Box Press

Imagine “hearing” colors, “feeling” sounds and “tasting” shapes. That’s what synesthetes like Luciano Meirelles, president and CEO of Luciano Cigars, experience. Learn how Luciano's synesthesia has helped him identify nuances of different tobaccos, categorize them and blend them to create some of cigar smokers' favorite premium cigars, including Luciano The Dreamer, Pichardo Clásico and The Sergea...

Don't ever wash a cast iron skillet! Learn how to cook a New York strip the right way, Omar’s way. Founder of Fratello Cigars, Omar de Frias defines medium rare, reveals what food NOT to pair with cigars and recommends what cigar to smoke after a steak dinner. Recorded at Boveda HQ in Minnesota with Box Press host, Rob Gagner. Minneapolis is home to the Juicy Lucy, a burger stuffed with molten mel...

Basketball and cigars! It’s Miami vs. Minneapolis. 6' 6" vs. 5' 10". Home-court vs. on-the-road. Watch who comes out on top in the legendary basketball shooting game, P-I-G as Boveda’s Rob Gagner takes on Caldwell Cigar Company Founder, Robert Caldwell. Recorded in Miami at the cigar maker’s home. Who makes the roundball shots that the other can’t match? Who’s penalized by getting a letter? Who re...

Secrets behind making cigars revealed! Join us on the lanai at Robert Caldwell’s private home for a real talk with the founder of Caldwell Cigar Company. Hear from the character behind Blind Man’s Bluff, Long Live the King and Anastasia cigars. Recorded in Miami with Boveda’s cigar podcast host Rob Gagner. Launched in 2014, the brand creates sticks using well-aged rare tobaccos. In the industry, R...

Best explanation of a tobacco plant on the web! This cigar talk proves you don't have to spend a lot on a cigar to get a great smoke. Fuma cigars are made by repurposing the tobacco that's leftover after producing premium cigars. Hear how Ernesto Padilla (pronounced Pah-dee-yah) selects the best of what's left to craft Padilla fumas. Ernesto and Boveda's Rob Gagner discuss how blending tobacco for...

Box Press is a cigar podcast where talking about the cigars is secondary, says host Rob Gagner. Instead cigar smokers learn about the personalities and the people behind popular cigar brands. Today have a cigar with President and CEO Nick Perdomo Jr. and his son Nicholas Perdomo III, who is National Director of Sales. They delve into running a family-owned business, working with your dad and farmi...

Join Boveda's Rob Gagner on a tour of Perdomo Cigars with the President and CEO of Perdomo Cigars, Nick Perdomo Jr. Learn about Rob's passion for Perdomo's Champagne 10th Anniversary Cigar, the secret behind why this Connecticut shade wrapped cigar is so creamy and how Nick Perdomo executes comparative tastings at Perdomo. Tune into Box Press in two weeks to catch Rob's cigar talk with Nick Perdom...

"We gotta put our pants back on. We'll be down there in a minute." Business start-up tip: even if you're already in your pjs, you get dressed when Carlos Fuente, Jr. invites you to a late-night dinner to talk packaging cigars exclusively with your new two-way humidity control. 2022 marks Boveda’s 25th anniversary! Learn how the award-winning innovation for humidors and cigar packaging came to be f...

2022 marks Boveda’s 25th anniversary! Learn how the award-winning innovation for humidors and cigar packaging came to be. This cigar podcast is a combo of “How It’s Made” and “The Food That Built America” with Sean Knutsen, CEO, Tim Swail, EVP of Sales and Box Press host Rob Gagner. Website: https://www.bovedainc.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bovedausa/ Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/b...

Ease into your own leather recliner and grab a smoke with Boveda’s Rob Gagner and AdVentura Cigars’ Henderson Ventura. This cigar talk meanders as many do at a smoke lounge delving into hobbies, hammocks, never-will-I-evers, book recommendations for guys and your mom’s cooking. Filmed on location at The Terrible Cigar Club, South Miami’s largest outdoor terrace and indoor cigar lounge and public c...

It’s like a 12-minute immersive experience in a cigar escape room! Join us as we search for unicorns, never-released samples and private blends in Willy Herrera’s cigar stash. Willy is one big dude—literally and figuratively—in premium cigars. The master blender for Drew Estate combines tobaccos to maintain consistency among legacy lines and to create new releases for the cult cigar brand. His aut...

How do you judge a cigar? Focus on a cigar’s flavor, balance, construction and clean finish suggests HVC founder Reinier Lorenzo. A cigar with a clean finish won’t leave you with a weird taste in your mouth afterward—what smokers call ashtray mouth.  Native Cuban Reiner founded the small-batch cigar house HVC in 2011, as a homage to hand-made cigars in Havana. “To me, Cubans, when they are ri...

Take a trip to Cuba in less than five minutes with HVC founder Reinier Lorenzo. See first editions, Cigar Aficionado top cigar of the year and more as Reinier opens up his personal humidor to Box Press host Rob Gagner. Reiner founded the small-batch cigar house HVC in 2011, as a homage to hand-made cigars from Cuba’s capital city, Havana. Filmed on location in Miami, Florida. Full interview with H...

A true crime cigar story! Thieving jacka$$es sledgehammer their way into the back of a humidor and make off with $150,000 worth of limited-edition cigars BEFORE the owner had a chance to insure his new warehouse. His next move after installing high-tech security? Craft a new boutique cigar called La Mandarria, which translates to THE SLEDGEHAMMER. Hear the backstory from Casa Cuevas Cigars’ Luis C...

The first stop on the Miami cigar scene! Boveda’s Miami cigar tour features acrobats, a new celebrity cigar, stink bugs and other spine-tingling tales from cigar legend Jack Toraño. Espinosa Cigar’s brand ambassador gives host Rob Gagner a Knuckle Sandwich, the new Guy Fieri cigar. Hear how the Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives star launched his stick. Private jet to Puerto Rico. Mongo release party. Ca...

Coming to you from the U.S. hot bed of cigars, Miami, Florida! Catch the new Box Press series as Boveda's Rob Gagner goes deep with Miami cigar legends, including: • Nick Perdomo, Jr. and son Nick III, Perdomo Cigars • Henderson Ventura, Ventura Cigar Company • Robert Caldwell, Caldwell Cigar Co. • Reinier Lorenzo, HVC • Jack Toraño, Espinosa Cigars • Ernesto Padilla, Padilla Cigars • Luis Cuevas...

Unicorn chasers, this one’s for you! Think you’re missing out not smoking Cuban cigars? Get your hands on these new small-batch sticks from Lampert, which were mistaken for premium Cubans by cigar lovers around the world. Blended by current GM of Mombacho Cigars, SOTL Indiana Ortez, these fine cigars sold out at 2021 PCA in Las Vegas. With the last cigar box in the house, Founder Dr. Stefan Lamper...

Are you overwhelmed when you visit a tobacco shop’s humidor? Approach the tobacconist to help you find the perfect cigar for you. Next, learn how to use all of your senses to enhance your smoking experience. Boveda’s Rob Gagner was shocked by what can influence your opinion of a cigar. Amaze your cigar buddies with tips from sensory expert Reinhard Phorec, host of cigar podcast, Light ‘Em Up Loung...

Steelers fans, light up an Ike Taylor cigar! Before retiring in 2015, Ike won two Super Bowl® rings during his 12-year career with Pittsburgh. Now the former NFL® player has launched a premium cigar called 1OFAHKINE (pronounced one of a kind). Working with black-owned cigar brand, Howard G Cigars, Ike sampled 40 different tobaccos to develop the blend, which is in the All Pro Series. Ike and...

Got a NFW cigar story to share? This proves that in-store herfing leads to unexpected mash-ups and good couch for a cigar podcast! Hear the whole cigar lounge tale and more as Warfighter Tobacco Company’s Jon Simons and Scott Jansen join Boveda’s Rob Gagner at 2021 PCA in Las Vegas.  Highlights from this armed forces cigar podcast include:   (2:28) What Warfighter cigars are th...

When the world throws you a curve, lean into mentors, then pivot. For this elite boutique cigar maker, that meant revitalizing the c brand. Abe Flores has embraced the roots of the D.R.’s cigar lineage; simplified his tobacco blends; halved the number of cigars his Tamboril factory produces; and picked up business advice from cigar legends.  Talking to Boveda’s Rob Gagner at 2021 PCA in Las V...

So what if a kid gets kicked out of kindergarten and fourth grade and tenth grade? He can still succeed—and even earn a master’s degree and make the big bucks in financial services! It’s about what you learn from setbacks that counts. Micky Pegg’s gone from Capitol Hill to tobacco sales to mutual funds, then back to cigars again. In 2018, this professional chameleon and certified tobacco sommelier...

National treasure? More like an international treasure! Hiram & Solomon is sold worldwide as the official cigar representing Freemasons. Hear Masonic theories debunked, Freemasonary history revealed and fake cigar ops foiled. What’s the “Da Vinci Code” on the cigar brand founded by Masonic Brother, Fouad Kashouty? Find out with Boveda’s Rob Gagner from Fouad and his wife, Romy for a smoke at 2...

He’s been a coach, a teacher, a vice principal, a financial advisor and a Jersey Shore cigar shop owner. So with a doctoral diploma on the wall, why is Steve Zengel running a cigar company for a living? Um, because it’s awesome. Hear the whole twisty-turny origin of Los Caidos from its founder who sat down with Boveda’s Rob Gagner at 2021 PCA in Las Vegas. And learn how neither sleet, nor rain, no...

When you share a cigar, you open up to each other. It’s no different for Raquel Quesada who  grew up in a cigar dynasty. She revealed some never-told stories to Boveda’s Rob Gagner over Quesada 1974 cigars at 2021 PCA in Las Vegas.  Raquel talked openly about childhood hijinks; the least favorite training rotation of cigar operations; secret grows on the Quesada tobacco farm; and blendin...