Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

I have met and talked with Sam a few times, i found him to be a stand up guy... He never tried to sell me anything or talk me into any cigars, simply handed me a few cigars and said thanks for coming out to the events... I have nothing for respect for the guy... I hope he does very well... Good Luck Sam!!!

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

Yo,

Just wanted to pass a note and let you in on a few things. I don't feel I have to, but I want to because quite frankly I think some of you have the wrong perception. Like I said before, I don't care if you don't like me, my cigars, or both, but I'd rather you like/not like me for who I am rather than what I am not.

"down to Earth"? I don't know man, I cut my grass and take out the trash just like I would imagine most of you do. I am certainly not made of money or consider myself any sort of celebrity. There has never been paparazzi on my lawn, and I certainly don't get bothered at the grocery store or the mall. I also doubt anyone tells Kid Rock that he looks like Sam Leccia. I'm just being real, guys.

The photo-shoot/Press-release/ads they are just that. The photo shoot was an absolute blast. I wish it was video-taped because you would have enjoyed it. We did this on Sunday, 3 days ago. it was unplanned, unorganized and unprofessional. It was 4 guys, a camera and a mission. The shoot looks like a $10,000 shoot and all it cost was the beers we drank afterwards. They were taken in my home town of Elizabeth, Pa. I have been fishing under that bridge in one of the shots for over 30 years. The car was a buddy's 53 chevy and the 2 engine prop plane (not a private jet) we basically "borrowed" without permission. One of the guys at the mini airport really hooked us up. We probably broke all kinds of TSA and FAA laws, but we got it done. I really wanted a classic car in the shoot because I am a classic car freak. My dad used to take me to cars shows all the time as a kid, and I have been fortunate to have owned some classics over the years. The plane? Well besides looking totally badass, I live half my life on a plane, so it was only fitting.

I have sacrificed and struggled through this industry. I have missed so many of my 3 kids birthdays, school plays, soccer games, and sadly some hospital visits. Why? To provide brother. My passion runs deeper than the leaf. I have a team at home counting on me, and I am not about to let them down.

I get to do what I love for a living. I make cigars. How cool is that? I do not profess to be "bigger" or "better" than anybody. I'm still a rookie compared to most of the guys in this business, and I respect every single one of them. I still get star struck around some of them. They are my idols. Sure I am different and do things different. That's who I am. I am a nonconformist by nature. I like to do things with my approach to them. I turned my hobby into my life and there is no turning back. I just launched my first company in any format, and I couldn't be more excited. There will be more struggles, more sacrifices and hopefully more reward. I want my 3 kids to be taken care of. I hope that someday my work will help their kids to be taken care of. That's my ultimate goal anyway. My family is the most important thing to me and having the past 6 months to spend with them has been awesome and really helped me realize that even more.

I don't mind dropping my guard and "letting you in" that's who I am. I am not petitioning for your dollar or your friendship, just showing you what I am about. I'm as real as it gets.

I am not going to come on here every time someone makes a post that's not in my favor either. I do listen though. I have been playing with some smaller ring sizes as well. I actually enjoy the smack-talking, and trust me I can dish it out with the best of them.

As smokers we have so many things against us, I would much rather focus on what unites us, rather than what tears us down.

But it's time to get back to work.

Smoke On.


Sam

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

I agree, let the cigar speak for itself. :tu:tu

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

Amen brother. Amen.

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

Well played! :tu

M

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

Best of luck to you, Sam!

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

I have to say too that my first response in this thread was directed at the odd statement about the industry regarding you as
a rock star. I found that a hell of a statement, especially given that you almost certainly had a part in it's wording. But because
I am an inteLLECTUAL blowhard, I thought, "you had better look into this person you are in the process of tearing down with
mockery". The more I read and poked around, the less I could point to as potential rocks to throw. The only thing I could
put my finger on was that you had basically jumped into the cigar business 5 years ago and were now a 'legend". And while
I wanted to have something smart-a$$ to say about it, I continued to find evidence that you had spent that time busting
your a$$ in promoting a product or products you had to apply maximum pressure on to overcome the reactions to their "oddity".
Certainly a max ligero cigar was not "new", but the Nub was different, and it has to be hard to overcome the thinking that this
cigar is over before it's barely moved an inch or two.

Then I see all these pub shots of you taking your rolling table to places and rolling and preaching. If you read my posts in this
thread, it is clear that I was trying to back out of most of the sarcasm i had taken time to write into the record. A lot of effort
for a person who doesn't even smoke NC cigars. What stock do I have in the game? Nothing. So here's to you, I was not
entirely surprised to see you post in this thread; this board is hands down the best web forum dedicated to cigars that can
be found, in my opinion. I am also not surprised to see you have only 7 posts. I think cigar makers and vendors can get
themselves in trouble by being too active or chummy in web forums. Drew in Mexicco comes to mind. But of course, you
are not a known scumbag. But it seems like they can never say the right thing in just the right way, which is fine for a
person like me. But for you, it can have long term and haunting consequences. I'll say that your statement above was
certainly welcome and had what I think was your desired effect. People who tear down your new venture and even your
marketing efforts are usually idiots who have an axe to grind or just like to make fun of everything. I am the latter.
But they were lining up to hack on Domino's new (then) marketing plan of basically saying their pizza sucked and was
going to be better, was a bad idea. It seemed I was the only one that predicted it would work, and very well. Point
being, what the hell do THEY know. My only disclaimer is that I have never had any of your products or any Oliva product.
I won't be buying your NEW product either, but I think you will have no trouble selling all you can roll. Good luck with your
plans, and if you could add my name to the list of people you will be supporting in 20-30 years through this new venture,
I would appreciate it. I will be needing it. And if you ever plan a trip to Memphis, let me know.

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

Send that idea over to Sam with a suggestion on a filler and binder, and you, too, can be a rock star, my man.

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

I don't know, Duane, I think that's likely inaccurate. Granted, you can be sure there was some
friction there, Sam certainly believes that without Nub and Cain, Oliva would not be anywhere near
where they are today. Anyone that knows anything at all about the last 40+ years of the industry
knows that the Oliva's are close to being the smartest leaf people in the business, but even from
my position far outside the NC circle, I know that it's not how much you know about raw materials, it's
how much people know about your product. Their cigars were good, but not a HUGE name in the market
necessarily. I think that any negative feelings they may both have are FAR outweighed by what they
BOTH learned from the OTHER. I would be willing to bet they were both glad to be rid of each other.
Just like all of the characters I create for my boss' commercials become his property when I leave,
Sam really couldn't take his lines with him. but I am sure he feels like he has everything he needs to be
just as successfull in his new venture. Let's hope he has the LEAF, though. Great ideas, great names and
great reputations don't go INSIDE the wrapper. You need tobacco for that.

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

I guess Sam forgets where we came from. He was reliable over there to answer questions for about 2 seconds and then the Nub took off, for some unGodly reason, then he never came back. :rolleyes:

This sums up my interest:

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

good luck sam,
love nub cameroon,now eagerly waiting cain to arrive...
now you are up to something new...will try once its in market...

from the other part of the world,i wish you all the best... love the photos ..

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

I would love less hype, smaller RG, and more flavor.

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

Met Sam at a Cain F Nub event at Burn in MN, after setting up the first thing he did was make the owner take all of the memorabilia off of the pool table so we could shoot a few games. Great guy and I wish him well and will be trying the Debut when it comes out even though I also am not a huge fan of the big RG.

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

I just finished reading Mr. Leccia's gentle, good-natured response to the drubbing he's gotten here, and I gotta say that I think it was a classy move.

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

I agree on that. It is clear he HAS nuts, but to register and parry a bit with the folks here, that is not without
some risk. The more I read about the guy, the more I like him. If I knew more about the supposed 'abandonment'
of some group of cigar enthusiasts, I might have an opinion, lol. But I just know what I know, next to nothing, and
he seems OK to me. One thing I KNOW he never did, sent someone back a half-smoked cigar in a box of other
cigars. :r THAT guy is an ahole.

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

And by that I mean I am not surprised that he did not spend too much if any time on the boards after the
launch of his product. Not so much THIS board, but on many of em, you CAN'T log in and get into shizzle
with some of these people, it's a lose-lose sitcho. You can't say the right thing without someone twisting it
all around to suit their schtick. Look at Drew, now we KNOW he is a douche, but he would get into it with
one or another person trying to refute what they said and it always ends up with him having to skulk away
knowing he should have lurked and said nothing. The net is a freaking Battledrome of Death. It takes nuts and
CAREFUL choices of words to survive, and sometimes no one wins.

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

Suzy the doily maker bro..

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

Since you consider yourself an "inteLLECTUAL blowhard", you may wish to re-read the press release. He never says he is a rock star, he says he approaches the cigar industry with the same passion that a rock star would his music.

Reading is good.. comprehension is key.

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

(Quote from press release):

"The cigar nation embraces Leccia like a rock star for the passion and originality he brings to the business."

:hm

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

Again.. read it carefully. He does not say HE considers himself a rock star. I know a lot of people that refer to Sam as "the rock star"... whether it be his style, the fact that he would sing with the bands on the NUb Live tours, who knows.. but people do see him that way.

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

:tpd:

And so what if he, or his company, or whoever thinks he is a rockstar OR wants to be percieved as one? Its all marketing! How do you think us college students just getting into the cigar world pick brands? By how cool their marketing is. (Then we wise up and smoke brands we truly like, regardless of marketing).

This is the next generation of cigar makers coming in, and they do things differently.

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

Brad never said that Sam said he was regarded as a rock star. Brad stated the press release said it. Which it did.

Reading is good.. comprehension is key :D

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

When ya got me, ya got me..

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and again. :D

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

And the press release is on his site, with which I am sure he has some small control over the content. ;)

Now, give me a small RG tasty cigar that doesn't taste like nothing, or burnt toast, or ass, and I will support whatever alternative/rock lifestyle you choose. Oh yeah, don't try to get rich off me, make them affordable. I might buy a box or two if they don't suck.

edit: oh... and I might not want to wrap my jaw around a bratwurst sized stick to sample your line.

Wait, has anyone done that before?

edit: oh... and I might not want to wrap my jaw around a bratwurst sized stick to sample your line.

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

Everyone's definition of "rockstar" varies.......

http://i812.photobucket.com/albums/z...weirdparty.jpg

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

Pete, maybe you're not in the demographic he is marketing to... :)

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

Best wishes on the new venture. It's a great thing to have passionate people promoting the hobby through generating excitement and interest in new products.

Never smoked one of Sams cigars and said... hey that is really awful, never. Well constructed smokes with quality tobacco = a quality product that people get value from. Many of us are not large RG fans so it's easy to make a bit of fun over the ... ahem, "marketing license" taken with sweet spots, etc. But we exist in a world where there are truly awful cigars promoted as "deals etc" that folks get burned on over and over again, (think the CI catalog stuff) and that is not the case with these cigars.

Again, best wishes on the new venture Sam and ..... if you ever move to Cuba I'm down for the first shipments. :)

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

What does THIS say, man??

The cigar nation embraces Leccia like a rock star for the passion and originality he brings to the business.

And where ANYWHERE did I say that he said that himself?? I think I DID say that "I bet he had a hand in crafting
the words". At least he READ it before they released it, anyway. But as far as making a separate post just to
tell me "reading is good, but comprehension is the key", you should at least be able to quote me accurately.
--edit--------
I remember when I had MY first beer.

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

DANG 15 minute time frame on edits....I see that someone already made my point.

MAN, I wish I had a dollar for everytime I did what sboyajian just did, lol.

And I already made my peace with Mr. Leccia. I ate all the crow I served up. I still think the line is
funny though, hehe.....rock star. But maybe he IS a rock star. He's more exciting than Avo Uvezian.

I move that the 15 minute time frame on edits be extended to 20, is there a second?

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

Who are the "cigar nation"?

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

I second that motion Brad, especially on your behalf!:tu

That extra 5 seconds could mean the different between the foot being in your mouth or in your a$$!:D

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

Boy howdy, you're right, but if the time limit were extended, you wouldn't be able toread HALF the embarassing
stuff from me that you get to now.

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

True that!

And this place wouldn't be as fun!!!:D

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

Good luck Sam :tu

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

All BS aside, let's talk about the smokes.......

Sam, is there any more you can tell us about the smokes? Tobacco types? Flavor notes? Strength? Where are they made? Details! Details!

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

just heard an interview sam did about this cigar and it sounds great, but the size just doesn't turn me on

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

I am getting into this thread late in the game and it says a lot about Sam to jump in and get involved. As mentioned before that can be a dangerous move for a Blender/Manufacturer or Vendor. Written word can be taken the wrong way easy and a thread can go downhill fast.
OLS with your statement above I think you have to compare apples to apples. Jonathan Drew has been in the industry a long time, much longer than Sam and has created a whole different segment of the industry with the Acid line. Not a fan of Acid myself but they do sell very well and the Liga line is phenomenal and they are doing interesting things with the blends in that line too. But with your statement if you read some of the stories of Jonathan Drews career he definitely put in his time and hard work. He is well established now and gets to enjoy the fruits of his labor rather than be out on a whirlwind tour every second of his life unlike Sam who is still in the infancy of his Cigar career. Sorry I just had to chime in with that statement as I think Jonathon is as genuine in the industry as it gets and has already put in his blood,sweat and tears and is now getting to enjoy his hard work a little more so the comparison wasn't fair in my opinion. But you know what they say about opinions right?:D:r

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

HAHA, I was thinking that when I first looked at his website. I have never heard of this guy up until now.

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

Rock on Sam. Good on ya. :banger

It's all about the love of the leaf and sharing that love.

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

That's me and Brad.

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

I understand your point, John, and I agree. I think if I re-read my statement I will see though that what I meant
to say is that one looks like he is doing it one way and one is doing it the other way. Not a comparison of their
careers, but of their events. I was not on the train then and am not now, so the products and how they
marketed them live MAY have been the same, but I was saying one seems to be rollin em up and the other is
simply appearing as a cigar-lebrity. Both are obviously giving away stuff. However your point makes me think,
JDrew could not have stood on that celebrity early on, so putting in the work is certainly a given in the early
Drew career. I just don't know if he ever sat down and started rolling cigars for the crowd. I just don't KNOW.

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

I see what your saying on the rolling aspect. Now, the question is, in todays day and age of Cigar Celebrities who would we consider the Brittany Spears and Paris Hilton of the industry?????:r

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

It's one thing to know how to roll leaves and another to know how to blend them. Both an art

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

You don't think you will get answers do you? Once upon a time, these Mods set up a forum just for Sam. After much complaining about the waiting period to post, he posted a few times then he never returned to answer anything. People were asking many questions to nothing but silence.

Experience tells me that will be the case here.

If not, I will be very, very surprised.

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

I am glad you fleshed out that story a bit, being perpetually head up the butt, I miss a lot of these little stories.
I never knew what you were talking about the other day.

By the way, I made you a Danzig avatar in my avatar thread.

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

I have them saved for future use. ;)

Fangs mang! :tu

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

I'm not too optimistic about him answering my questions..... Just thought I'd give it a shot. No biggie.

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

The wrapper is a dark oily Habano wrapper grown in Ecuador. The blend consists of Nicaragua, Honduras, and Santo Domingo tobaccos.

The cigar is made in Honduras.

I would call the blend a medium to full with a nice draw, very flavorful with an incredible aroma and burns a chalk white ash.

I definitely would say it has a coffee hint to it with some hints of nut...like almond. There is a rawness to it that I enjoy the most. They age very well making the wrapper even more oily.

I love it. I hope you will to!



I apologize for not answering sooner...As you can imagine I have been swamped with getting this company off the ground.



(thanks Nofeardiver, for the private message on responding to this question)

Re: Sam Leccia Cigar Company
 

Thank you for the information Sam. Much appreciated :tu