I had the opportunity to sit down with Juan Lopez, Vice President of Gurkha Cigars, to celebrate his 30 years in the cigar industry and introduce their latest cigar: Tres Decadas, now available on-site.

[Kane Coles]: We're here with Juan Lopez, Vice President of Gurkha. It's a pleasure to have you here with us, talking about your cigar.

[Juan Lopez]: Thanks for having me, man. I took a nice little trek through the backstreets — or backwoods — of the Carolinas, but I'm happy to be here. I saw some familiar faces, and I appreciate you guys having me. It means a lot.

[KC]: It's an honor. And obviously we have something very important to talk about: the 30 years that you've spent in the industry. What have you seen change, and what have you seen stay the same?

Two Cigar Booms

[JL]: The business is always changing. What I've noticed from when I started in '96 to 2026 is that consumers are definitely more educated now. There's a lot more information out there compared to when I started during the boom, at the end of '95, beginning of '96. Back then, it was just trial and error. That's why there were so many different brands during the boom that didn't last. And then the last, what, seven, eight, nine years has been a rebirth of new brands.

I think the main difference is the educational part, and things like this that we're doing here. There's more connectivity with the manufacturers, blenders, VPs, presidents of the companies, founders. The consumer has more access to information and to guys like us, and I think that's really changed the industry a lot.

[KC]: You've lived through two cigar booms in your time in the industry. Is there any correlation you saw between them?

[JL]: The first one was my beginning, so I was like, "Dude, is this gonna be this easy the whole time?" People were smoking cigars just to smoke cigars, because it was the cool thing to do. I thought it would last forever, and then late '97–early '98 hit, and you saw it going downwards.

Fortunately for me, I was with a small family-owned operation at the time, so it didn't really hurt us that much. Our numbers kept climbing 30%, 40% from '96 to '99. Then you stabilize at 3%, 5%, you go up and down, and then 2007–08 hit, and it started getting popular again.

When the boom went south, it was literally a cleansing of the industry. A lot of people got out of the business, and the guys that survived are still here. You've got JD, obviously, Drew Estate — there are a lot of them still around. But the second time around, again, it's more about education. It's also about getting younger smokers to understand what cigars are about.

I've been to many a bar in my life, and I've never been a cigarette smoker. I'm actually the only guy in my family that doesn't smoke cigarettes. I've gotten into fights in bars while people are drinking and smoking cigarettes, but I've never been in a fight at a cigar bar. It just doesn't happen. It's just conversation, people getting to know each other, where friends become family.

I just hit about 2.6 million flying miles with American Airlines — not points, flying miles. That's more than some pilots, and I've met so many people in my travels. Last night we were down in Charleston and met some guys who were gonna go home at 7:00 or 8:00, and they stayed until 1:30 in the morning. We closed the place down, just talking about life and cigars. That's what I enjoy about the business in general: meeting new people.

Building Tres Decadas

[KC]: Let's talk about this new one we're enjoying right now. Can you walk me through your philosophy behind crafting it?

[JL]: I've blended cigars for the company before, and when I say blend, I'm not a master blender. I know tobacco. I've learned from some pretty good guys in the cigar business, I've listened, I've taken my notes, and I've dabbled in blending. My first blend was the Wicked Indie, a $5 cigar that we did pretty well with. Then I did the Red Witch, the Classic, and the Heritage. I have my say in pretty much everything we do on the blending side, with the help of my teammates, because they're the ones out there selling it. If you don't like it, you can't sell it.

So when it came to Tres Decadas, I told Jim Colucci, our president, and Kaizad, the owner, "It's my 30th year. I don't ask for much, but I wanna blend my own cigar. It's gonna be called Gurkha y Lopez y Cía. It's gonna be called Three Decades. It's gonna have my initials, JL, on it," because I can't use Juan Lopez, due to Altadis and the Cubans.

I wanted to design the band, and I wanted to keep it simple. The three is the three decades, my three daughters, my birthday on August 3rd, and my baseball number. I'm a Leo, so there's a lion's mane around it. I put the Cuban crest, the American crest, and my family crest within the band. And inside the band, when you look closely, it says, "Because I can," because I always go around telling everybody I do things because I can. I own the trademark, but it's made through Gurkha, and when I showed it to them, they said, "Good idea."

For the cigar, I knew exactly what I wanted: a medium-bodied, full-flavored cigar, with tobaccos from guys I know who are friends. I went down to Nicaragua, sat with the Aganorsa guys, and bought a ton of Aganorsa Corojo from them. Then I went to AJ and told him I wanted the San Lotano farm wrapper, which I enjoy, and he said, "Absolutely."

I made 1,000 boxes of each of three sizes: a 5" x 52; a 6" x 50, a true Toro; and a 6.5" x 56, like the Cohiba Behike, to add that Cuban heritage into the size. I'm not a big ring gauge guy, so I didn't wanna do a 60. I blended it on the 6" x 50 — I love that size. What we're smoking here is the Robusto, the 5" x 52.

[KC]: What should someone look for when smoking it for the first time? What's gonna jump out at them about this cigar?

[JL]: I've given it to guys in the industry, and they give me their honest opinion. Some guys say, "It's good." Some guys say, "Dude, amazing." It's like no other Gurkha you've ever smoked. It's got a lot more pepper and a lot more character, but it's still smooth. It changes on you, so it's got a little complexity to it, and it's gonna taste the same every time you smoke it. Unfortunately, like I said, I only made 1,000 boxes of each. Once they're gone, they're gone.

What's Next for Gurkha

[JL]: I've secured more tobacco for next year, because now the owners wanna do it again. When it works, it works. Next year, I'm looking at a San Andrés Maduro with the same filler. I'll have to tweak the fillers a little bit and let them marinate with the sweetness of the San Andrés. I'll probably make the same three sizes and keep it at 1,000 boxes again. A decade is 10 years, so I could do 10 different blends in 10 years.

[KC]: I was gonna ask what we have to look forward to at four decades.

[JL]: Hopefully I won't be around here, bro. Hopefully I'll be in Spain, hanging around with Rob [Caldwell] at the beach. It's a lot of fun, don't get me wrong, but it's a lot of work. It's a grind, and I'm not as young as I used to be. I used to be on the road 220 days a year. Now I'm down to about 100. Now I'm a grandpa, and I missed out on a lot with my kids when I traveled. I don't wanna miss out with the new generation.

[KC]: I completely understand that. Is there anything else customers can look forward to from Gurkha?

[JL]: We also have the new Nicaraguan Cask blend, made for us by NACSA in Nicaragua. They had some tobacco that they aged in casks, and we said, "Hey, we want it." We purchased a lot of it, and again, we kept it simple: three sizes — a Robusto, a Toro, and a 6" x 60 — in a really pretty box that stands out in the humidor. It's more mild-to-medium on the spectrum, but again, real smooth, aged tobacco. You get a hint of that bourbon from the cask, and it's a really good smoke in the $12 to $15 price range.

Another one that's actually become our number-one-selling cigar, which is crazy to me because I'm not a big ring gauge guy, is the Fatboy. When we came up with the idea, I said, "You know what? I don't fight wars, I fight battles." I know guys like Nub, Aganorsa, and Asylum are doing some business out there with the bigger ring gauges, and we weren't in that sector yet. We had a great trademark called Fatboy, and that name just pops. We made a really cool box where you can see the word Fatboy from across the room when you walk into the humidor.

We did a 4" x 60, 5" x 66, and a 6" x 66, and in the last 13 or 14 months, that cigar has become our number-one-selling cigar. We can't keep it in stock. Now I'm working with our Nicaraguan factory on a Maduro version for next year. We're just continuing to explore new things with Gurkha, and new sectors that we're not in.

[KC]: Juan, thank you so much for joining us. It's a pleasure to celebrate your 30th anniversary. Happy anniversary.

[JL]: Thank you, man. It's good to see some young blood in the business with the passion that you have. Stay the course, bro. You'll be good.

[KC]: Make sure to check out Gurkha Tres Decadas at Smokingpipes, and let us know what you think.