If $60 cigars are stored with Boveda, shouldn't yours be? Click here to receive cigar care tips: https://hubs.la/Q01BLsBF0
UberLuxury cigars are a new segment of premium cigars created by Jeremiah Meerapfel. His family's legendary Meerapfel Cameroon tobacco is touted as the most exclusive wrapper in the world. This fifth generation cigar man talks how his family evolved cigar smokers beyond Cubans toward New World Cigars (AKA cigars originating from any country that isn't Cuba!). Meerapfel and Boveda's Drew Emmer talk cigars and Boveda at PCA 2024, the preeminent event for premium cigar and pipe industry.
00:00 This is Box Press
02:40 Responsibilities come with being the patriarch of a family, a company
04:33 Amassment is a word
06:34 Combatting Cuban cigars with non-Cuban New World cigars
08:00 Cigars followed the same trajectory as wine
08:55 Sad that my father isn't next to me
13:32 How the cigar craft has changed over 20 years
16:07 Say NO to big cigar ring gauges
17:15 Wrapper is the most expensive part of a cigar
20:40 Pricing Meerapfel cigars created mayhem in the company
35:33 There's magic fairy dust in handcrafted premium cigars
37:20 If you want to smoke a perfect cigar, store it first with Boveda
What is Boveda? Premium and UberLuxury cigar brands like Meerapfel Cigar protect blends with Boveda 2-way humidity control—that brown pack that you find in the box with your cigars. Boveda preserves the flavor and character of premium cigars by keeping them at ideal humidity. At home, continue to use Boveda in your humidor to keep cigars from drying out. With Boveda in your humidor, you'll enjoy full flavor and a perfect smoke from every cigar.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bovedausa/
X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/BovedaInc
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bovedainc/?..
- What is it today at PCA 2024
Speaker:that's animating your spirit?
Speaker:- That's a good question.
Speaker:I'll be completely frank with you.
Speaker:My professional life,
Speaker:or let's say, the glasses I see through
Speaker:typically reflect my state of mind
Speaker:at a particular time in life.
Speaker:We go through life as children
growing up into teenagers,
Speaker:growing up into young adults,
Speaker:then some growing into
parents, young parents,
Speaker:so on and so forth.
Speaker:And the way we see things
dramatically change with life.
Speaker:It's a gift.
Speaker:It's a natural process.
Speaker:It's an enormous responsibility,
Speaker:and it's an even bigger privilege.
Speaker:And so I think much of this
is brought into the arts,
Speaker:which we're creating,
Speaker:an enormous part of this
is brought into the arts,
Speaker:which we're creating.
Speaker:Now, the art which we're creating
has several facets to it.
Speaker:Part of it is history,
knowledge, experience,
Speaker:how you build a cigar,
how you grow tobacco.
Speaker:And this is an amassment.
Speaker:Is that a word in English?
Speaker:An amassment.
Speaker:Amassing something.
Speaker:- It will be from this point forward.
Speaker:- Yeah, from that one.
Speaker:- Yeah, we will adopt
that word, an amassment.
Speaker:- How to bring together the combination of
Speaker:years and generations and centuries
Speaker:of knowledge and experience
and bring it into a product.
Speaker:Another facet of that is the lens
Speaker:through which you're seeing
something at a particular moment
Speaker:and the way that you're
projecting it into the future.
Speaker:Because the future,
Speaker:even though you have
a past attached to it,
Speaker:also has an independence.
Speaker:Some people call it free will,
Speaker:other people call it whatever they may.
Speaker:But the reality is the
human being has the capacity
Speaker:to separate itself from the
rest of the animal kingdom
Speaker:because of some kind of particle from God,
Speaker:which gives it the ability
Speaker:to get off the roads of what's known
Speaker:into something completely different.
Speaker:And I think that answers your question.
Speaker:The way I see things today,
Speaker:in this particular moment of my life,
Speaker:is based on where I
stand in my personal life
Speaker:as a father, as a husband, as a patriarch.
Speaker:Unfortunately, not having a
father and a mother anymore,
Speaker:not having grandparents anymore,
Speaker:being the eldest of a family,
Speaker:being the patriarch of a company,
Speaker:very fragile and very sensitive situation
Speaker:to be in, obviously.
Speaker:But it also brings you a
certain type of responsibility
Speaker:and a certain type of commitment
Speaker:to sustaining values,
to sustaining respect.
Speaker:And that's where I am in my life today.
Speaker:Yesterday I was speaking
to somebody on the floor.
Speaker:They asked me, "If you
had to in one sentence,
Speaker:explain the frame of mind of the cigars
Speaker:or the frame of mind of
Speaker:the way you process things
right now in terms of tobacco,
Speaker:what would that be?"
Speaker:And today, it would be respect.
Speaker:The word that I'm clinging onto right now,
Speaker:and for the past year
or two for the moment,
Speaker:and which I'm very, very
adamant on, is respect.
Speaker:Because I believe at this stage of my life
Speaker:that there are so many things
that are encapsulated in that,
Speaker:which leads to happiness,
which leads to liberty,
Speaker:which leads to peace,
which leads to serenity.
Speaker:And that's the frame of mind
that I'm looking for right now.
Speaker:- Well, it seems to be the
frame of mind that you're in.
Speaker:It just feels that way to
meet you and to listen to you.
Speaker:And I love the word amassment,
Speaker:and I'm serious if it isn't a word,
Speaker:we're going to make it a word.
Speaker:- We're gonna have to look
that one up in the dictionary.
Speaker:So whoever's watching this,
please pull out your phones,
Speaker:Google amassment, and
if something comes out,
Speaker:send me an Instagram message or something.
Speaker:- We'll have our staff look
it up while we're talking.
Speaker:But if it's not a word,
we're gonna make it a word.
Speaker:But to aggregate all the
things you talked about,
Speaker:the frame of reference
you are elucidating,
Speaker:I think you are intentionally,
Speaker:and that's a great word,
Speaker:intentionally it feels
like you're in that.
Speaker:And the word that is on the
front of my mind about it
Speaker:is serenity.
Speaker:There's a serenity about being on purpose
Speaker:and being in alignment with your values
Speaker:and being, projecting from your heart
Speaker:into not just some academic exercise
Speaker:and how to make spectacular cigars.
Speaker:I mean, there's nobody in the room
Speaker:that's gonna argue with the fact that
Speaker:it's a premier storied
tradition of cigar excellence
Speaker:that you've been a part of,
and that you continue to.
Speaker:- I'm a happy person.
Speaker:The work we've done over the
last, let's say my career,
Speaker:which is basically 25 years, let's say,
Speaker:20 years of leading and
running the family business,
Speaker:and then maybe five, 10 years
Speaker:of actively working within
the business before that,
Speaker:I'm happy. I'm content.
Speaker:What we've managed to
build with our partners
Speaker:is magnificent.
Speaker:Today, I see, for example,
Speaker:one of the main brands
that we've been developing
Speaker:in the eastern hemisphere of the world,
Speaker:which is Arturo Fuente,
Speaker:one of my father's
Speaker:very, very best friend Carlito Fuente.
Speaker:And the amount of satisfaction I get
Speaker:from understanding and seeing
Speaker:the combination of 20 or
30 years of development,
Speaker:of education to the market,
Speaker:and seeing the satisfaction
in the eyes of the consumers.
Speaker:You need to remember that we
were doing this in Europe,
Speaker:in Asia, in the Middle East,
Speaker:where 15, 20 years ago, nobody, nobody
Speaker:would smoke a premium cigar
if it wasn't a Cuban cigar.
Speaker:Nobody.
Speaker:And that was quite interesting because
Speaker:you came with a different
offering to the table.
Speaker:As good as it may be,
Speaker:it was considered a lesser product
Speaker:by consumers, which had been,
Speaker:I don't wanna use the word indoctrinated,
Speaker:but let's say they were used to
Speaker:consuming a certain type of product,
Speaker:and they were having a hard
time considering something else.
Speaker:Same thing happened in the
wine industry, by the way.
Speaker:I remember as a small child,
Speaker:there would only be Bordeaux on the table.
Speaker:And even if we pulled
out the best Burgundies,
Speaker:sometimes it was challenging,
Speaker:yet alone, Spanish wines,
Speaker:yet alone, Italian wines.
Speaker:And my goodness, if anybody
ever spoke about American wines,
Speaker:and here we are-
Speaker:- Sacrilege.
- Sacrilege.
Speaker:And here we are 20 years
later, 30 years later,
Speaker:and you know, California's
Speaker:are definitely part of the most
Speaker:prestigious offerings there are.
Speaker:Italy has some of the most
elegant wines in the world.
Speaker:Spain has some of the most
delicious wines in the world.
Speaker:So the cigar industry
followed the same trajectory.
Speaker:And being part of that change,
Speaker:being an engine of that change
Speaker:was very, very difficult.
Speaker:And today, I can sit back,
Speaker:I'm very, very upset and very sad
Speaker:that my father's not next to me,
Speaker:to be able to sit back and see
Speaker:the fruits of the work that's been put in,
Speaker:sit next to his friend
Carlito and puff on cigars,
Speaker:and kind of look back and say,
Speaker:"You know, we did it."
Speaker:And not in terms of the business,
Speaker:but in terms of changing
the entire mentality
Speaker:of three generations of cigar
smokers at the same time.
Speaker:That is an unbelievable achievement.
Speaker:And something which we're
absolutely proud of.
Speaker:And you need to realize that in 1964,
Speaker:when we started importing
non-Cuban cigars in Europe,
Speaker:because we happened to
be the distributors of
Speaker:many Cuban cigars in Europe,
Speaker:my grandfather launched Cohiba
in the European markets.
Speaker:We were very involved in Cuba.
Speaker:My grandfather was best
friends with Che Guevara
Speaker:before the revolution,
Speaker:and he was the largest exporter
of Cuban tobacco in history.
Speaker:We had a huge role to play in Cuba.
Speaker:But to see that he brought in cigars
Speaker:from the Dominican Republic
Speaker:and later from Nicaragua
Speaker:and through him and my father,
Speaker:and then later on, my brother and myself,
Speaker:created a change in the industry
in terms of the consumers,
Speaker:in terms of what was accepted.
Speaker:That's an enormous satisfaction.
Speaker:And I'm sitting here at the PCA in 2024,
Speaker:and I've spent the whole morning
Speaker:with international distributors,
Speaker:people from all walks of life
Speaker:in every place in the most
remote places in the world.
Speaker:People from Australia.
Speaker:I mean, this is the
other side of the planet.
Speaker:And these great cigars
are now being appreciated
Speaker:at their just value.
Speaker:They're being appreciated
Speaker:at the level which they
should be appreciated.
Speaker:Don't be surprised that I use
the word content or satisfied.
Speaker:It's an enormous satisfaction
to see this happening.
Speaker:That's on one side.
Speaker:On the other side, I've
been developing cigars
Speaker:over the last 20 years,
Speaker:but putting them onto market,
Speaker:and I see what it does to people.
Speaker:I see how much satisfaction
it brings people.
Speaker:I see how much curiosity people have.
Speaker:I see how much love, how much affection
Speaker:and friendship that creates.
Speaker:And there's nothing to say.
Speaker:Nothing to say.
Speaker:When you are able to create emotion,
Speaker:when you're able to
create the human links,
Speaker:I call them the golden links
Speaker:between human beings, between people.
Speaker:There's no money in the world
Speaker:that comes close to the
satisfaction of what that brings.
Speaker:And I've been blessed, I've
been blessed to feel this.
Speaker:I've been blessed to be part of this.
Speaker:I've been blessed to be living this.
Speaker:And content is what it does.
Speaker:- Well, in a sense,
Speaker:well, as I'm listening,
there's two extremes,
Speaker:one is isolation and one is connection.
Speaker:And I think
Speaker:I'd be interested to hear
what you think about this.
Speaker:I think you've been
involved in an industry
Speaker:that has a privilege of creating
connections between people.
Speaker:- I believe that the world at any level
Speaker:is a series of contractions and dilations,
Speaker:contractions and dilations.
Speaker:I think that you don't have a connection
Speaker:without having the isolation as well.
Speaker:And these are cycles that
one has to go through
Speaker:to be able, well,
Speaker:- It's natural.
- It's a natural cycle.
Speaker:You need to go into an isolation
Speaker:to be able to create certain things.
Speaker:It's not possible to create a cigar
Speaker:without a certain amount of isolation,
Speaker:whether it's in your thought process,
Speaker:whether it's in the static, in
the noise, which is going on.
Speaker:And so I think they're
related, to be honest with you.
Speaker:Nothing is complete without
the cycle of both of them
Speaker:happening together.
Speaker:- So you mentioned your father
Speaker:and you talk about missing him.
Speaker:How long has he been gone?
Speaker:- My father passed away 20 years ago.
Speaker:- 20?
Speaker:- Yeah. Mine, 1992.
Speaker:And how different is that craft today
Speaker:than it was when he was
in the center of it?
Speaker:- I think he would've been very proud of
Speaker:the direction the industry has taken,
Speaker:some of the industry,
some of the industry.
Speaker:I believe that he would agree that
Speaker:the industry has never been better
Speaker:in terms of what it's capable of
Speaker:delivering to the consumers.
Speaker:The quality of the cigars today
Speaker:is at a level which I've never seen it.
Speaker:And I think that's spectacular.
Speaker:A lot of people speak about
the old days, the nostalgia.
Speaker:"Oh, Cuban in the 1930s, 1950s, 1960s.
Speaker:Yes, the, 1980s, 1990s.
Speaker:Those cigars are gone
and will never be back."
Speaker:I completely disagree.
Speaker:You know, I still have vaults of cigars
Speaker:from the 1930s, 40s, 50s,
60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s.
Speaker:And I'll be honest with you,
Speaker:when I look at the quality
Speaker:of what's coming outta
the factories today,
Speaker:the good factories,
Speaker:what Fuente is producing today,
Speaker:I don't think anything ever came close.
Speaker:I'll be honest with you.
Speaker:Where I'm very worried
Speaker:and where I'm strongly opinionated
Speaker:is on industry becoming too
big, tobacco becoming a problem,
Speaker:people cutting corners
Speaker:because you have these
explosions in demands
Speaker:in the business.
Speaker:And this is a very, very big problem,
Speaker:which I'm very worried about.
Speaker:Same thing happened during the boom.
Speaker:I mean, now it's disastrous.
Speaker:Last year, for example,
Speaker:there was no tobacco,
Speaker:very little tobacco coming out of Ecuador
Speaker:because of environmental.
Speaker:Indonesia's gone,
Speaker:the Connecticut shade from
the valley has disappeared,
Speaker:Sumatra, Indonesia has disappeared.
Speaker:The old style Cuban
wrapper has disappeared.
Speaker:Cameroon's one of the
only, if not the only
Speaker:of the old style
wrappers, which our family
Speaker:and our partners are keeping
alive by the thread of it.
Speaker:But this is very, very scary.
Speaker:And so basically what you end
up with, is you end up with
Speaker:a lot of manufacturers using
a lot of the same tobacco.
Speaker:This is very, very, very dangerous.
Speaker:And this is something where
Speaker:I definitely yell and scream all the time,
Speaker:and people know me by it
and I'm very opinionated.
Speaker:Beware about the tobacco,
be very, very aware.
Speaker:Another thing I'm very worried about is
Speaker:this whole story with ring gauges.
Speaker:The way I've seen the industry
go in the last few years
Speaker:with the bigger and bigger ring gauges,
Speaker:I'm against it.
Speaker:I think it's not natural.
Speaker:I think that nature produces
tobacco in a certain way,
Speaker:in a certain form, in a certain size.
Speaker:I think that the balance of
cigar up to a certain ring gauge
Speaker:is God's particle.
Speaker:It's natural, it's how it should be.
Speaker:The balance of the tastes
are at a perfection
Speaker:for a reason.
Speaker:Once you start wanting
more and more and more,
Speaker:you start genetically modifying
seed to get bigger plants,
Speaker:to be able to roll bigger ring gauges.
Speaker:And I believe that you're
losing a lot of the elegance.
Speaker:You're losing a lot of the
balance in the product.
Speaker:And I think that it was
done for the wrong reasons.
Speaker:You know, wrapper is the most
expensive leaf of a cigar
Speaker:by far.
Speaker:By a multiple of many,
many, many, many, many.
Speaker:It would make sense that
Speaker:certain manufacturers would
promote bigger ring gauges,
Speaker:because you blow up the amount of binder,
Speaker:sorry, the amount of filler
that you have in a cigar,
Speaker:the wrapper becomes less importance.
Speaker:But this is not what is
creating the balance.
Speaker:There's a reason why, for example,
Speaker:typically, you take a Fuente, for example,
Speaker:typically, you are in very
traditional ring gauges.
Speaker:There's a reason for this.
Speaker:Carlito being one of the
master blenders of the world.
Speaker:There's no question about it.
Speaker:There's a reason people like this don't go
Speaker:crazy in the ring gauges.
Speaker:There's a reason why
in the Meerapfel cigar,
Speaker:the biggest ring gauge I have is a 52.
Speaker:And that's by far the biggest.
Speaker:You know, I have 50s, I
have 48s, I have smaller,
Speaker:in today's world, smaller ring gauges,
Speaker:because I don't believe
that you can create balance,
Speaker:I don't believe it.
Speaker:And so this is another one of my,
Speaker:where I'm very verbal about it,
Speaker:is the whole swing in the ring gauges.
Speaker:Now, saying that there are exceptions,
Speaker:there are people out there
that have managed to create
Speaker:relatively balanced and decent cigars
Speaker:in the big ring gauges,
Speaker:but in my humble opinion,
Speaker:it has certainly not been the majority.
Speaker:- Yeah, I've always,
Speaker:and I'm a relative novice at cigars
Speaker:compared to the experience
Speaker:that the people I've had a
chance to speak to in this forum.
Speaker:- And I'm sorry to interrupt.
- Go ahead.
Speaker:- I don't make cigars to sell them.
Speaker:I never have, never will.
Speaker:My point is not whether
Speaker:I'm doing something to
please the consumer,
Speaker:because he's asking,
Speaker:if I don't believe in
it, I will not do it.
Speaker:End of story.
Speaker:And that's very, very important.
Speaker:It pleases some and it upsets
others, but it's who I am.
Speaker:And you are gonna get who I am,
Speaker:and I am gonna be what you are gonna get.
Speaker:It's as simple as that.
Speaker:And therefore, what we
create, what I create
Speaker:is what I believe in, what
I strongly believe in.
Speaker:And some people believe that
I'm opinionated and hardheaded.
Speaker:I don't see why they would
ever believe such a thing.
Speaker:But the point is, that's
what it's gonna be.
Speaker:It's not made to appeal to the masses,
Speaker:it's made to appeal to those
who agree with my palate.
Speaker:- Well, and it's arguable
Speaker:that there's probably only
10 or 15% of cigar smokers
Speaker:that'll ever have an opportunity
to smoke a Meerapfel cigar.
Speaker:- Why is that?
- They're just not,
Speaker:I don't see them everywhere mass produced.
Speaker:- Let me tell you
something, my dear friend.
Speaker:Six years ago, when we were getting ready,
Speaker:because I started
developing this product 20,
Speaker:when father passed away.
Speaker:Six years ago,
Speaker:we had the financial
department of the company
Speaker:gather around the table
Speaker:and they said, "Okay, how are
we gonna price this cigar?"
Speaker:You know, these are the
oldest tobaccos on the planet
Speaker:on a production cigar by a mile.
Speaker:These stocks are,
Speaker:you can't put a value on on this.
Speaker:How can you put a value on something
Speaker:which is 20 years old, 25 years old?
Speaker:You know, some people
make small batch runs.
Speaker:This is on a production cigar.
Speaker:The closest thing to this
Speaker:is going to Christie's or Sotheby's
Speaker:and buying a cigar on auction, okay?
Speaker:So there, ah, we're gonna,
Speaker:and I said, listen, it's very simple.
Speaker:I wanna price the cigar as
low as we can possibly go.
Speaker:I don't know if it was $50, $60.
Speaker:I don't know exactly what it was.
Speaker:They said, "You're out of your mind."
Speaker:The cost to keep this
tobacco for 20, 25, 30 years.
Speaker:You know, we cannot do this.
Speaker:And my answer was,
Speaker:"We are gonna produce cigars
to an offer experience."
Speaker:And I do not wanna cater
Speaker:for the half a millionth
of a percent of the world
Speaker:who could afford to pay $1,000
Speaker:or $2,000, $3,000 for a cigar.
Speaker:That doesn't make any sense.
Speaker:There is no reason
Speaker:that someone who can save
up a bit of his money,
Speaker:instead of buying five cigars
at $10 or six cigars at $10.
Speaker:If once a year he could
save up a little bit
Speaker:and have the experience of
enjoying Meerapfel cigar,
Speaker:I wanna be able to offer that to him.
Speaker:So forget your craziness as
of what the tobacco is worth,
Speaker:or what's the cigar is worth.
Speaker:It's all about offering the experience
Speaker:and that's what I want to do.
Speaker:And it created mayhem and the
company, but we stuck with it,
Speaker:and we went with it, and
they respected my will.
Speaker:And that's what we're doing.
Speaker:- And it works.
Speaker:- That's besides the point.
Speaker:The point is, anybody in the world can,
Speaker:well, anybody in the world,
all things being equal
Speaker:can go out if you can find it.
Speaker:That's the only problem.
Speaker:- That's the the point I was making.
Speaker:- The only problem is if you can find it,
Speaker:because there's 613 boxes of each SKU,
Speaker:there's only X number of SKUs.
Speaker:There's only whatever hundred
retailers in the world
Speaker:that have been selected that,
Speaker:you know, we can't do more.
Speaker:It's, you know.
Speaker:- Being that small of a production,
Speaker:do you find there are individuals that
Speaker:traditionally come back again and again
Speaker:and hoard that product?
Speaker:- We try that it doesn't happen.
Speaker:Because it's all about giving
Speaker:a special experience to somebody.
Speaker:We try for it not to happen.
Speaker:We're trying to,
Speaker:we're trying to get away from,
Speaker:for example, what happened
to Pagani or Bugatti
Speaker:or to Patek Philippe.
Speaker:We're trying to get away from that.
Speaker:Where the guys who buy a Patek,
Speaker:you know, they're big accounts.
Speaker:Whatever comes into the stores,
Speaker:they collect, they put
away, and that's it.
Speaker:They're the Patek buyers.
Speaker:Or the guy who buys the
Pagani or the Bugatti,
Speaker:he's first on the list to be able to buy
Speaker:the next Pagani that comes out.
Speaker:And sure, the cigar is definitely
in the same philosophy.
Speaker:It appeals to the same kind of,
Speaker:but we're trying to get away from that.
Speaker:We want everybody to be
able to experience it.
Speaker:And I think it's important.
Speaker:And that's why we priced it.
Speaker:I mean, it's funny, I'm
gonna say priced it so low,
Speaker:and some people were like, oh
my God, it's crazy expensive.
Speaker:And of course, it's a lot of money.
Speaker:But in terms of how we see it,
Speaker:and in terms of the value of
the tobaccos and everything,
Speaker:we kinda say we priced it so low that
Speaker:as many people as possible could access it
Speaker:and could be able to have that experience.
Speaker:And that's important for us.
Speaker:- We gathered to remember a friend
Speaker:that had passed away about a year ago,
Speaker:a gentleman, 55 years
old, lover of cigars,
Speaker:a close friend of Vartan
[Shahverdian] out in Arizona,
Speaker:who I'm sure you know.
Speaker:He had a collection of cigars
Speaker:and his pinnacle of his collection
Speaker:are all the Meerapfels.
Speaker:And all the other cigars
Speaker:were liquidated in the
process of these friends.
Speaker:And then the crown
jewel of the collection,
Speaker:the crown jewels of
the collection was this
Speaker:pretty massive collection of your cigars.
Speaker:It was his idea of the
quintessential cigar experience.
Speaker:He just loved your cigars
Speaker:and
Speaker:calmly, peacefully, cooperatively,
Speaker:a group of about eight or nine gentlemen
Speaker:figured out a way to share these cigars
Speaker:and compensate the estate
for them and so forth.
Speaker:Just spectacular to watch a
sense of reverence to an art.
Speaker:I mean, it's a very special experience
Speaker:to enjoy one of your cigars.
Speaker:- We've been blessed.
Speaker:Joshua [Meerapfel] and
I, we've been blessed.
Speaker:We grew up with the finest
cigar makers in the world
Speaker:as mentors.
Speaker:And these fine gentlemen
Speaker:not only make the best
cigars in the world,
Speaker:they also select the finest
tobaccos in the world,
Speaker:which some of it came from
our fathers and grandfathers.
Speaker:And if we're able to add
a stone to the edifice
Speaker:and be parts
Speaker:of a world which,
Speaker:let's face it,
Speaker:being part of something
which is part of us,
Speaker:that's what we all aspire to.
Speaker:My father left way too early.
Speaker:I understand yours did as well.
Speaker:- He was 79. I'm the younger.
Speaker:- It's still way too early.
Speaker:- Anytime is early.
Speaker:- You aspire to making
fatherly figures proud.
Speaker:I was a very young man
when he passed away.
Speaker:Very, very young man.
Speaker:And the closest thing to my father was
Speaker:the mentors I had around me,
Speaker:the Carlito Fuentes,
Speaker:the Edgar Cullmans,
Speaker:my grandfather, of course,
that was still alive.
Speaker:And so I spent many, many years
Speaker:and in a way still today,
Speaker:try to make my mentors proud
Speaker:because I believe that it's this search
Speaker:of making our mentors proud,
Speaker:that rewards us with elevating ourselves,
Speaker:striving for being a better
person and doing better things
Speaker:and being more successful in what we do,
Speaker:not in terms of monetizing it,
Speaker:in terms of improving our arts.
Speaker:And I think that was the
biggest privilege in my life,
Speaker:is being able to try to follow
the footsteps of these giants
Speaker:that definitely inspired me,
Speaker:and still today, push me to
try to become a better person
Speaker:and perform whatever it is that I'm doing
Speaker:in a more adequate way.
Speaker:They're never happy.
Speaker:My father was never happy.
Speaker:My grandfather certainly was never happy.
Speaker:Carlito's never happy with me.
Speaker:But I think that's the whole point.
Speaker:And I think you only understand
that very late in life.
Speaker:You understand that's what,
Speaker:and I see your eyes.
- Oh, totally.
Speaker:- I see your understanding that.
Speaker:- Litto made the point yesterday.
Speaker:Litto Gomez made the point.
Speaker:He pointed at me,
Speaker:we were having the conversation,
Speaker:he pointed at me and he said,
Speaker:"We're close in the same generation."
Speaker:He said, "Our fathers didn't tell us
Speaker:that they loved us every day.
Speaker:Our fathers showed us in their actions
Speaker:and in their comportment, the
way they handled themselves,
Speaker:the example that they gave."
Speaker:He makes this point.
Speaker:And I thought, you know,
that's spectacular.
Speaker:I can count the times my dad
said, "I love you" on one hand,
Speaker:but he said, on numerous occasions,
Speaker:"either I'm not happy with
this or I'm proud of you."
Speaker:The last words he said to
me was, "I'm proud of you."
Speaker:- That's actually the last words
Speaker:my father said to me as well.
Speaker:- Hmm.
Speaker:- Sometimes you wonder if
they know what's gonna happen.
Speaker:And it's the final gift
that they give us as sons.
Speaker:This industry is the most
wonderful and beautiful thing.
Speaker:The consumers are very fortunate
Speaker:that they can experience
it through the products
Speaker:and through gatherings,
through the accessibility.
Speaker:What's one of the only industries
Speaker:I've ever witnessed where
Speaker:a consumer and a manufacturer
would spend time together.
Speaker:You would typically not see
Speaker:somebody walking around
with a Louis Vuitton bag
Speaker:having a conversation
with Bernard Arnault.
Speaker:You would typically not see
somebody driving a Ferrari,
Speaker:sitting down with a CEO of Fiat
Speaker:or the Scuderia Ferrari.
Speaker:The cigar industry is all about
Speaker:love and respect and connection.
Speaker:And that's why you have
Speaker:gentlemen like yourself
and like Carlito [Fuente]
Speaker:and Jorge [Padrón] and
Litto [Gomez] and myself,
Speaker:and all of the people around you today
Speaker:that are so excited to come here.
Speaker:They're so excited to come here.
Speaker:Why am I so excited to come here?
Speaker:Because I get to sit with our consumers.
Speaker:I get to sit with my consumers
and share a cigar with them
Speaker:and listen to them
Speaker:and hug them and give them a kiss.
Speaker:What other industry in the world
Speaker:would the CEO or the president
or the owner of a company
Speaker:get so excited to sit
down with his customers?
Speaker:This is the best industry in the world.
Speaker:- It's been a real blessing for me.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:the gentleman that I've met,
the families that I've met,
Speaker:it's just been remarkable.
Speaker:And the inclusiveness and the brotherhood
Speaker:and just the consideration
that people show each other,
Speaker:it's unusual.
Speaker:You're very correct in that.
Speaker:It's not like anything
else I've ever experienced.
Speaker:- There's not very many
industries like this.
Speaker:You have intergenerational businesses,
Speaker:which is becoming very rare.
Speaker:And around this floor here
Speaker:you have businesses which are
30 years old, 50 years old,
Speaker:a 100 years old, 120 years old.
Speaker:Our family's been in the
business for 400 and some years.
Speaker:Where in the world do you find this?
Speaker:Where in the world do people
dive and lose everything
Speaker:and decide, you know what?
Speaker:this is exactly where I want to be
Speaker:and I'm gonna rebuild it from the ashes.
Speaker:Happened to us.
Speaker:Close to every generation
for the past 400 years.
Speaker:What are the probabilities
of something like this?
Speaker:Many people don't know.
Speaker:We were pirates in the 1600s.
Speaker:The name Meerapfel comes from
Speaker:an old named Aramean name Araphel.
Speaker:Araphel means smoke.
Speaker:We're trading tobacco from
Spain to the new world.
Speaker:It means smoke.
Speaker:They were Jewish pirates in the 1600s
Speaker:that were trading across the Atlantic.
Speaker:Then they had to,
Speaker:there was the,
Speaker:what do you call them in Spain,
Speaker:had to get away in the early
: Speaker:to a village called Meckelfeld.
Speaker:And like many families,
Speaker:they arrived to Germany,
they Germanize the name.
Speaker:Araphel became a Meerapfel.
Speaker:What does meer mean?
Speaker:Meer means the sea in German.
Speaker:So they went from smoke to Meerapfel.
Speaker:Apfel is an apple, the
sea apple, Meerapfel.
Speaker:This is crazy history.
Speaker:It's insane history.
Speaker:Where do you find something like this?
Speaker:- It's wonderful.
Speaker:- And who in their right mind
Speaker:would keep a name like Meerapfel.
Speaker:Nobody can pronounce it.
Speaker:It's wonderful.
Speaker:People usually would change
it to something like Smith
Speaker:or Jones or, I don't know.
Speaker:- Yeah, they do a rebranding.
- A rebranding of it.
Speaker:But excuse my French, fuck it.
Speaker:This is who we always
were, this is who we are.
Speaker:You know what, if you can't
pronounce it, forget about it.
Speaker:- Do your best.
Speaker:- It doesn't matter.
Speaker:It's not what it's about.
Speaker:It's not what it's about.
Speaker:And with that family heritage
and that family tradition,
Speaker:there's no surprise
Speaker:that things are what they are today.
Speaker:- Yeah.
- There's no surprise that
Speaker:you have all of these wonderful people
Speaker:on the shop floor today.
Speaker:I mean, right around you,
who do you have here?
Speaker:You have Oliva.
- Yeah.
Speaker:- And some of the Olivas
are still circulating there.
Speaker:You have Fred [Vandermarliere],
Speaker:which has also been in
the business for ages.
Speaker:You have Carlito [Fuente],
which is right there.
Speaker:And you have Rocky [Patel],
which is over there.
Speaker:And you have Litto [Gomez],
which is over there.
Speaker:And you have, these are
all family businesses
Speaker:and they're all there
Speaker:and they're all happy to be here.
Speaker:Don't be surprised.
Speaker:There's a reason why
when you smoke a cigar,
Speaker:there's so much pleasure involved.
Speaker:And I can tell you something,
it's more than just the cigar.
Speaker:- Hmm.
Speaker:- There's some fairy dust
in here, I can tell you.
Speaker:And that's all the love and the passion
Speaker:of all these guys in the industry
Speaker:which care so, so very much.
Speaker:- So having no understanding
Speaker:of any of the tradition
or any of the families.
Speaker:I'm in a cigar store, I'm
with a group of people.
Speaker:We're smoking cigars, we may
be playing cards together.
Speaker:We're having a good time.
Speaker:Without knowing,
Speaker:we get a taste of all that you
describe, all this tradition.
Speaker:- Of course.
Speaker:Why do you get so emotional
when you smoke a cigar?
Speaker:- Do you get so emotional
when you eat a piece of bacon?
Speaker:- No.
- Alright, so why?
Speaker:- It's a great question.
Speaker:- You get emotional when you drink a Coke?
Speaker:- Not at all.
Speaker:You get emotional when
you bite into a tomato?
Speaker:- It'd have to be a really good tomato.
Speaker:- Because the person who did it then
Speaker:is putting a lot of love into his tomato.
Speaker:- Yeah, the love comes out.
Speaker:I think it's because
of the love comes out.
Speaker:- Of course.
Speaker:It's what I call the fairy dust.
Speaker:The guy who's making it,
the guy who's behind it,
Speaker:there's a piece of him, the fairy dust,
Speaker:there's something going on.
Speaker:- Well, it's certainly a privilege
Speaker:to share some fairy dust with you.
Speaker:- It's my privilege.
Speaker:- I could talk to you all afternoon.
Speaker:I could care less if we break
now or if we keep going.
Speaker:But I don't want to impose.
Speaker:What a privilege.
Speaker:- It's my privilege.
Speaker:And I have to say that
Speaker:and I said it once, I said it twice.
Speaker:And actually, the proof's in the pudding.
Speaker:There's a reason I put Boveda
to take care of my cigars.
Speaker:There's a reason for that.
Speaker:- What is that?
- It works.
Speaker:- Simple.
Speaker:- You know what the product is.
Speaker:You know how fragile Cameroon is.
Speaker:You need a hell of a system
to keep this thing protected.
Speaker:You don't have a choice.
Speaker:If you wanna smoke it at this
level, it has to be perfect.
Speaker:- Love those Cameroons.
Speaker:- Thank you. So do I.
Speaker:- Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:Thank you so much.
- Thank you very much.