Inside North Bay Cigars: Live Cigar Rolling, Weddings & Boutique Cigars in the Florida Panhandle

In this episode of Panhandle Pulse, host Chuck Asbury sits down with Buzz Conroy, founder of North Bay Cigars. Buzz shares his journey from his very first cigar after a concert to mastering the Cuban rolling technique and building a thriving live cigar rolling business across the Florida Panhandle.

Learn how boutique cigars are crafted, why live cigar rolling has become a standout experience for weddings, bachelor parties, and private events, and what sets this growing niche apart. Buzz also breaks down beginner-friendly cigar tips—from choosing the right blend and flavor profile to properly storing cigars in a humidor.

Whether you’re new to cigars or a longtime enthusiast, this episode dives into the culture, craftsmanship, and community behind cigars—plus a look ahead at plans for a future cigar lounge in Northwest Florida.

Follow and connect with North Bay Cigars:
• Website: northbaycigar.com
• Instagram: @northbaycigar
• Facebook: North Bay Cigar

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Welcome to the Pain Handle Pulse, the show that dives into real challenges and honest conversations shaping the Florida pain handle. I'm your host, Chuck Asbury. Each week we sit down with the people who make our community strong, sharing real issues, real conversations, and no filters. Welcome back, Panhandle Pulse. Got a great guest in Buzz Conroy. He is the founder of North Bay Cigars. Welcome to the show today. Thank you. Thanks for having me. So for our listeners on the show today, uh, how did you get into uh the cigar business and tell us backstory of how you got here to uh the panhandle, Florida?

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Okay. Well, first I'll tell you how I got into cigars. Um I was is I think it was 1995. I was uh with a buddy on the way to a Beach Boy concert. Grabbed a cigar on the way. This is back when you can get cigars when you were 16. So grabbed a cigar and uh we had it after the show, just outside the vehicle, and I was like, man, this is really tastes good, and I've basically been having them ever since. So it's been uh what is that 31 years-ish now? As far as business goes, uh when I left the fire department, I knew I wanted to do something with cigars. And uh tried a couple different things, subscription mail you know, packages, things like that over the years. And then I had a buddy that actually asked me to roll at his birthday party, roll cigars. And I thought it was a lot of fun, and I thought, man, I wonder if anybody's doing this as like a business. I I I knew I liked cigars, I just didn't really know much about the business itself. Um and then I saw that there's kind of a small niche out there for people that like live rolled cigars, and and then I actually flew out to a uh West, and there's a Cuban family out there that will train you. So spent an entire week with them, rolled the correct way, the Cuban way. Right. And then uh learned how to triple cap a cigar and um and then I practiced, came back here, practiced, and uh turned into a business last year, really. So it's been up and running for uh a year now. Yeah, just uh yeah, yeah, as a as live rolling for right around a year. And we do weddings, bachelor parties, um, we've done some birthday parties, and it's just any kind of a private event. Yeah. It's been a lot of fun. Uh, you meet a lot of good people. We do a full service, you know. So I'll roll the cigars, I'll cut and light them for guests and lots of engagement. Um so it's kind of like an entertainment out there.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

So how did you get, did you start learning to roll cigars and thinking of a cigar business before you moved uh into the painhandle, or did you do that once you moved into the area?

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Yeah, so um I kind of went back and forth. Like I still worked full-time as a firefighter and I had started a uh just a side hustle cigar business where I was at before here out in Colorado. Some laws changed right when I was doing that that I didn't know about, and shipping cigars outside of state lines became there's a lot more legal hoops to jump through. So I basically as soon as I started it, shipped some out and then, you know, and then the the governor basically signed a law that made that basically illegal the way I was doing it. So um shut that down, continued to work in the fire department, ended up moving out here in Nov uh, I think September, yeah, September of 2021. Um still worked at the fire department. I was kind of closing up my time there and then uh eventually retired. But while I was retireeing um in uh 2023, I then started like kind of dabbling more on what to do with cigars. I actually just looked for a couple of big jobs in cigars at local cigar shops um that were hiring, but they weren't hiring guys, they were looking for women. Um I was like, well, let me let me see if I can just get better at rolling cigars. Maybe I'll do something with that. And then it just kind of went from there. So got better rolling cigars in 24, 25, you know, and then uh and then turned into a legit like I'm doing this business in 2025. So you've been rolling cigars practicing for four or five years before you turned it into Yeah, it's it's uh it's not hard, it's just very tedious, and you have to um it's a craft you just have to really hone. Yeah. Yeah, but it's it's not hard. It's just a craft you have to hone. It takes a lot of time. So if you're doing it in front of people, you gotta do it right. Right.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Time but especially in the cigar world, they'll know like uh some people are aficionados and they'll know exactly how it's rolled, how it's made, and they've been to different places and well yeah, if they if you get a cigar that is not rolled, even if you it could look good, but it might not smoke well.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

So they're gonna know. Yeah. So you gotta you gotta get all that down. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

So now you have your own self-branded cigars. Uh you brought a couple in a day. Where do you get your tobacco from and everything, the supplies that you need to make your cigars?

SPEAKER_00 4:21

So those come from distributors, and anybody can go on there and just get some. You don't have to be anybody special or with a business license to get tobacco. Um, I buy it by the pound, but there's several leaves that go into there, but it all comes from the same plant. Um, a lot of people also don't realize that there's there's no chemicals in tobacco. It's just when you get a cigar, it's it's different than a cigarette or other types of tobacco. There's nothing now you can get some infused cigars that might have some different things infused in their sugar and a bourbon, different things. Uh that's going to add to it. But if it's if it's just a just a cigar, just a tobacco, full tobacco cigar, you just have some long filler leaves. Uh, you've got a binder leaf that binds the bunch, and then um, and then a wrapper leaf. So it's like that's what you see, the big pliable wrapper leaves, and that's what does the final dress on the cigar, and then these rests for a while, that's what kind of smooths them out in a humidor, and um, that's it. It's just it's just tobacco. It's just tobacco, water, sunshine, and time. That's all it that's all a cigar is. Right.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

And we talked a little bit earlier before how the craft brewing business got exploded back early in 2000. Now it seems like the custom making of cigars is is the next wave of expansion.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

Yeah, they're called um, so like a company like mine is called a boutique cigar company, so it's not a a big name like we can say big names. Yeah. Cohiba, Arturo Fuente, Padron, they've got they um own the farm or own the rights to the tobacco on the farm. They've got the big factories, they got tons of employees rolling cigars and you know, Estelle, Nicaragua. Um, I think you asked me where my tobacco comes from. So it's mostly Dominican, Nicaragua, Honduras. And then and then I do get once in a while, I'll get like a Connecticut broadleaf, you know, here in the U.S. Yeah. For my own personal ones, um, I'll do that because I I like the flavor. When I'm rolling live, I I use very specific leaves because I want stuff that's durable. Our weather here obviously being really hot and humid. Sometimes they're in winds. You you need something that's strong. So I use very specific leaves that are strong and durable. Even even though they might not even taste the best, it's gonna hold up when I'm when I'm outside.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Yeah. And there's only a few places I I I've done some research just getting into cigars not too long ago. Smoke cigars periodically throughout my entire life, but uh there's only a few places in Florida that actually are growing their own tobacco leaves and trying to make Florida-based type cigars, but it's not even just environment to do so.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

Yeah, even just very few U.S. based. So I mean it used to be Kentucky, North Carolina, Connecticut. Um, those are kind of like the known tobacco regions. The tough part of Florida is the uh bugs. So they have to do a lot of times those Florida farms, there's a lot of spraying involved. So you might get some chemicals on those. Unless you're completely done in an enclosed greenhouse type space. Yeah, it could be. And and that's an and that's another thing too with the with the leaves, you're gonna see like if you look in a cigar box, a lot of times you'll see sun grown, shade grown. Sun has a lot of flavors. When it's sun grown, you'll notice a stronger flavored cigar. When it's shade grown, it's a light, a little bit lighter, milder flavor cigar. So that's how you can't tell those. But yeah, a lot of tobacco is either sun-grown or shade grown, and that's how we choose the strength level.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

And so do you make uh the whole realm of cigars from the Church Hills to the Turos to the Minis, or is there a set uh uh type of cigars that you're rolling right now when you go to events at parties?

SPEAKER_00 7:23

Yeah, when I go to events, it's I just roll a toro size. Sometimes I'll I might need to cut it into a Robusto, but it's the same amount of tobacco really in the in the Toro and the Robusto. I just might say I mess up on the foot of the cigar. I'll I'll chop it down into a Robusto and hand it to somebody that might not want to smoke a full Toro. Okay. So um, but yeah, uh in my company, as far as the branding goes, we have, I mean, I've got actually over 30 different blends. I just don't always do all those. You know, that's that's a lot of time. Um but yeah, we um we've got petite coronas all the way up to Gordo, which is you know a large cigar. So we've got we've got all different sizes, all different flavors.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

So what would it be for some of the people just listening now that's never smoked a cigar before, an ideal starting point um with the size, a flavor profile uh to get into cigars?

SPEAKER_00 8:09

Uh just go for a mild cigar. The one I gave you here today, I just call it the level one Connecticut. It's got a Connecticut wrapper leaf on it. It's very mild. It's um a lot of times I'll have I like a little bit stronger of a cigar. And I like that cigar a lot, but sometimes I'll have that in the morning with coffee. Just kind of start my day. If I know I'm gonna be not super busy in a day, I know I'm gonna end up having three cigars in the day. So a lot of times I'll start with that one because I'm gonna go up in strength from there instead of down in strength. So it's a it's a really good cigar. So I would say look for something that is shade grown with a Connecticut leaf. If you wanted to go to North Bay Cigar and uh check out mine, it's just the level one Connecticut. Okay. Level one Connecticut is kind of like our most mild across all palettes. Um I bring those to weddings with me. And a lot of times that's what the people that want to have a cigar because they want to participate, right? But they don't really want to feel like they're smoking a cigar. You know, it's it's a it's just a very mild cigar. Really good taste to it. Still tastes like tobacco. It's just a very mild version of tobacco.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

It's good. Yeah, I can't wait to try it too. So uh thanks for that. Do you give advice for people like that at the weddings and events? They've never smoked a cigar before. Uh and most commonly, an experience I did when I was a teenager, like, you know, our buddies brought back Cuban cigars when I was probably 16 or 17, and not us knowing, because dad didn't grow up smoking cigars, you inhale the thing, and then we're all sick by the end of the night. So do you sort of give advice when you're out hand rolling at parties and events to how to smoke the cigar for the first time?

SPEAKER_00 9:31

Yeah, I'm I'm pretty good at uh judging who's got experience just by the way they ask questions and handle a cigar, or even, gosh, if they're even handling the cigar at all, they they probably don't have much experience because that you should not handle a cigar unless you're gonna smoke it. It's kind of like picking up a gun. You don't want to be putting your fingers on, you know, somewhere where someone's gonna put their mouth. So um if if they are touching the cigar and picking up and look at it, I I actually keep extra cigars off to the side for them to do that with that I don't let anybody have just so they can feel what a cigar feels like and you know, fresh rolled and all that. But yeah, I uh I can usually tell their experience by just kind of talking to them and the way they're asking questions and handling the cigar. A lot of times they'll pick it up and they'll kind of look at it and they'll look at the cutter and I'll be like, Would you like me to do that for you? Right. I'll cut it and light it for you. It's part of my service. So I'll yeah, I'll pick it up, I'll cut it for him, I'll light it for them. And there's you know, no harm, no foul. I don't it's just a cigar. It's not like salvation, right? You know, so it's uh, you know, I'm I'm more than happy to kind of bring someone through it. Or if they go to the the Maduro, I'm that it's um a little bit stronger of a cigar, like I'll be like, Have you do you know you liked Maduro's or have you ever had one of these before? No, I'm just just want to have a cigar while I'm at this wedding. Right. You know, at this bachelor party. Be like, well, why don't we try this one first?

SPEAKER_01 10:39

If they like it, come back and get the stronger one. So um growing your business, starting in the area, you you've been looking to do it for a few years. You said plan it, learn how to roll. Now you're going to events. How how do people find you for events for that and then as well as online for your shops?

SPEAKER_00 10:53

Um, other than my website, Google actually has been really well in uh people doing searches. But as far as advertising go, I don't really do much advertising. I've just um I've contacted a whole bunch of wedding planners in the area. Some were real receptive and are offered to all their clients. And uh, like there's a couple of wedding vendors that I've gotten most of my rolling gigs from, and then you know, some I never hear from. So as far it's been very organic. So as far as advertising goes, it's been very organic. I just do a whole lot of social media posting. So if anyone's listening to this and they want to check and they have Facebook or um Instagram, and I kind of use them both different. Facebook is more like local people. Instagram is just people that like cigars, it seems like I get followers from all over the country there in the world, really. But yeah, I just do some posting on there. On Facebook, I'll post where I'm gonna be because I do several things. I've got the private events that I do, which is probably my favorite thing to do. But then I've go to I go to area uh farmers markets and sell at farmers markets usually like at least like once every couple of months. Around Christmas time, I do it a lot more. And then uh just to build the brand. And then um I also do pop-ups. I just call them pop-up herfs. Herf is a is like a cigar night, you know. It's like it's just a place where people come and enjoy a cigar and community. So there's a couple of breweries in the area. Um that uh one is Lawless Coast down the road a little bit. Uh so I go to Lawless Coast. I think I'll be there May 3rd for their shrimp boil. Um, and I just show up with my cigars and have a table and sell cigars, and and then the other ones in uh where I'm at, they're in Freeport at Pelican. Yeah. I don't want to go too many places, so those are about the only two that I go to. And I just do a Papa Perth at least uh once a month.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

So what is your plans for uh the cigar company over the next few years? I know uh again, getting into the new craft area, like always time to expand. And there's not very many cigar bars or lounges or rollers in the area.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

No, uh we were talking earlier. Uh ultimate plan is I would like to have a true tobacco lero, probably off 331 somewhere. Um, whether it's, you know, it's called North Bay, so it would make more sense to be in Freeport, right? Where we're based out of. Um but I'm kind of open to anywhere that works out. Um yeah, having a true tobacco in the area, like a true, like a members lounge, uh place where people can experience rolling a cigar themselves, watch cigars being made, that kind of a place is good. Um I'm also filming now, I'm actually filming at home cigar rolling courses that can be purchased online and actually a really good rate because you can see stuff like that on YouTube, actually where I started, but it's really tough to get good information through the YouTube tutorials. You'd need some. I'm filming like the basics of what you need to know that's with actionable steps to make you good. So you can get good at rolling your own cigars at home. So we're filming that now. So turning it into a course is one thing that we're doing. And then, of course, the live rolling, and then I would like to have a flagship shop at some point. But like a place that's like just locals are welcome, or I'm sorry, visitors are welcome. Right. But it's a local, a community-based, members-based shop.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

So digging into that a little bit, you started uh watching YouTube videos to start rolling cigars, but when you really got good is when you went over to Cuba and actually trained. Um, so I didn't go to Cuba.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

I flew to um a part of the country where I it was a a it was a friend of a friend who told me about this family. It was a mother, a daughter, and an uncle. And they're from Cuba and they rolled at the Cohubia factory, but their business now is basically teaching people like me how to roll correctly, and then also being the contracted business behind the business. So if I'm going to a wedding and they um they they uh order 200 cigars, well, me, little me, rolling 200 cigars is gonna take me, that's gonna take me several weeks. It's a it's a lot of cigars for one person to roll. So I now they're all my blends and that I've worked with. Since then, I keep in touch with them on the phone and we like I might build something at home and then I'll send them the recipe and say, hey, listen, this is the new cigar I want to launch. Here's the recipe, here's the mold here, you know, that we use, and they they document it. I I even film a video on my phone of rolling it, and then they send me like a basically like a prototype and I'll test it out. Like, yep, that's it, you know, or we need to change this. I mean, they get it right all the time.

SPEAKER_02 14:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

So they're the business behind my business. So if there's like a lot of cigars I need for a specific event, um, I just call them up, be like, hey, I need you know 200 of uh my you know level one Connecticut and I need it by this date, and they send them out to me, and then I do the rolling at the events. So I do the the rest of the rolling at the event, but then I come with those extra cigars that there's no way you can do that much at at one event. Right. So one person.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

So when you started that, did you plan on that connection when you went there to roll that new year?

SPEAKER_00 15:20

No, I was just very fortunate to to run into the right people. Yeah. And then their business is supporting other small businesses. Okay. Um, and they're, you know, and doing like orders like that. So they're you know, they're making good money and uh and they uh they do a great job. I mean, I and the daughter speaks English very well. So I spent the entire week, you know, in the shop, but with her. Yeah. And uh she was like a drill sergeant, you know, like I had to get it right. Right. See, there was no like, hey, you paid and we're gonna be nice to you. It was like no, I was it was it was as though I was applying for a job at a at a Havana Cohiba factory. Right. And that's what I wanted. So I had some knowledge going in, and I left with so much more knowledge, plus great connections, plus contractors who will take my blends and always take my phone call. Right. You know, they'll always take my phone call, get work hashed out, and they're they they got a great business model themselves.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Well, that's good that you sort of fell into that uh distributor, because if not, you would have had to go through and find a distributor, you would have to be able to find somebody to create those based off your blends in markets. That would have added way more complexity to your business out of the gate.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Yeah, and um, and I and I partnered with another business that even will do customized labels. So, and and I mean you don't have any minimum orders. So I can just do a one box of 25 with a custom label for, you know, the Smith wedding and they wanted their date on there or they want their picture on the label of the cigar. So um, and we can do that. So I can do all custom labeling. Yeah, and it's it's it's you need that in this business because you can't do it all yourself. Right. So it's it's nice to partner with other businesses and you get that help and you know it's good for them, it's good for you, makes you look more professional. And I mean, they roll cigars a lot better than I do anyway. So I mean I can get by at the weddings and stuff and for myself, like I make a good cigar, but I can't crank them out as fast as they can because they've got all the equipment and know they've got uh you know dedicated time and yeah, it's a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

Not yet. You're you're working to that scale. Yeah, we'll see. Yeah, we'll see. Yeah, maybe I'll hire them to come out here for a big event to launch your uh your land. No, to work in my tobacco library. Well, you could do that too, and continue to ship in all the tobacco and build that up. That would even be creating that into the area and be able to supply that into the area, I think would be great for the community if you were able to get to that scale. That's uh Yeah, we'll see. Ten years down the road.

SPEAKER_00 17:29

Yeah, it's it's a well down. But it could this there this area I think could support it. It's it's such a cigar lounges are such a unique environment. It's a very small niche, it's a very hard business. Yeah, it's uh I think this area can support it, and it's probably about time in this area. I just don't really have the the physical location yet because there's just not much in the area I'm looking available.

SPEAKER_01 17:49

And again, just getting into it within the the first year of it. So, what's one of your favorite memories that you can recall uh of sitting and enjoying a cigar or conversation that you've had?

SPEAKER_00 17:59

That's a tough question. I got I kind of always go back to that first one. You know, it was uh it was uh so I grew up in the Chicago area, going to that Beach Boy concert, like it's it's just so vivid in my memory. Um, I mean, and then since then it's just been, you know, when I get together with my dad, you know, not every time. He lives in down the road here, so not every time, but oftentimes if there's time and we're having a dinner with my family and my mom and dad, like my dad and I will retire to the patio and have a cigar. My brother, we always have a cigar together when we're together, uncles when we're visiting each other, uh, whether it's they're coming here or I'm going up back home to Chicago. Um it's just I can't really place one specific memory on it. Ask getting asked that question. I always go to that first cigar. Right. And it was I know exactly what brand it was. Okay. Well brand. It was a Dutch Masters, okay, which is what's considered a cheap cigar. A cheap machine-made cigar. Yeah. True cigar smokers wouldn't uh have any respect for that. But at that time, I think it was Cuban seed. So at the time, I think Dutchmasters was still Cuban seed. I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure in the 90s Dutch Masters was still Cuban seed. I mean, it was for being his first cigar. Yeah, I wouldn't change it. And yeah, if it's what my dad smoked, I don't know what his consistent blend is now. I mostly just give him mine. I keep him pretty well stocked up now. But um, yeah, he was like just a cheap cigar smoker guy. But yeah, he was uh it was a Dutch Masters, and that was I still remember it vividly. After a Beach Boy concert.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

Most people can always remember their first cigar when they got started that they continue to do cigar smoking is the experience from that. I think the key point you hit on there is it's meant for social time.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

It's social, it's community. Probably outside of that first one was just uh just having a cigar at the fire station with guys, you know, in between calls and all. Sometimes we'd have to put them down, they wouldn't be all that great when we got back. But but yeah, that was always fun too. And then off shift, you know, we always a lot of times we'd have a cigar together. There's a close friend of mine, and he works in a cigar shop now up there in uh Lafayette, Colorado. It's called Casbar Cigar, and that's our spot. You know, every time we go back, you know, we meet up at Casbar Cigar, that's where we hang out.

SPEAKER_01 19:57

Enjoy the memories and the friendships from it. From the the conversation that you've had, adding from your favorite first cigar, what are some insights that you've learned, conversations that's changed your your way of thinking for about cigars or cigars or in life that you think that you've got a key wisdom point of sitting down and having a cigar, and like the sort of life-changing part.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

It's not the cigars that are life-changing. It's just a cigar, like we were saying. It's not salvation, but it's um it's the I think it's what comes to the table when you're sitting around with your friends having a cigar. The conversation, everything's kind of slows down. You slow down, you relax. Um and I mean, I've gotten financial wisdom from having a cigar with people, even people I didn't know, right, you know, business wisdom, uh, whether or not to get married or not. Different uh things they it it all happened over a cigar. Um and honestly, like sometimes like I'll have a cigar and I don't even light it up. Like I just like chewing on it. Yeah. I like the you know, the nicotine is good. You know, people say it's the nicotine you get addicted to, and it's but nicotine's not a chemical. Right. I mean, yes, it is, but you know, you find nicotine in potatoes, eggplant, you know, that's those outside of tobacco, white potatoes and eggplant have the highest nicotine content. It's recently been associated with uh fighting off dementia, right? You know, in dementia patients. So nicotine's not a bad thing. Anything in large doses is probably bad. But yeah, no, the cigar is more about what it is that surrounds the cigar. And it's the the friendship, the community, a time that you just kind of slow down and engage in conversation. Cause now we, you know, we can probably walk out of here right now and see what 50 to 70 percent of people looking at their phones? Right. You don't do that when you're sitting on a cigar with people.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Cigar etiquette, you sit down and you don't have your phone, it it's the time to enjoy it. You take the 45 minutes to the hour that you're gonna have that.

SPEAKER_00 21:45

Yeah. And there's been plenty of times when I've been enjoying a cigar at a cigar lounge with people and they're not having a cigar.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

They just want to hang out. Because most cigar lounges, you can bring in a bottle of bourbon and you can share that amongst your friends, and nobody nobody cares. All the cigar shops wants is that you somebody has a cigar. That's it. It's a place just to hang out. They're very welcoming places.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

And for new listeners in here, as we're talking about cigars, like you you do something that I usually do, sometimes chewing a cigar. Some people are like, don't chew on your cigar. There's not a right way or a wrong way. No, there's no right way or wrong way.

SPEAKER_00 22:15

Now, there's some blends and brands I would stay away from just because of like what it, you know, known for the chemical content of things. Sometimes I I roll like a lot of the rolls, the cigars that I roll when they don't turn out that great, and I, you know, they're not something I'm gonna sell. Well, I those are the ones I put in a special humidor, and those are the ones I grab for just a drive, and I don't light up, you know, because like just that I love that flavor. I love the flavor of tobacco. I like that that leathery, earthy, nutty flavor, depending on what kind of a leaf I have. And it's like you're saying, like sometimes it's nice just to chew on it. Yeah. There's no right or wrong way. There's there's a guy I knew I used to work with in the fire department when I was in the military in New Mexico, and uh, his name is Rock. Guy always had a cigar in his mouth in the station, never lit it, never smoked it. He just always chewed a cigar. He liked the flavor. It's just it was his thing. It was what he's known for.

SPEAKER_01 23:00

Right. And there's no, it's again, it's a social activity. There's no right or wrong way behind it. That was his thing. So with that, people get nervous now, and you're talking about your humidor and that. Nowadays, with tech that's changed everything, those are easy to maintain. They sell little packets now that you can just pop into your humidor and and uh or put your cigars in Tupperware with those same packets.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

Yeah, you can. Yeah, you bought you well, if you're going in Tupperware, you probably want to open it up every once in a while and rotate if you're not going in there that much because that could create mold. But um, but yeah, yeah. I mean, I gave you one in your uh the bag I brought for you. There's a little humidor humid pack in there. That's good for bags and small Tupper Tupper doors, they call them, if you're using Tupperware, or even like a cooler. But if you're you know graduating into a larger humidor, you want to have fans and a digital hydrometer that has sensors around it so it's even adjusting and rotating. Yeah, rotate your. That's if you want to nerd out on it. Yeah. I don't talk about that much, but I nerd out on that stuff. But my wife knows, but nobody else.

SPEAKER_01 23:55

That's like uh in IT and tech and stuff. I did you get all nerded out in certain things that you have, like your computers, your cybersecurity events. It's the same with cigars or with bourbon. Now you'll get special cases to instore all your bourbons in and that. So you can take it to the max or just enjoy the time together.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

Yeah, and then when if you're talking to somebody else, they're looking at you like, eh, okay, weirdo. But no, that's I I keep that stuff to myself unless somebody's asking me. Right. But yeah, if you're if anybody's listening, curious what they should keep their humidor at, uh, a very simple thing is think 70 degrees, 70% humidity. 70 and 70. That's easy. Yeah, it's easy to remember. That's pretty much what I follow. 70 degrees, uh, try to keep it around there and uh 70 uh percent humidity, and your cigars, I mean, they'll they'll last forever if you take care of them. You know, there's you just gotta be careful of uh um you know mold and things like that. But if you're taking care of it, you're gonna be fine. Yeah, especially in the floor of the humidity in that, so make sure you're checking them, rotating them.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

And as long as it's set 70-70, you should be.

SPEAKER_00 24:49

Yeah, like if you, I don't know who lives in a house without humidity anymore, but if uh or I'm sorry, not with without AC. But if you live in a house without AC, you probably shouldn't keep yourself a humidor because they're they're gonna get moldy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:00

So around the area, where are your favorite places to sit and enjoy a cigar here within the panhand?

SPEAKER_00 25:05

Well, for me, it's just my house now. Okay. Um I like to be at the patio. Now, if I'm meeting friends somewhere, I do like I like Marvin's shop there, uh, Harbor Cigars. It's got a nice outdoor area. It's always shaded right there when he's open. So harbor cigars is a great place. Outside of that, if I'm going outside of the house, I really just like going to parks. Oh, if I'm just hanging out and having a cigar at the beach. Um, if I go with my, I'm actually gonna go with my family tomorrow and I'll probably bring a cigar with me. I'm out to the beach. Sometimes it's not great because of the wind and all that, but I don't I don't care. I just bring a cigar that I've probably rolled and it's not in, you know, not a perfect roll that I'm gonna sell, I'll just bring that. I don't care if the wind messes it up. I just want the flavor in my mouth. Right. So um, yeah, the beach, patio at home. And then if I'm going to a shop, basically just, I mean, harbor cigars are the place that I go.

unknown 25:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:47

And we were talking briefly about that a little earlier where the FDA changed their rulings on how they do premium cigars, and cigars are categories now, so there are more places that you're allowed to uh smoke them.

SPEAKER_00 25:57

Yeah, especially in Florida. Yeah, especially in Florida. Um I think we were mentioning it before. You know, if you go to a state park and you're having a cigar and a police officer says you need to put that out, it's actually not true. Now you probably don't want to fight with the officer there. Right. But DeSantis did pass a law that cigars are exempt from the no smoking ban at parks because it's it's not a chemical induced, it's not doesn't have a filter, it's not gonna cause any trash. Most cigar smokers are very respectful. They're not going to, you know, mash out their we don't really call it a butt, but they're not gonna mash out their butt and leave it on the ground. They're gonna properly dispose of it. That's why you don't see cigars all over the place on the ground like you do oftentimes cigarettes. And if and if you did, it was just a leaf. You know, a few rainstorms, it'll probably break up and and and wash away. But yeah, it's uh it is legal to to bring cigars because they're exempt here in the state of Florida in state parks and other areas. Yeah, you can smoke them because there's no chemicals. Right. They're they're not gonna hurt there. Just a leaf. Yep, that's it. There's no paper involved, nothing. Yeah. Just a leaf.

SPEAKER_01 26:59

So with that change in two, did that help or or hurt with you importing your tobacco leaves in for your your supplies?

SPEAKER_00 27:05

Well, so it helped in a sense. I mean, I didn't really notice. Okay. But as far as the tobacco industry goes in Florida itself, that was something I actually mentioned to Jay Collins when he was around, was uh thanked him in DeSantis for actually lightening up the wholesale laws. So now without a permit in Florida, like I could just take my cigars and wholesale it to an area liquor store and have that as a product there. And it's there's it's just less hoops to jump through. Right. Uh it used to be that you had to file for a wholesale permit and all that stuff, and they took that red tape away. So I've got being a small cigar business, I could actually take my product, go to a liquor store and be like, hey, would you like this on your shelf? Here's our wholesale list and profit margins and all that. And uh they can just purchase it and sell it themselves and collect tax.

SPEAKER_02 27:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 27:46

So that has helped a lot. So now there's other federal restrictions that have been a pain with dealing with tobacco and and especially with like uh payment processing systems. But as far as the state of Florida goes, the state of Florida is very tobacco friendly and respectful of that business.

SPEAKER_01 28:01

Now, were there specific license and and processing fees that you had to do to start your business to the tobacco distributor?

SPEAKER_00 28:08

Yeah. And um, you know, part of it's uh you gotta have a manufacturing license because typically or technically I'm manufacturing a cigar.

SPEAKER_02 28:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 28:15

So when I go to the weddings and stuff and I hand those out, that's a that's a manufactured tobacco product. So uh you have to go through the TCB, deal with that, and reporting and all that. You have to have a special payment processing system for collecting monies for tobacco and make sure you're checking IDs, that, but yeah, it's just I mean it's that's the nature of the beast of tobacco business. Tobacco business, the cigar business is actually a very difficult business. Lots of them fail. But I also think a lot of them aren't really doing it right either. And I'm staying very small. You know, I'm just I'm just really doing weddings and and that's the main part. Weddings, private parties, birthday parties. But um just the live event stuff is my main thing. Yeah. I only started about six months ago actually building the the branding, which was right before Christmas. Yeah. So it was really, really just right before Christmas is when I started building a brand. But now I get people calling me almost every week, like, hey, I need, you know, I'd like some more of your green label Maduros, and can you meet me somewhere? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:08

Yeah, I'll meet you somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 29:09

So I probably having a shop would be helpful. Now, with the outside of just the federal portion, was there any additional requirements that you had to do for the counties while you're doing the weddings and rolling here for Walton County, Oklahoma County, or is that all is uncovered under federal law?

SPEAKER_00 29:24

Not for rolling, but for selling, yeah. Uh whether it's I'm selling specific product at a at a market, you know, it's six percent state, one percent Walton County. Yeah. So I gotta report all that and pay the sales tax on that. And then and I do the same for the uh if I'm doing a live event, I I just pay a full I pay the full retail uh percentage for that as well. Even though some of it's service and some of it is you know product. Right. So I just pay all that at once. But yeah, it's i it's not that bad. Yeah. Yeah. It's just you gotta um pay close attention to your numbers uh and have a good accounting. Accounting reporting with any business you have. Yeah, any business you have is gonna be you know, all that stuff's annoying. One thing somebody told me ahead of time, you know, starting business was like, get yourself a bookkeeper, let them work the numbers, you just work the business. So um even when the business was not supporting itself, I went ahead and got a a bookkeeper to to watch all that stuff for me.

SPEAKER_01 30:19

It's good to set it up right the first way, even though when you begin as you grow into it, so you don't have to go back and make a bunch of corrections uh with anyone starting businesses out there.

SPEAKER_00 30:27

Yeah. Yeah, it's it's worth doing. Plus, if you if you report everything or you record everything correctly, it just adds out value to your business if you decide to sell it. Right. So if you got good numbers and you can show value in your business, like something happens and you need to sell it, or you just want to walk away, it's got some value. So yeah, that that's good for any business person that keep good tabs on their numbers.

SPEAKER_01 30:47

I always try to wrap up the show ending here, and it can be focused on the cigar business or anything that you see just in the panhandle focused, a big challenge that uh could be solved or could be resolved or worked on in the area that we live in. That's a loaded question. Besides the the beach access, uh we get that all the time.

SPEAKER_00 31:04

So we won't talk about the beach. Yeah, we won't talk that big, especially around here because it's probably a really hot topic right here. Yeah. Um, no, for me right now, the biggest challenge I have is more federal side and then what's available retail space. Because I would like to have that nice uh retail shop, but there's just not a whole lot available. And then when it is built, it's built more for it's a lot of flexible warehouse space, which the city of Freeport, where I'm looking to put it, um, doesn't allow re uh that kind of retail in flexible warehouse space. But that's one of the largest asset classes right now, as far as like, you know, investors and and making money. So they're building just a lot of flexible re uh re uh flexible warehouse space. Yeah. So there's just not a whole lot of retail. And then when it does show up, it's usually about twice as much per square foot as the flexible warehouse space. So yeah, just uh finding a good retail location is is the tough thing. And I don't have to have one, but I think it would serve the community well. Right. And I I think it would be good for the for the community to have a place like that to go. Because right now I know plenty of people that are always driving all the way to Pensacola. There's uh the New Orleans cigar factory has a Pensacola location and on Palafox. And there's people from Defuniac that I know regularly go out there to all the way to Pensacola from Defuniac, right, just to be in a nice cigar lounge. So um yeah, there's only a couple around here.

SPEAKER_01 32:22

Yeah, Destin is just a shop. There's one here in uh Mirmar, uh the hub area, and that's it. And all the way to Pensacola or Tallahassee, but uh yeah, this area could definitely use one uh if the region fits for what you're trying to do in the space and and the rent needs to be appropriate.

SPEAKER_00 32:41

And I'd be in for partnering with somebody that either owns the space or um, I don't know, wants to be a part of a cigar lounge. It's just you know, I do want it to be like the North Bay Cigar Company, though, like where we have the vision. Like I the vision I have for it is like even a place that could be rented for events. I I I I love stand-up comedy. I think like a place that had uh a spot where stand-up comedians can go would be a lot of fun too. If I can have a cigar lounge with a comedian show, yeah, yeah, you can do do tickets and have some stand-up comedy. It's always been popular, but it's getting more um available in a lot of places. Um it's easy to get comedians in a lot of times in places. Uh it'd be fun to have a place that people knew that they can go on a Friday night and not have to go to like a like a I guess a commercial bar and not have to always be buying drinks or whatever. They can just go enjoy it, maybe pay uh uh an entry fee or something without having to feel like they need to spork over all this cash for um stuff they don't want or to keep drinking, you know, and and all that. So anyway, it'd be it we'll be see, it'd be fun. It's a great area though, right out here. It's it's just managed by a small group of people, it seems like, that want a certain thing. And there's a lot more that could be available if it wasn't held on to so tightly.

SPEAKER_01 34:00

There's pluses and minuses behind yeah the way it's done, and then they focus on developments and others in the area. But uh I think yeah, you have a good vision for the next five years here, and hopefully a lounge will be up and running soon.

SPEAKER_00 34:11

We'll see. And uh if it doesn't, I'll just keep doing the weddings and all that and selling at markets. But yeah, it'd be nice.

SPEAKER_01 34:18

So uh how do how can people get to your website, your social media handles on here? I'll post them in links, but uh if you want to tell them the addresses to go out and find you on uh Instagram and Facebook page.

SPEAKER_00 34:28

So Instagram is just North Base Cigar, I believe. Facebook is the same, and then my website is just NorthbaseCigar.com. Um and then you can even go there and and there's links to the socials. It's being redone right now, that website, just because I'm I'm starting to get into online sales. So it's being built for online sales. So if you go there now, it might be a little confusing. In fact, you might see like one cigar costing like a thousand dollars. Oh, it's it's it's because it's being built right now. Okay. But if you want all just information on like or even how to contact me for live rolling, northbasecigar.com. And then um, if you want to get our product to eventually, hopefully about 30 days, that'll be all up and running for um, and I can do nationwide shipping for that.

SPEAKER_01 35:04

Well, Buzz, thanks for being on the show today. I appreciate it. Thanks for listening today's episode. If you liked it, be sure to follow and subscribe. I'll leave you with this what's the biggest issue you see in the pain handle right now? Join the conversation with me at Chuck Asberry IIX. I'd love to hear your thoughts.