On a beautiful February morning in Havana while smoking a good cigar, I happened to meet a friend from Italy. After a while, he asked me whether I wanted to personally meet Eduardo Rivera Irizarri, a man who is inextricably connected with the Cuban cigar.
Studying pays off
The COVID-19 crisis has brought a host of different challenges to us serious cigar smokers around the world. From buying online or curbside, to having limited space to smoke and perhaps too much time on our hands. As a countermeasure to the situation, I decided to embark on a mission to explore the two most widely known online cigar certifications and see what they were all about.
Jonathan Drew: “We like to surprise”
Jonathan Drew has been at home in the cigar industry for almost 25 years. But JD, as he is known on the scene, has not made it comfortable for himself. The public tries to capture him using terms like “Disruptor”, “Tsunami” or “Provocateur”. All this is true, but – as it happens so often – is only a partial aspect of a great personality who has revolutionized the cigar scene.