Once or twice a year, I get a chance to take my two daughters to their piano recital, in a small auditorium at a public library near our home. This has become one of my favorite activities - I anticipate it for months!

As you walk into the library, you see thousands of books neatly sitting on shelves. It makes me want to sit down and start reading. When was the last time you had a chance to read a great book instead of being glued to your Blackberry or iPhone? Our fast-paced modern lives rarely give us time for such a simple pleasure.

Listening to my daughters playing piano is another great pleasure. There is something magical about hearing live music instead of digitally mixed music on an iPod. As I watch them play, I realize the countless hours they spent practicing. I envy them. What a joy it is to have time in your life to play piano!

Sencillo cigars were inspired by this love of simple pleasures. Pronounced “sen-see-yo”, Sencillo is the Spanish word for “simple.” I hope this flavorful new blend will encourage you to light up, slow down, and enjoy the moment more often.

Sencillo Platinum was also inspired by the time I spent with Christian Eiroa, a longtime friend and great cigar maker, during the Cigar Rights of America Freedom Tour in August 2008. During the tour, Christian gave me an unbanded cigar, which was a special blend made by him. Even though I smoked many cigars during the CRA tour, the cigar Christian gave me was quite memorable.

When I was contemplating launching the Sencillo brand in 2009, I remembered that special cigar and reached out to Christian. He was excited to create Sencillo Platinum at his factory in Honduras, which would bring simple pleasure to cigar lovers around the world.

After the launching of Sencillo Platinum in the spring of 2010, we decided to add a Nicaraguan blend to our Sencillo brand. For Sencillo Black, I reached out to Nestor Plasencia, who is a highly respected cigar maker as well as the largest tobacco grower in Nicaragua. Nestor and I had been talking about doing a project together for many years. After a year of blending, the cigars were ready in the fall of 2010. But Nestor and I decided to age them longer to deliver a more polished and flavorful taste to our customers. Finally, in June 2011, the first batch of Sencillo Black was shipped to the authorized Sencillo dealers.

As you enjoy Sencillo Platinum and Sencillo Black, I think you will agree that we hit the mark with these two blends. They are full of flavor, yet accessible - the perfect cigars to light up any time of day, whenever you want to take a few moments to sit back and enjoy life.

The best things in life are simple pleasures. Let’s savor each moment.

Keith K. Park
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Sencillo - Angelenos - God of Fire - Prometheus
Los Angeles, California
June 16, 2011

The Matt Lanford Story: Why Microbrew Cigars Are Better
 
by Brent Butterworth

Matt Lanford opened Santa Barbara Cigar & Tobacco in a beautiful southern California coastal city, Santa Barbara, in 1996 at the peak of the 1990's cigar boom. After the cigar boom disappeared in 1998, so did many cigar shops. However, Matt's passion for being a tobacconist has kept his shop thriving. In 2007, his franchisee, Ken Jacobs, opened Santa Barbara Cigar in Houston, Texas. Santa Barbara Cigar & Tobacco has become a must-visit place for many cigar lovers. Standing in front of his shop, you can smell the enticing Southern California ocean breeze and inside the shop, of course, the pleasant aroma of tobacco.

Cigar Lounge at Santa Barbara Cigar. Photo by Derrick Won.

The contents of the stores humidor have changed dramatically in the last two years. Exclusive, artisanal cigars have pushed out many of the familiar brand names. Fewer and fewer of my customers are interested in mass-market cigars, Matt said. They are seeking out the higher-quality boutique cigars.

Lanford compares the cigars he sells to the flavorful microbrew beers that have become favorites of serious beer connoisseurs. Boutique cigars are made in small batches from the best possible ingredients, he explained. The tobacco is hand-selected and perfectly aged. The cigars are made by the best rollers. And then the cigars are aged more after they are rolled, so the flavors of the different tobaccos blend together to give you an experience you just cannot get in a mass-market cigar. They wait until the cigars are perfect before they ship them.

To Matt, mass-market cigars available through the Internet are more like Budweiser. Those cigars are pumped out as fast as they can make them, he says. It is a lot more about making the company's sales quota rather than making the cigar the best it can be. I'm not going to say that you won't enjoy those cigars, but if you can spend a little more for a much better experience, why wouldn't you?

The cigars that have replaced the mass-market offerings in Santa Barbara Cigar & Tobaccos humidor include such brands as God of Fire and Angelenos, both of which are made by the legendary Fuente family exclusively for Prometheus, whose cigar accessories are nicely displayed in Matt's shop. These are some of the most incredible cigars ever made, in terms of flavor and construction, Matt enthused.

He also praised the new Sencillo brand, another Prometheus exclusive made by Christian Eiroa at his Camacho factory in Honduras. Sencillo is less expensive than the other cigars from Prometheus, he said, but dollar for dollar the Sencillo cigars are the best you can get in their price range. Lately, I've been smoking a lot of Sencillo myself while I'm working in my shop. I enjoy them greatly.

Matt's store does carry some familiar mass-market brands, but it is not like you are going to find 20 varieties of Macanudos in my humidor, he said. We have a few, but once my customers try the boutique cigars, they tend to lose interest in the mass-market stuff.

Guiding his customers toward a better smoking experience is the part of his job that Lanford most enjoys. I consider my title here to be tobacconist. I'm the proprietor but I don't wear that on my sleeve, he said. I believe that the skills and duties of tobacconist are this: You are a knowledgeable purveyor of fine tobacco products and accessories, and that's it.