CONQUISTADOR Cigars Date: 12 Feb 1997 at the risk of being burned at the keyboard a few words about the new cigars I¹m importing & distributing.

Last summer, I became seriously interested in getting into the cigar business in a fairly big way. I had learned about growing tobacco. harvesting, curing, aging, and rolling cigars; as well as smoking a few, of course! :-) Now, I wanted to create my ³own² cigar. Well, I learned that the only way to do this was to be in the business for years (kind of a ³Catch 22² situation) BUT... I had become fairly good friends with ³Rudy², who owns and operates La Villa del Tabacco in Tijuana, Mexico, and who HAS been involved in the business for many years. Rudy and I frequently talked about our mutual love of cigars, and he taught me what little I know about blending and rolling tobaccos. In fact, you may have read some of my posts about trying various tobaccos, including different wrappers, and the effects of, or different flavors produced by, different tobaccos. Rudy had several tobaccos available for our ³experiments², as he was rolling his ³Conquistador² line of cigars in his shop; and we soon started talking about wider distribution of his cigars. While Rudy¹s intention was to roll a few cigars in semi retirement, the cigar boom was upon us, and he felt there was an opportunity to get wide spread acceptance of his cigar. (Yeah, OK, the prospect of making a few bucks interested him too. Seriously though, he never wanted to work TOO hard at the cigar business - it¹s been a passion of his for years - ever since he learned to roll cigars back in Cuba. After much talking, negotiating, playing with different tobaccos, blending, rolling, and smoking - we finally came up with a blend of tobaccos that¹s quite good, IMHO. (Now.. what did you *think* I was going to say!) :-) The tobaccos are Dominican, Honduran, Mexican (Cuban Seed from San Andreas) and Sumatra. Much of the tobacco is aged for several years - and all of it is aged at least one year. After rolling, we allow all of the cigars to sit for at least a month - sure, more time would be better, and if you let these sit for a few more months, they do tend to ³smooth out² a bit (Not that they¹re bad as is, mind you!) There are currently nine sizes, plus a short filler and an ³Aromatic² cigar in the line. Retail prices for ³Conquistador² should be in the $3-9 range (depending on size and state taxes) In a few months, we¹ll have a new, slightly milder, blend available. Then, a few months after that, there will be another cigar - with a special wrapper that¹s coming along nicely! Stay tuned... you¹ll probably hear about them here on ASC first! Mexico is really starting to come into it¹s own in terms of premium tobacco. While Mexico has a reputation for ³lesser² quality tobacco and cigars, I hope that some of you will agree that there are some very good cigars & tobacco coming from the San Andreas region of Veracruz. The climate there is ideal for tobacco production, and more and more San Andreas tobacco is finding it¹s way into highly regarded premium cigars - brands like Partagas, Macanudo, LGC, Caribbean Cigar¹s products, and several others, all use some San Andreas tobacco. Then, of course, there are the ³known² Mexican brands - Santa Clara, Te-Amo, Cruz Real, and others - which are gaining in popularity.