Marcus Bowen - The Cigar Wrapper - Wrapping Cigars since 2013

A Passion For Cigars

A Father/Son story

Thanks to a gift of one of my father’s graduate students some twenty-plus years ago, my father and I shared one of my first cigars, a Brasilia (a brand I have rarely found since, and only in dry-cure varieties). Relaxing at the dining room table after dinner, Dad with his cognac and me with an iced glass of Rolling Rock beer, we admired the Corona Gorda sized cigars with their smooth, Colorado Claro shade wrappers.

Cigar 101: Care & Storage

When I started to work in the cigar business, one of the most frequent questions I was asked was regarding the care and storage of cigars once they left the shop: Should I remove the cellophane? Should I leave the cigars in the tubes? Can I store cigars in my refrigerator? How often should I add water to my element? How long can cigars be stored and still be smokeable? This chapter of Cigar 101 will attempt to provide answers to some of these questions and offer a variety of options to care for your own stash of cigars.

I wanted to share 3 of my favorite things about the Cigar

CIGAR MAKING - One of the more fascinating things about cigar making is that its basic art of construction has not changed in well over one hundred years. That is why a handrolled cigar is the perfect complement for those of us who appreciate the artistry of hand craftsmanship. Even machine-made cigars must still rely on various degrees of hand labor. Premium cigars, however, are an anomaly, for even though each one is individually made by hand, we do not want them to be different in terms of construction and quality. If anything, we want them to be the same. To fully understand the intricacies of a good cigar, we must first go to the very roots of cigar making. And those roots literally emanate from the tobacco plant itself.
THE PERFECT CIGAR - I have revised that philosophy to just “smoking the best.” For me, price does not always enter into the picture anymore, because very often, some of the best cigars are not the most expensive. When you think about it, and from what we have discovered in the last chapter, it really doesn’t cost any more to make an excellent cigar than it does to make a mediocre one. The difference is the quality of the tobacco, how the tobacco was prepared, and how the cigar was constructed and aged. So what it really comes down to is knowing what you like and then picking the best cigars in those categories.
CHAMPAGNE & CIGAR - As with many full-course cigar night “smokers” and dinners, let’s start with champagne and cigar pairings, although, just like my preferences for cigars, the examples I am about to give are favorites from my own lifelong taste tests. After reading these recommendations, you may wish to venture out on your own and blaze a different path through the gourmet’s world of spirits and smoke. Champagne usually signals the beginning of a celebration, getting us off to an effervescent start.

Passion

I'm powered by passion. I can't even imagine living in a world where I'm not doing something that I love from the bottom of my heart. Making cigar is an absolute pleasure everyday, I put all my love into each one of those.

Family

Family Values. That's what I will carry on forever and teach to my kids as much as I can.
Family is what we have the most important on our lives and we have to take care of each other.
So, go see the first member of your family you will find and hug them, kiss them and tell them you love them.

Celebration

What I love most in life is to celebrate things. Everything. Life. Love. People. Sunsets. Sunrises. Poetry. Airplanes. Coffee shops. I love everything and I'm so grateful for what we have. Cherish it before it's too late.

Wrapping Cigars since 2013