“Mule Kick.” Those are two words that came into play for Crowned Heads a little over a year ago that really started almost as a joke. If you haven’t heard the story, here it goes… We were at the 2012 IPCPR show in Orlando, and Mike and I were visiting with Ernie (Ernesto Perez-Carrillo, Jr.) […]

I returned to Nashville yesterday, after a week of working alongside my “Padrino,” Ernesto Perez-Carrillo, Jr., at Tabacalera La Alianza, S.A., in Santiago (Dominican Republic). To many cigar enthusiasts out there, that might sound like a glamorous ‘pleasure trip’ of a lifetime. Well, I hate to burst your collective bubbles, but it’s not; it’s work. […]

“What happens in Vegas….” Let me complete that sentence for you: “What happens in Vegas sucks the life out of you.” Let me preface this installment by saying that yours truly does not gamble and that I gave up ‘serious’ (i.e., spirits) drinking over 2 1/2 years ago. I know, I know…not what you’d expect […]

This past weekend, I spent Saturday working at home on our burgeoning vegetable garden with my lovely bride. This is no 3’ x 4’ “flower bed” with some seeds strewn in it. Rather, this is a 30’ x 12’ chunk of land that we have spent tens of hours on under the sun, digging, tilling, […]

It’s 1:25 on a sunny Wednesday afternoon here in Nashville. I just sat down at my computer, and cut and lit a Headley Grange Eminentes. The smell of pepper and cedar on the foot….the initial citrusy-sweetness on the front of the tongue..the blast of wasabi through the sinus on the retrohale. It all takes me […]

It’s been a few months since I’ve written one of these Crowned Heads ‘blogs,’ and almost 2 years to the day from when I wrote my first on January 19, 2011 (“Back In the Studio”). A lot has happened over the last 2 years for us here at Crowned Heads. Since we had an ‘official […]

“Don’t believe the hype.” – Public Enemy (1988) Twenty-four years later, that phrase remains a lexicon in the English language. Recently, I read a pre-release review on our upcoming release, “Headley Grange.” While I understand that everyone’s entitled to his or her opinion, and that I respect all reviews–good, bad, or indifferent–this particular review alluded […]

The IPCPR 80th Annual Convention and International Trade Show is a wrap. We arrived back in Nashville this past Tuesday night and I’m composing this post-show blog from the glorious (insert tongue in cheek) Crowned Heads HQ conference room. This was our first IPCPR show as Crowned Heads. Last year at this time, we were […]

Yesterday marked the 8 month anniversary of when we shipped our first boxes of Four Kicks cigars. Hard to believe…in some respects, it feels longer than 8 months–in others, time has flown by. We started back on November 9, 2011, with 66 retail partners. Today, we opened our 180th door. And we’ve done it all […]

Last week, I had the privilege and pleasure of traveling to Miami for a photo shoot for an upcoming issue of ‘Cigar Press’ Magazine. Despite the early call time (got up at 3:45am to catch a 6:00 flight), it was a day well spent. My hat’s off to Thor Nielsen (founder & editor of Cigar […]