“The thing that I can say is we believe our club, the customer experience is what we sell. And that’s like every self-help or start a business book you might ever read. But it’s true. It’s the standard that we operate.“
For Chris and Ben of Luxury Cigar Club, whether you are shopping on Luxury Cigar Club or subscribing to one of their five subscription lines, they focus on delivering a fantastic experience.
For example, they are not only meticulous about selecting cigars to include in their subscription boxes by visiting factories, connecting with lesser-known makers, and being paying customers themselves, but on some months, they may make little to no profit on the box if they believe the cigars they are delivering will wow you when opened. “It’s really about trying to do the right thing,” Chris says.
Exclusives vs. Branded Projects
Two strategies interest me as a cigar smoker besides subscriptions and the retail side of selling cigars. The first is “exclusives,” where a cigar maker provides a unique vitola for Luxury Cigar Club. This model is standard among larger retailers, and you’ll probably notice several retailers offering a blend from a specific maker only through their store.
Then, you have the topic of today’s review, which Chris calls “custom or branded projects.”
Branded Projects are Born of Relationships
They see branded projects as improving the shopping experience in two ways:
The first is that they get to showcase a maker they love. A branded project for Luxury Cigar Club, while technically owned as a line by Luxury Cigar Club, comes distinctly branded with the maker. For example, on the branding for the Choshi, Artesano Del Tobacco is prominently displayed under the Choshi brand.
The second is that the consumer gets a unique path to experience this cigar maker.
In deciding whether to do a branded project, Chris says: “It’s typically more focused where it’s like, Hey, we’d like to work with this factory or this brand. And we’d like to just come up with something…We don’t go to a manufacturer or a brand and say, we want this product as an exclusive. We go to them and we say: We love you guys, and we’d love to work with you on a higher level.“
They don’t aim to be competitors to the cigar makers, so they’re not creating a unique brand with a broad core line of regular production cigars. It comes back to providing a great experience to both the consumer and cigar maker — these branded projects are something special to showcase a cigar maker they love, saying: “We don’t have any plan for cigar-making, cigar manufacturing is an art. It’s an art form all the way through. And Ben and I are not artists. We are consumers more than anything.“
And that brings us to the cigar under review: the Choshi.
The Origin of the Choshi
Luxury Cigar Club founders Ben and Chris both sincerely appreciate Japanese culture. They first met in what Chris described as a “Fast and the Furious” race and bonded over imported and modified cars. Chris also has Japanese heritage and is working on a Japanese body suit tattoo. So, they wanted Japanese culture to inspire their first branded offering.
When the club started, Chris scoured Instagram looking for novel cigars to bring his subscribers and found Viva La Vida by Artesano Del Tobacco. Chris reached out to Billy and Gus, the founders of Artesano Del Tobacco, to see if Luxury Cigar Club could carry it, and they said no. The Viva La Vida, at the time, was for brick-and-mortar only.
Chris persisted and built the relationship, eventually landing Luxury Cigar Club exclusive rights to sell the Viva La Vida Lancero. When it came time for the Luxury Cigar Club Choshi, it was clear to Ben and Chris who they wanted to partner with:
“That experience [getting the Viva La Vida] created such a strong relationship, and just the way that they represent themselves, their products, and their business. They were a company that we really wanted to work with. When we were trying to figure out who do we partner with to make the first project of our own, it was kind of a no-brainer, it was Artesano Del Tobacco.“
Cigar Overview
Purchased: June 22nd 2023
Resting Period: 6 months
Resting conditions: NeedOne ThermoElectric Humidor, 64 degrees F, 65% RH
Time smoked: 1.25 hours
Size: 5 x 54
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Habano
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Nicaragua, Dominican
Factory: Tabacalera AJ Fernandez Cigars de Nicaragua S.A., Blended by Artesano Del Tobacco
Initial Release Date: November 2021
Number of Cigars Released: Limited Production (when it’s done, it’s done)
Cigar Review
The pack is solid as a rock to the press. It’s uniform in color: satin Colorado brown and a beautiful triple cap. Smelling the wrapper brings me brown sugar, cedar, and nuttiness. On the foot, I get fruit and some pepper that makes my nose tingle. A bunch of dark ligero in the center of the exposed tobacco at the foot glares at me and tells me this will be full in body. The pre-draw reveals a nice, open draw. I taste heavy notes of wood, earth, and a mix of black pepper, cayenne, and light cumin.
The Choshi starts with a bold and potent mix of peppers — white, black, and cayenne that lingers on a long finish. As soon as the pepper mix fades, there’s strong earth and bitter cocoa backing. As I continued, I noticed light leather and oak mixed in, with some char notes combined with the cocoa.
The body is a medium+. Mesquite, oak, and light nuttiness come into play. The Choshi produces big clouds of smoke with a comfortably textured mouthfeel.
Ash naturally falls off about a half inch in, and the pepper mix retreats a bit but balances with more leather on a slightly shorter but tannic finish.
The Luxury Cigar Club Choshi, so far, is a highly complex blend.
The second third reduces the pepper mix to a mainly black pepper with a short finish, and the primary flavors are mineral mesquite, earth, and leather with more tannins than the first third. The complexity dials down in the second third. If complexity defines the first third, the second third is more approachable and the type of cigar I could have a conversation with friends while smoking.
The burn, while wavy, requires no touch-ups, and the draw and smoke production are excellent. We’re holding steady at a medium+ body.
The final third keeps the tannic mesquite primary note with roasted almonds, cashews, and black coffee undertones, and the black pepper remains part of the main profile. The finish is short, and the smoke texture moves towards acrid yet stays cool. The body graduated to full.
Final Thoughts
If you want to branch out and try something new, this is a great option that is quality for the money; plus, you’d be supporting a fantastic set of people at Luxury Cigar Club.
The Luxury Cigar Club Choshi also made me curious to look more closely at blends from Artesano Del Tobacco, which has come out with other well-reviewed blends like the Viva La Vida and El Pulpo.
If you want to pick up a fiver or a box, you can buy it here, and as an added benefit, you can get 15% off by using the code qdcigars at checkout.