03-04-2007, 03:57 PM
Hello stogiechaters,
I received a call yesterday from my friend who owns the cigar shop were I get the lovos from telling me "hey serge lovo is here".....in 20min. I was there.
His name is Marlo Ramaz and he is the head hancho of distribution for all Lovo cigars. He married into the business, his wife being part of a cigar family- the lovo's. he use to work at Budweiser and quit that to work for his brother-in-law who taught him everything about cigars. Hes says he never smoked until he met his wifes family. I began to shoot questions at him that had all of us stumped.
The Lovo vs. La Flor De Camaguey issue.
I asked him what the deal was with that, if he was changing the name or what? he said its a completely different company. They gave them a blend that is similar to the one used in the Lovo Rosado but its not the same. Two diff. companies.
Where is the factory?
The factory is in Esteli, Nicaragua. There they grow mainly filler tobacco all cuban seed and according to him the seed is not used more than 4-5 times till they toss them. The tobacco also has a minimum of 2 years of age.
btw-he gave me a new line that he smokes exclusively which he calls "the cuban border" that is set to resemble the cuban trinidad, all 1st generation cuban seed filler with a cuban style wrapper.......mm good
Do the different lines have names?
they all do.....the one that I sent Rob-the box pressed one- is called the firecracker, the double maduro is called the dragon, the barber pole is the twister and the rosados are called the blood of the bull.
Why no bands?
they used to have a band wich was white with the silhouette of a wolf but he had to take it off because of troubles with a cigar company that had a wolf and was called LOBO(wolf). He also doesnt want to compete with other companies like AF, RP...
Why cant people find the cigars on the web?
Its coming he said, he is going to open a store/distribution place in Las Vegas. He doesnt want to pay CA sells tax. and he will also sell them over his website Lovocigars.com when he is done with it.
So how do you get the wrappers to be RED????
He said its a long process and didnt go into it. But the tobacco comes from a region in Nicaragua that grows wrappers in a clay color that then they ferment to get it even more red....he shot me down when I said so no dye of any kind and he said NO, but over time the Red will fade and become a red/brown. According to him they dont grow the wrappers there they buy them, they only grow Fillers and binders.
Then we just talked about random everything and anything, he lives in Rialto,CA not far from me(okay, far but I can drive there), he makes a trip to the factory in Nicaragua every three months to see if all is going smoothly. His wife is of cuban heritage and she rolls the cigar when they do private events. He brought a cigar called "the Arnold" because its the one they roll just for the Governator of California but very few people carry it. The way that they get rid of the ammonium in the tobacco during fermentation is that they use cane rum. When a crop goes bad he dosent used it, he said if it taste like crap he sells it to be made into cigarettes. They use Corojo98 tobacco in most of there blends.
It was a great time and the stogie was great-it had a pigtail and all you had to do was pull it off and you got a punch sized hole. Great guy, even offered me a job as a sells rep. dont think its going to happen cause of school but I told him that I would give him a call or email if I had any questions.
-SERGIO
I received a call yesterday from my friend who owns the cigar shop were I get the lovos from telling me "hey serge lovo is here".....in 20min. I was there.
His name is Marlo Ramaz and he is the head hancho of distribution for all Lovo cigars. He married into the business, his wife being part of a cigar family- the lovo's. he use to work at Budweiser and quit that to work for his brother-in-law who taught him everything about cigars. Hes says he never smoked until he met his wifes family. I began to shoot questions at him that had all of us stumped.
The Lovo vs. La Flor De Camaguey issue.
I asked him what the deal was with that, if he was changing the name or what? he said its a completely different company. They gave them a blend that is similar to the one used in the Lovo Rosado but its not the same. Two diff. companies.
Where is the factory?
The factory is in Esteli, Nicaragua. There they grow mainly filler tobacco all cuban seed and according to him the seed is not used more than 4-5 times till they toss them. The tobacco also has a minimum of 2 years of age.
btw-he gave me a new line that he smokes exclusively which he calls "the cuban border" that is set to resemble the cuban trinidad, all 1st generation cuban seed filler with a cuban style wrapper.......mm good
Do the different lines have names?
they all do.....the one that I sent Rob-the box pressed one- is called the firecracker, the double maduro is called the dragon, the barber pole is the twister and the rosados are called the blood of the bull.
Why no bands?
they used to have a band wich was white with the silhouette of a wolf but he had to take it off because of troubles with a cigar company that had a wolf and was called LOBO(wolf). He also doesnt want to compete with other companies like AF, RP...
Why cant people find the cigars on the web?
Its coming he said, he is going to open a store/distribution place in Las Vegas. He doesnt want to pay CA sells tax. and he will also sell them over his website Lovocigars.com when he is done with it.
So how do you get the wrappers to be RED????
He said its a long process and didnt go into it. But the tobacco comes from a region in Nicaragua that grows wrappers in a clay color that then they ferment to get it even more red....he shot me down when I said so no dye of any kind and he said NO, but over time the Red will fade and become a red/brown. According to him they dont grow the wrappers there they buy them, they only grow Fillers and binders.
Then we just talked about random everything and anything, he lives in Rialto,CA not far from me(okay, far but I can drive there), he makes a trip to the factory in Nicaragua every three months to see if all is going smoothly. His wife is of cuban heritage and she rolls the cigar when they do private events. He brought a cigar called "the Arnold" because its the one they roll just for the Governator of California but very few people carry it. The way that they get rid of the ammonium in the tobacco during fermentation is that they use cane rum. When a crop goes bad he dosent used it, he said if it taste like crap he sells it to be made into cigarettes. They use Corojo98 tobacco in most of there blends.
It was a great time and the stogie was great-it had a pigtail and all you had to do was pull it off and you got a punch sized hole. Great guy, even offered me a job as a sells rep. dont think its going to happen cause of school but I told him that I would give him a call or email if I had any questions.
-SERGIO
Not only do I not know what's going on, I wouldn't know what to do about it if I did.
George Carlin
George Carlin