- I'm just thrilled to

have Michael Herklots

sit down with us.

Can you start, just get us

started before I light this,

and tell me what I'm smoking.

- You are about to light up

the Ferio Tego 2023 Elegancia.

under Ferio Tego, we

do them once annually.

So think wine, for example,

every year you make

however much you can make,

perhaps a white and a red.

This is my white, so this

really is in the style

of think White Burgundy, crème brûlée.

You know, it's luscious and big and fatty,

but creamy, and...

- It's beautifully constructed.

I'm looking forward to tasting it.

- Let's hope it does

what it's supposed to do.

- So, when you've been a

part of the cigar industry

for as long as you have,

people come to think of

you as a bit of a legend.

Can you talk about the,

well, the early days of this show.

I mean, you mentioned

on our walk over here

how many years it's been and-

- Yeah. My first show

was 2003 in Nashville.

I started in the business in 1999,

so this is my 25th year in the business.

And, you know, it's hard for me

to describe the difference in show

because it's so much a

difference in perspective.

You know, walking on a trade

show floor at 23 years old

and just seeing the industry in one place

was an indescribable feeling

as a young person

starting in this industry.

Now, fast forward, I'm an old person

continuing in the industry,

but it's not less awesome,

but it's much more

intimate at the same time.

There's not a booth I pass where

I don't know someone in it,

you know, my first show,

I could make it from that end of the hall

to that end of the hall in one stop

because I didn't know

anyone and no one knew me.

- Yeah. We just got stopped three times

on the way over to your booth

to make sure everybody was okay for you

to get away for the conversation.

- But isn't it great?

I mean, there's not an industry like it,

and all of the most meaningful

relationships in my life,

save for my wife, my family,

and my friends growing up,

they're all connected to this business.

In fact, even my wife I met

connected via this business.

- This is scrumptious by the way.

- Man, I have to tell you,

when you just took a puff

and I saw the smoke exit-

- The mouthful of smoke that I got-

- And that to me is

everything about that blend.

When you can achieve body that is

so mouth-fillingly full,

and yet deliver flavors that

are so elegant and graceful,

it's not an easy thing to do,

but I'm proud of what

we've done with this.

- So I don't know what the term is,

but a lot of times when I

smoke a lighter wrapper,

like, this a Connecticut wrapper?

- Ecuador, Connecticut.

- So, this lacks the,

is it acidity that I'm used

to with other Connecticuts?

- So, in true Connecticut,

see, a Connecticut shade from

the Connecticut River Valley,

there is, to my palate,

a quite obvious, almost

astringency drying effect

from that wrapper.

- Right.

- Almost a bitterness, as well.

- And that's not a criticism,

it's just the characteristics

of that wrapper,

and the blends that

typically wear that wrapper

tend to be lighter bodied.

And, so, the behavioral influence

of that wrapper is quite

dominant in blends like that.

In this case, the wrapper from Ecuador

has a bit more flavor,

but that blend is not your,

what you would consider

a conventional, mild

Connecticut shade-style blend.

It's actually, there's

two Ligeros in that blend.

One from Nicaragua, one from Dominican.

And so the way that blend was composed

was done such that it delivers

flavor without ferocity.

It gives you body and mouthful-

- "Flavor without ferocity."

- That's a tagline.

- I like it.

- That's trademarked.

- I like it. (laughs)

- Brendan [Scott], trademark

flavor, not ferocity, but it's-

- That's great.

- It's pretty unique.

- And it's very evident,

and I knew this from cigars of yours

that I smoked in your previous role,

you're a quality freak.

I say that in the nicest way.

- No, no, well, it's funny,

before we came on camera,

you said that I'm a storyteller,

and I really think of

each blend as a story.

And in order for a

story to be interesting,

there has to be a plot, you know?

I mean, you can't be the same tone.

It can't be, you know,

those are terrible stories.

So you have to have a

story that has an arc,

that has a start, that has a

middle, that has some conflict,

and then that resolves in an ending.

That's how stories are written.

That's how music is written.

I'm a musician, you know,

I think like a musician,

I don't think like a cigar maker.

And so creating blends,

though not intentional at the time,

I realize now, looking back,

I create blends that have a

plot, that have a journey,

that start one way,

take you somewhere else,

that have a hook right from the beginning

that compel you to take another puff.

- So the Ferio Tego story,

can you talk about the launch

and what's happened

since the launch in terms

of your expectations and the

way things have worked out?

- Yeah, we're in March 2024,

which is month 30 of Ferio Tego in market.

- Still a very young company

- Very young, man.

However, if you look at what makes

the Ferio Tego story so unique,

we have a portfolio of blends,

one of which dates back to the mid 1990s.

I've been around 25 years,

but our company is three years old

and we're in market two and a half.

And Ferio Tego's brand new.

So, there's a very unique,

depending on your

familiarity with our story,

sometimes there's more or

less catching up to do,

to understand how a

two-and-a-half-year-old brand

can have a 30-year-old blend and you know.

- Well, it's almost as though

the name could have been

the Herklot's line.

- Well-

- Because it's all based

on your reputation.

Is that fair?

- Look, I think 20 years, 20+ years prior

to creating the company,

the reason we have enjoyed

the success that we've enjoyed

is no doubt due to the 25 years,

20 years served above board, right?

In good faith and good

partnership and friendship

and honesty and all that stuff.

You know, when, when we started,

we put our orders in in January of 2021,

we were in market in October,

and that was in the COVID boom.

So the only way that's possible

is because Quesada in Dominican,

Plasencia in Nicaragua,

Agroindustrias in Honduras,

Cigar Rings in the Dominican Republic,

HumidifGroup and Cigar Box

Factory in Spain and Nicaragua,

all believed in what this was gonna be

and moved us to the front of the line

at a time when they didn't

need more production.

You know (chuckles) they didn't need it.

They had it, everyone

was at maximum capacity,

and here was this brand new business,

but 20 years of valuable

partnership and honesty

and all that I think came

together in what is now Ferio.

So I wouldn't say that

it's just my reputation.

Ferio Tego really is the embodiment

of what doing business the right way

for the right reason looks like.

- Well I appreciate the self-deprecation,

it's awesome to have a-

- I just think it's more than just me.

- Yeah, it's interesting

to talk to a musician

that doesn't take credit.

I mean, it's very unusual

unless you're a bass player

or a drummer. (laughs)

- I am a drummer.

(both laughing)

I do take credit, you

know, I take credit for

a lot of the things that

I can take credit for,

but there are really-

- You can't marshal the

Hall of Fame producers

that you just mentioned.

You can't marshal that

and turn around an order to a delivery.

There's maybe five guys in the room

that could pull that off.

- Yeah, yeah. (chuckles)

- I mean, you think that's fair?

So, I accept the credit

that years of working-

- Showing up the way you show up.

- Relationship and mutual respect

and mutual admiration for one another,

when I needed help, they came.

- Well, and it's really-

- And I didn't even mention Davidoff USA,

Davidoff USA is our is

our distribution partner.

So, you know, as we're talking

with our factory partners,

trying to get production in

the middle of this COVID boom,

we gave them forecasts based on

what we thought we could

just figure out how to sell.

And they said, "How do

you intend to sell it?"

And we said, "We have no idea,"

"but I know that we can't sell anything"

"until we have production,

so start making,"

"by the time they're ready,"

"we'll have a solution on how to sell."

And in that time, we sat

down with Davidoff USA,

who I worked for for 10 years,

and then worked with for the

next 10 with Nat Sherman.

And they said, "Well, why don't we talk

about a distribution agreement?"

So, again-

- That's a tremendous accomplishment.

- For a brand new business.

- Yeah. To put a brand in that level.

- We're distributed by Davidoff USA,

throughout the United States.

We're manufactured in all

three major manufacturing

countries of origin,

by arguably some of the best

manufacturers on the planet.

And we've shipped to, since inception,

we've shipped to about 1,200 shops.

- That's tremendous.

- Last year we did just under 900 stores.

Of course, some fell off

from the 1,200, some are new,

and we're turning and burning

with regular reorders in about 500 stores.

- That's tremendous.

- It's awesome.

- Yeah, you have so much to be proud of.

It's very rare when you

have a line that's as young

as Ferio Tego whose principal

is standing up in front

of the whole association, you know,

leading a session as you did.

I mean, it's just-

- That's been, I'll tell you

the, I'm sorry to cut you off.

- No, go ahead.

- But when you say

being in front of the association,

one of the things I miss

most about my prior roles,

because they always involved retail.

As a retailer,

I felt a certain responsibility

to industry because you're

representing the entirety

of industry when a customer

walks in your door.

So that was a connection

that I always really,

it really resonated with

me in a very valuable way

because I had meaningful relationships

with every manufacturer,

because even though we were competing

on one side of the business,

we were also partners on the

other side of the business.

And so when we started Ferio

Tego that piece went away

and I was concerned

that my ability to advocate for industry

and be a meaningful part of

industry would start to diminish

as I became just viewed

as more self-interest

for my own company.

And so I think to some

extent that's happened.

I mean, people certainly see Ferio Tego

as my first priority, but

the fact that I can still

do Procigar, still do seminars,

still do The Great Smoke and

lead some industry things,

and the fact that the industry,

by and large, is still feels

very comfortable with me

advocating on their behalf,

even if I do have a self-interest.

It's cool.

- Well, and it's intriguing

because you look at an industry

that has a sort of an

older generation of leaders

that are starting to

turn over a lot of their

responsibilities to the next generation,

and you've been here from such a young age

that you're kind of a

bridge guy in your group.

- I have an identity crisis for sure

because I have longer standing

closer relationships with-

- You're too young to be so old.

(Michael laughs)

- My peer group in the industry

is not my contemporaries.

- Right.

- You know, it's the generation

that was gracious enough

to let me sit with them.

- Welcome you.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- And that's, you know, it's always,

when you're new to a business,

you remember the people who reach out

and extend their hand and

welcome you in, right?

Because you're a competition.

So a lot of people look at new people

and say, "What is this

guy getting in for?"

You know, but everyone was new once,

and then once you become established,

you might remember the people

who were there for you,

but sometimes you forget to turn around

and see who you can be there for.

And, so, as a 43 year

old with 25 years in,

it puts me in a very unique position

to be so close with the

legacy generation that is now.

And even some of the ones that came

before this current legacy generation,

and yet be a contemporary

of my generation,

who many are still new to the business,

that I get to kind of bridge

those two social worlds

is a cool thing.

- So, just a short tribute

to those that are here

and those that are gone.

Who was the person or the people

that opened the door for you

that gave you the confidence

and the excitement about cigars

to build the legacy

you've been able to build?

- Yeah. One of my first bosses,

well, there was a guy named David Walker

in Boston that gave me my

first real opportunity.

Actually, the first, first guy was

a guy named Butch McCarthy.

Then he sold the business

to this guy David Walker,

and David let me run this

little kiosk in a mall.

Then a guy named David Kitchens hired me

at Davidoff in New York after I worked

for a time at the Gloucester

Street Cigar Company

for a guy named Joe Pasquale.

And it was David Kitchens who really,

really saw in me something unique

and gave me a lot of

opportunity at Davidoff.

At the same time, this guy

named George Brightman,

who was a pretty senior

at Cigar Aficionado.

And he, too, was very supportive

of my obvious enthusiasm for

the business at a young age.

Those two guys were a huge help

and they introduced me to everybody.

The one that really I

connected with in now

an absurdly close way is Manuel Quesada

and the Quesada family.

And he, you know, he really

is a industry father to me.

I mean, it's so bonkers.

- No, he's the OG.

I mean, he is such

a gracious man.

- But he would sit me at the

table with the original Procigar crew,

Jose Seijas, Daniel Núñez, Benji Menendez,

- Many who we have on our wall.

- Right, right.

- Yeah.

- You know, even, I mean,

when you look at like,

that's one of my favorite men

on the face of the earth, Litto [Gomez].

- Did you go to his

birthday party last night?

- I did not go, I did not go.

- I heard it was fabulous.

- He was a new company, you know,

we sold his products at Davidoff.

I went to visit him in

the D.R. in 2003, 2004.

He had two fields.

His factory was a tenth

of what it is today,

you know, I thought I saw

Rocky [Patel] here somewhere.

- Rocky's part of it.

- Right, Rocky.

- We only have so many

that fit on the wall.

- Rocky, I've known

since 2000, since 1999.

You know, he was banging on doors.

Jonathan Drew was banging on doors

and so we grew up in

the business together.

In fact, someone asked me the other day,

"Who are your favorite boutique brands?"

And I said, "That's easy."

"Rocky Patel, Drew Estate,

La Flor Dominicana."

And they're like, "No, no boutique."

I said, "My man, when I started-

- Those were boutique.

- They were boutique.

- They're not considered boutique anymore.

- But they may be $50 million businesses,

but they're still boutique, you know?

- The way they think,

the way they craft.

- When you start from scratch,

and you remember every relationship

and you're still

privately owned, you know,

I mean, Drew Estate sold

to a larger corporation

that is still privately owned, you know,

and the principal Jonathan,

is still involved.

That mentality is boutique,

and who doesn't strive

to be bigger, right?

I don't know A single

boutique on the planet

that hopes they never grow.

We all want to grow,

but preserving a boutique

mindset, I think is-

- So, the future for Ferio Tego,

just gimme a little

background on the name.

- Ferio Tego is the motto

on our family coat of arms,

which is my ring.

And in the bottom of the crest

is the image of Hercules

striking the Hydra,

and under that it says "Ferio Tego,"

which translates to

loosely strike and defend.

- It's a great name for a brand.

- It's a great name for a brand.

- I don't think it's an

exaggeration to say it's had

a meteoric ascent from

the launch until now.

I think it's pretty

remarkable what you laid out

as far as what you've accomplished

in a very short period of time.

- We did a lot in a short period of time.

It's a lot.

I mean, we have 10 core blends

with a handful of limited editions

that we've released throughout the years,

plus the two annual limited releases,

Elegancia and Generoso, I mean,

it's over 50 individual cigars

that are within the portfolio.

That's a lot for people to catch up on

if we are completely new to them.

For those who are familiar

with Timeless or Metropolitan,

it's perhaps a little easier

to wrap your head around,

but to start a relationship

like we're doing

at this trade show,

when someone walks over and says,

"Tell me about your company,

I'm not familiar with it,"

and we turn around and show, you know,

a portfolio that is so robust.

They say, "How do we start?"

And then it's really,

understanding their

business in a thoughtful way

to figure out the right

entry point to our brand.

- This is the first Ferio

Tego cigar I've ever smoked.

I've smoked many of your

other cigars previous.

I would like to personally

cordially invite you

to become a part of this constellation.

- Great.

- When the time is right for you

and become part of the For My Humidor.

- Well, I'll tell you,

I've actually already

submitted my photos and-

- That's good.

- We've used the package,

the smallest size in a five-pack

that we used for years,

that just between us

girls don't tell anyone,

but that project is coming back.

So we're excited

to get it back in there.

- We won't tell anyone.

- Right.

- We promise.

- That's just between us.

So, I'm very excited.

And, listen, I'm a fan, again,

we go back to the beginning.

I've known these guys-

- Since you walked in.

You started about the same time.

- Yeah. I mean, we both were

newbies at shows together.

- Yeah.

- And it's been an

incredible relationship.

I think we actually became

quite close via Fuente,

which, of course, Carlito was

the first guy to go all in.

- Well, Carlito is the man.

- In packaging.

- Yeah. And funny enough,

my first paid gig as a

drummer in Boston was for

a cigar dinner for the Cigar

Family Charitable Foundation

in Boston.

- I thought you were gonna tell me

you were jamming on Lansdowne Street.

- No, it's just crazy, man.

It's just like so many intersections.

But, yes, I would love

to be on that board.

- Yeah. It would be a

real privilege for us.

- I have the entirety of my collection,

entirety, from 2002.

Every single cigar I own

is protected by Boveda.

Every one in my house.

Let me tell you, there's a lot of-

- I didn't set you up for that.

- No, no. It's a fact.

In fact, you know, once again,

when you respect each other for so long

and root for each other for so long,

when I suddenly found myself

having to take possession

of the entirety of my

collection within three weeks,

I didn't know who else to call but

Tim [Swail] and Sean [Knutsen],

and I said, I need real

help with humidity.

I don't know where I'm

gonna put all this stuff.

And they said, "Send me an address,"

middle of the pandemic.

And I got a-

- Whatever it takes.

- Generous safety package.

It was a true lifeline

to save my collection.

- Well, and it's a privilege for us

to be associated with you.

And I want to thank you

for taking the time to have a chat.

- Oh, man.

- We're gonna send a

crew over to your booth,

get some more details

specific to the lines.

If someone is interested in

starting out with Ferio Tego,

this cigar is a great hello,

great place to start somebody.

- It's a great place to start

to really understand what Ferio Tego is.

You know, it's approachable,

but whether you're a first time

or early cigar enthusiast-

- It's an elegant smoke.

- Or you're a expert, you know,

you're gonna experience something

and remember that cigar afterwards.

- Michael, I thank you very much.

Look forward to the rest of the show.

- Yes.

- Thanks for leading us off.

- I'm glad we got to do it.

- Yeah, really appreciate it.

(gentle music)