Michael Herklots, Executive Director of Retail and Brand Development at Nat Sherman, recently delivered the keynote address at Killingly Highschool. Herklots has been a major supporter of the Killingly High School Career Pathways Program, a program which offers students the chance to explore different career paths while still in highschool.
Those who know Herklots know that he loves to give back to the community. Every year, for example, he hosts a large fundraiser. This year, he raised $70,000 for the KHS Career Pathways Program.
During his speech, Herklots encouraged students to embrace the excitement that comes with advancing into new career territory. “You may learn that where you plan on going isn’t where you end up,” he explained.
As many New York Cigar smokers know, recent years have seen a huge shift of popularity towards cigars with big ring gauges. My Uzi Weighs a Ton – enough said. BestCigarPrices.com recently took some time on their blog to ask essentially “what accounts for the trend toward larger ring gauge cigars?” The company released a June 18th press release titled “Best Cigar Prices Explores the ‘Big Ring’ Trend in Cigars.”
The release actually just links to a post on the company blog, but I thought it was a pretty fascinating explanation. From the release came three basic reasons for the shift towards large ring gauges:
“Complex flavor: Cigars with a larger ring gauge tend to have a more complex and fuller flavor. This is due to the fact that there is more room to blend together different types of tobacco.
Cooler burn: Thicker cigars burn slower than thinner cigars causing the burn to feel cooler in the mouth. This is because there is more filler exposed to the air. For this reason, a cigar smoker with a heavy draw would benefit from smoking a cigar with a wider ring gauge.
Weight and feel: Some smokers prefer the heavier weight and feel of the larger cigars. Also, smoking a big fat cigar has often been interpreted as a symbol of power or status.”
Do you agree with their assessment? I found it a bit interesting that they didn’t point towards what seems to me at least to be the most obvious reason: fashion. Cigars are often thought of as hyper-masculine products, and what is more masculine – a large ring gauge cigar or a lancero? I find a bit more truth in that line of thinking than the reasoning above, but I could be wrong.
One thing I won’t budge on, however, is the closer of the post:
“One thing is for certain, you do get more bang for your buck with these behemoth cigars.”
I guess it really depends on how you define “bang”, but in my book, the amount or length of smoke really isn’t what it’s about. It is about flavor, and as David Alicea could explain to you, smaller ring gauge cigars actually offer a tremendous amount of flavor. And in the long run, I think they’ll be rediscovered, and that the big ring trend will prove to be fleeting.
The American cigar community continues its revolt against the FDA’s overreaching regulations. Michael Felberbaum explains for the Associated Press today what the regulations will likely look like:
“If it’s anything like the FDA’s regulation of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, that could mean banning certain flavors, requiring new health warnings, limiting the sizes and shapes of cigars, or imposing restrictions for marketing, advertising and retail sales. Cigars also may be restricted from being sold separately and the agency also could limit the amount of nicotine in the products.”
He goes on to describe the effect on the cigar industry in the United States.
“The premium cigar industry argues any number of the potential restrictions could hurt both cigar makers and specialty tobacco stores, whose products make up only a small fraction of tobacco sales, don’t pose the same concerns as cigarettes, and the range of sizes and shapes of cigars makes across-the-board standards almost impossible.”
He continues,
“Cass and Spann have joined with others in the cigar industry to seek a change in Congress to protect premium hand-rolled cigars from FDA regulation and save 85,000 small business jobs around the country. Resolutions in both the House and the Senate remain in committee.
In the House, the resolution sponsored by U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, a Republican from Florida — home to many of the nation’s premium cigar makers — has gained more than 200 co-sponsors. The Senate resolution, sponsored by Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, also from Florida, has more than 10 co-sponsors.”
Here at FineTobaccoNYC, we’re always meeting new cigar lovers, and every once in a while we meet someone so passionate about cigars that we have to ask them to come on board with us to help promote this truly incredible passion that we share. I first met Ronnie Parisella at a cigar event out in Brooklyn and enjoyed conversing with him about New York tobacco politics and our favorite cigars. Ronnie is a representative for Cigar Rights of America, and Kelvin, Dave, James, Tim and I are glad to have him on board as a contributing writer. His knowledge of the culture, art, and politics of cigars is really impressive.
After more good conversation and shared vision, Ronnie expressed interest in writing for the site. So, look forward to seeing valuable articles from him this week and beyond.
As you can tell from his professional biography below, Ronnie is a talented businessman and a passionate cigar aficionado. Welcome to the team Ronnie!
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Ronnie Parisella
Ronnie Parisella joined Power Consulting Group as the Director of Information Technology in January 2011. Power Consulting Group is an IT consulting and managed services firm founded in 1992 Based in NYC and specializing in Managed Services, Network Security and Disaster Recovery Planning for the educational and financial verticals. Power Consulting also helps its clients with federal regulatory work like HIPAA and PCI compliancy. In his role as Director of Information Technology, Mr. Parisella works with many IT industry leading companies, including Microsoft, SonicWALL, Symantec, Dell, Ingram Micro, VMWare and Hewlett Packard.
In his previous role as Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of Primary Support Solutions, Mr. Parisella was responsible for the technology recommendations of such high-profile clients as Burberry, Forbes.com, The Galleon Group, National Financial Partners and Cerebus Capital Management.
Prior to founding Primary Support, Mr. Parisella was the Director of Information Technology for the New York New Media Association (NYNMA) (2000-2002). In this role, Mr. Parisella worked closely with entrepreneurs and technology leaders. At its peak, NYNMA boasted membership of over 9,000 of New York’s IT Investment community (C-Level executives, venture capitalists, angel investor and startups).
Mr. Parisella served as the Information Technology Project Manager for Scholastic Books (1998-2000). In this role he led Scholastic’s successful Y2K rollout (2,500 desktops in four months) including the design, management and implementation of the project. He also designed their Windows 2000 rollout. Mr. Parisella specialized in designing and integrating workflow procedures for Scholastic’s high-level deployment scenarios.
Prior to 1998, Mr. Parisella consulted for many industry-leading companies including Charles Schwab, MTV Networks, McGraw-Hill Companies and Philip Morris.
Mr. Parisella was recently highlighted as a top Information Technology Entrepreneur and as a leading CTO under age 40 by VAR Business Magazine. His work as a technology leader has led to him being a frequent commentator on IT best practices for small and mid-sized businesses.
In the community, Mr. Parisella is an Ingram Micro SMB Alliance Advisory Council Member, leads the the NYC Tri-State Area User Group for Autotask, and participates in many vendor-led initiatives.
Additionally, Mr. Parisella was appointed the chairman of the New York Chapter of the Cigar Rights of America more commonly known as the “CRA.” “Cigar Rights of America was founded on the principle of fighting for the freedom to enjoy cigars. CRA is a consumer-based, non-profit public advocacy organization that works with local, state and federal governments to protect the freedoms of cigar enthusiasts”
A few days after smoking my first Cremo cigar, I received an email from President of Cremo Cigars, Walter Santiago, thanking me for taking the time to review his cigars. Our review of the Cremo will be out later this week, so stay tuned. He also let me know that Cremo is running a give-away for a box of free Cremo cigars. Details are below!
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Cremo Cigars
The weather is getting nice and people are lighting up cigars, which means one thing: CONTEST TIME! Here at Crémo Premium Cigars we know that summer is coming and you can enjoy more cigars out on your deck, in your favorite lounge, or at home in a comfortable chair. The only thing missing is a Crémo. Great day, great place, so you need a great cigar. We have a goal of 1,000 “likes” on our Facebook page. To get there we are holding a contest for the first 1,000 people that like our page.
Once we hit the 1,000 mark, we will draw from that crowd and they will win a FREE BOX!
The sooner we get to 1,000, the sooner we can get that box out to you. If you’re the lucky winner, you not only get a box of cigars, you also get to choose which size you want! So, if you like Robustos, the Excelsior is coming your way. Toro more your size? Intrepidus will be in the mail. More traditional size? Then our Corona Gorda, Magnum Opus, will be shipped to you. Whichever size you prefer, you are sure to enjoy these fine cigars.
We hope to see you on our fanpage as well as enjoying a Crémo.
