Expanded Tobacco Depot offers cigar aficionados a place to retreat

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 04/30/2015

They're waiting at the door before a manager arrives at 8:30 a.m. to open Tobacco Depot in its spacious new two-unit site at the Shoppes of Avalon.

The loosely gathered clutch of mostly retired guys brings coffee and homemade Danish or other morning fare to consume while they relish a particular treat - a very good cigar - among pleasant company.

They head directly to the store's special attraction, what manager Daniel Barnes calls "a great walk-in humidor," the size of a generous living room, displaying upward of 200 boxes, each neatly laid with 20 cigars, priced from a couple of dollars to a top of $27.45 per individual smoke. Some 50 brands, their tobaccos grown and rolled in a dozen countries, are represented.

Thence, customers stroll on to the smoking lounge, studiously furnished in leather and comfort to resemble an old English gentlemen's club. They snip and light and settle in, literally, to lounge, sometimes for hours.

"When you buy a quality cigar, you want it fresh," Barnes said.

The humidor's controlled climate - 68 to 71 percent humidity, 72 to 77 degrees air temperature - does exactly that.

"It won't smoke correctly if it's not humid," Barnes explained.

Cigars vary in their tobacco filler, priming and wrap, as well as their shape and length of aging, each contributing to flavor, intensity, smoothness and drawing capacity. Barnes, 23, and his alternate manager, Tony Gagny, 22, knowledgeably explain the differences to a novice.

"As with any tobacco product, it's personal preference," Barnes added.

With the entire shop climate controlled, it is noticeably devoid of smoke and odor. Rather, the environment is aromatic of loamy woodlands with floral undertones. Yet, in the lounge, customer Ron Bobba, 66, of Weeki Wachee admitted, "I don't know anybody who smokes inside at home."

While cigars are the main seller at Tobacco Depot, a family chain of 13 shops from Plant City to Homosassa Springs and headquartered at Zephyrhills, other tobacco products are offered: chew, dip, snuff, cigarettes, tobacco by the ounce for pipes and roll-your-own. Also available are pipes (nonglass), equipment and supplies for roll-your-own, ashtrays, plus "all the equipment to put together your own humidor," Barnes enumerated.

Electronic cigarettes and vapor products were added about two years ago, with some 200 vapor flavors offered.

"Vapors (sales) went up, and cigarettes went down, for sure," Barnes said.

Different nicotine levels, down to zero, are attractive to those wanting to quit cigarettes. Speaking about the vapor products, Barnes pointed out, "Like everything else, sales are limited to (age) 18 and over."

Discounts and specials are offered regularly. Special orders are accommodated. Enditem