| tionally, cigar aficionados have only been able to buy | | | | of the kind: they feature one, two, or even five |
| cigars by the box. This created conundrums for | | | | premium cigars at most, mixed in with a liberal |
| those who love to procure a great smoke without | | | | sampling of "cigar pawns," the ultra-cheap, |
| incurring a big risk. If you splurge on a box of | | | | sub-gas-station-quality cigars that cost cigar retailers |
| premium cigars, even if they're discount premium | | | | as little as forty cents per smoke (which is the same |
| cigars, you may very well find yourself smoking the | | | | as the number of cents that the federal cigar tax |
| first one--only to discover that it really wasn't what | | | | recently increased by!). The embarrassed customer |
| you wanted. Even if it's a very good cigar (that's | | | | opens up these long-awaited packages, only to find |
| what "premium" means), if it's not to your taste, | | | | two or three smokeable cigars (which still may or |
| you've got eleven more cigars that you aren't | | | | may not be to that particular smoker's personal |
| particularly motivated to smoke, and you're out the | | | | taste) and a dozen or more other cigars that aren't |
| price of an entire box. | | | | well-constructed enough to make good paperweights. |
| For this reason, the idea of a premium cigar sampler | | | | For that reason, the choose-your-own sampler was |
| has emerged in recent years--especially after the | | | | an immediate success when first introduced via the |
| so-called "cigar boom" of the 1990s, when many new | | | | Internet in January 2007. With this simple but brilliant |
| cigar aficionados discovered their love of the smoke, | | | | idea, you could order a premium cigar sampler that |
| but lacked the deep knowledge of the various tastes | | | | actually consisted of premium cigars, all of which you |
| and brands that are out there that comes with | | | | chose yourself, at a decidedly discount price. |
| experience. For these new cigar lovers, it was | | | | But this new product, in turn, presented its own |
| important to try many different kinds of cigars very | | | | dilemma (though a much better kind): what do you |
| quickly, and that's where a sampler pack built from | | | | do after you've filled up your cigar sampler with |
| various premium cigars came in highly useful. | | | | delicious ultra-premium cigars such as Gurkha or |
| Cinder-block cigar shops, as well as the newer, virtual | | | | Partagas? |
| kind, found great success with a product thus | | | | Luckily, these premium cigar samplers that truly offer |
| tailor-made to solve a problem that afflicts cigar | | | | discount premium cigars offer you a chance to |
| aficionados. | | | | discover daily-use cigars--the kind of premium cigar |
| But there was a problem, too, with the premium | | | | that doesn't offer the intense, once-in-a-lifetime |
| cigar sampler: sometimes the cigars weren't actually | | | | smoking experience of the very best CAO or Cohiba |
| "premium." A common business practice was for large | | | | cigars, but which, due to its lesser expense, makes it |
| cigar emporiums to send out glossy, | | | | something you can smoke every day without |
| beautifully-designed catalogues, publications so nicely | | | | over-taxing your tastebuds or your bank book. |
| put-together that they looked like bridal magazines. | | | | Consider, for example, Ashton Cigars, an excellent |
| These catalogues would offer unbelievable deals on | | | | more-recent startup that offers fine premium |
| premium cigar samplers, advertising the best brands | | | | Nicaraguan-made smokes, and lots of them, at an |
| in the world, such as Cohiba, Macunado, Romeo Y | | | | excellent price. Or consider the best cigars made by |
| Julieta, and Gurkha, as part of "premium cigar | | | | countries with lesser-known cigar industries, such as |
| samplers" at dirt-cheap prices. Readers wondered | | | | Royal Jamaica Gold, the cream of Jamaica. With |
| how a sampler filled with eighteen to twenty such | | | | cigars like these in your sampler (and your humidor), |
| fine premium cigars could go for such a low | | | | you have a chance to enjoy a few of those |
| price--especially considering the cost of printing and | | | | once-in-a-while smokes that can't be afforded every |
| mailing those pretty catalogues. And the answer to | | | | day, while also discovering premium taste--at a |
| that question was, for buyers, rather dismaying. | | | | discount budget. |
| Many so-called "premium cigar samplers" are nothing | | | | |