Kentucky Man Hopes for Success by Blending Bourbon And Tobacco

Source from:  www.kentuckygentlemencigars.com 02/16/2009

The old saying is -- where there's smoke, there's fire.　One Kentuckian is hoping to smoke out the fires of success by blending two ancient Kentucky traditions -- bourbon and tobacco. A few years ago, Allen Mobley gave up being a real-estate mogul in California, learned cigar making from an expert in the Dominican Republic, and returned to his native Kentucky to open the Kentucky Gentlemen Cigar Company. The market, he hopes, is hot:　"The first year we gave cigars away, we didn't even sell any.　I'd say last year we sold maybe 50-60,000 cigars." He continues, "I don't think we're hurt that bad by the economy, and I'm hoping that we'll sell, if I can teach enough people to do it, a million cigars within five years.　We don't have a cigar that sells for over 12 bucks." The company operates out of a former horse barn in Anderson County. All around the place are barrels aging tobacco, which Mobley believes are the secret to his success.　"It smells like bourbon," he says.　"It just takes a lot of the impurities out of the tobacco." Bourbon whiskey also gets sprayed on the leaves as Allen hand-rolls the cigars -- a painstaking job he sometimes finds himself doing until three or four in the morning. Different cigar leaf comes from Nicaragua, Ecuador, Colombia, and Connecticut. After the cigars are pressed for 20 minutes, they get a final wrap, then some get tipped with Kentucky fire-cured tobacco.　"Now as you smoke this," Moberly explains, "you get different flavors come up. Forty percent of the taste of any cigar is the wrapper leaf." Kentucky Gentlemen makes its own cedar boxes and lasers the lids. As Carol Mobley bands and wraps and tubes, her husband the cigar mogul contemplates the future. "We ship all over the world -- Russia, Australia, Italy, China, Japan." Tobacco magazines are starting to take notice of Kentucky Gentlemen. Mobley believes that's because his product is better than a tranquilizer: "If you want to get on your porch with something like this, you can kick back, and stress goes away. Shot of bourbon and good cigars. -- could be just what America needs! Oh, it is! Probably is!" Cigar Master Allen Mobley is now working with University of Kentucky agricultural experts to see what happens with growing Cuban tobacco seed in Kentucky soil. You can see more of the process of rolling premium cigars by going to http://www.kentuckygentlemencigars.com/. Enditem