blanch out any wrapper you could have. And we wanted to protect that wrapper. So it actually has a UV coating and an ovia films out of Chicago who does our cellulos before we make our cellophane tubes with our machinery. Offered that, and it was in that particular tint of color. And then I noticed when I put the cigar in, it had that champagne look on it. And my father always said, This is the champagne of wrappers, hence how we came out with the word Perdomo Reserve champagne. So it's been a love affair for me since day one, and I've always felt very good about the cigar. And uh, it's been a winner 26 years later, still growing like crazy, and people love it from Pittsburgh to Munich to Amsterdam to you know anywhere you can think of around the world.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

Yeah, it's it's pretty incredible. You start out, you're you're a small guy, you know, really looking back. You have Perdomo Reserve Champagne, you see celebrities today smoking this cigar. You see Aaron Rodgers lighting it up. I mean, what an honor for us. I mean, you look back at the times you started out of your garage, you moved multiple facilities within Miami, then eventually to Nicaragua. And now you got now we have one of the world's best-selling Connecticut wrapped cigars in the market. And it continues to grow, and I'm so proud of it, Dad. And I'm proud of you for taking that risk when we look back and go, man, everything was mild, mild, mild. And you decided, no, I want to make medium in a Connecticut wrapped cigar. Because at the end of the day, we can make any cigar that's super flavorful or really overpowerful, right? Even if it has even if it has a light wrapper, but we work within what people are looking for. Overall, people who want to smoke a light wrapped cigar, they want to have something smooth. And smooth doesn't necessarily mean mild, in my opinion. Smooth means flavorful, right? In terms of using well-aged tobaccos, blending all the components correctly, right, which you did. And making a Nicaraguan cigar with a Connecticut rapper dead, it was an incredible move on your part.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

Well, I appreciate it, but I got to give a lot of credit to our staff in Nicaraguan here in Miami, who were open-minded about it because you got to remember it back in those days, it was Habano for us. That's what I was famous for, the Cuban seed rappers that we used, our Maduro rappers that were Cuban seed, and our Cameroon rappers. So we really went out of the realm of it, even though Connecticut still to this day is about 80% of the consumption. To do something with Nicaraguan fillers and binders was really kind of revolutionary, the word I hate the most, but it really was.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

Well, I guess the thing I want to say is thanks for making Connecticut wrap cigars fun. Yeah, they thanks for making them taste great.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

Yeah, and I appreciate that. And our staff has done a great job, and and it's it's the curing, the fermentation, the aging process that our team does so extremely well that make those rappers really sing with the fillers and binders.

Who Champagne Is For

SPEAKER_01 13:58

It's true. So, Dad, you know, Perdomo Reserve Champagne's a huge hit. And but there's still, I mean, we know in our hearts, we know it's reality, there's still a lot of people who have never tried Perdomo Reserve Champagne. I mean, there's stories where we've done events recently and people said, Oh, we we love Perdomo. What's new? And you go, Well, have you ever tried a Proomo Reserve champagne? Never. The brand's been out for 26 years. So it's old to us, but new to a lot of people. So I guess my question to you is is to the person who has never tried a prodomo reserve champagne. I guess who's it for and why should they smoke one?

SPEAKER_00 14:32

Well, that's a great question. I think that if you're gonna learn how to taste scotch, for example, there's no reason why you have to drink a bad scotch to start. Why can't you drive, why can't you drink a nice single malt scotch that's 25 years old? And I think that's what champagne is.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

I think it's a really refined, great-tasting cigar. I think it's I think everybody wants smoothness. I think everybody wants richness and flavor that's not overpowering. But you hit it right on the head. Flavor is something so important, and people don't understand the variances of flavor and strength. And we're gonna be talking about this in the future podcast because we want people to refine their palates, and it's practice makes perfect. And I think everybody, like I said earlier, whether you're a mild meme or full-bodied smoker, you're gonna enjoy this cigar. And I've seen it, the proofs in the pudding. And for people who haven't smoked the cigar, to answer your question, I trust they're really gonna enjoy it.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

Yeah. And I think it's for everybody. I mean, listen, we smoke very rich, heavy, powerful cigars. And I'll tell you what, this cigar, there is no cigar that we make that is mild. It just doesn't exist with the high primers that we use, well-aged tobaccos. I mean, you're talking about a brand that every year certified six-year-aged tobaccos wrapper, binder, filler, okay, and Perdomo Reserve Champagne. But the great thing about Champagne, where you mastered how to blend a Connecticut wrap cigar with Nicaraguan fillers, you eventually created Perdomo Habano in Connecticut. Perdomo 20th Anniversary has an incredible Connecticut wrapper, eight-year-aged tobaccos, Perdomo 12-year double-aged vintage Connecticut, what a monster cigar. Perdomo 30th anniversary, all the way up to Perdomo Legacy having Connecticut wrap cigars. So it's one of those things where when people smoke our cigars and really dive into the Perdomo portfolio, it every single brand from Champagne all the way up to Perdomo Legacy, it's just the evolutions of flavor and the and just really just how we continue to get better and better, and not even better, but just how everything complements each other and how every brand just evolves overall

Legacy And Closing Thanks

SPEAKER_01 16:32

in flavor. So I'm really proud of it, Dad. But I think this was a really great episode. I'm proud of this brand. It's very important. I think having it one of our earlier episodes being episode number three. Perdomo Champagne definitely deserves its own segment, not only outside of sales, but really this episode's about you and going outside of the box, making the risk of creating something when everybody was doing the same thing over and over again. Connecticut rap over Nick over Dominican fillers, Dominican binders, or Mexican binders. You did something that set a trend, and the trend continues today and will continue tomorrow. So, Dad, job well done.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

Well, thank you. But again, thank you. And I'd like to thank everybody and the staff at Perdomo's cigars, like I said, they were open-minded. Yeah. And it's what makes us different. And it's a reason why, still to this day, our product lines have three wrappers, and that Connecticut is by far our biggest seller. And the important thing is it's a phenomenal cigar. And if you haven't tried it, I highly recommend you get a box. I think you'll really enjoy them. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

Well, Dad, great episode. I'd like to thank our audience. If you like this, please like, share, and subscribe to our Prodomopodcast.com, also on Prodomo YouTube and our Prodomo Facebook and Instagram pages. Thank you so much, and we're looking forward to seeing you guys in the next episode.