Ever since Smoke N’ Sticks first opened it’s door, one of our primary focuses was to make certain that we stocked as many facings of Arturo Fuente Cigars as possible.  We presently have approximately 50 facings of Arturo Fuente cigars, in natural, maduro, sungrown, shadegrown, Hemingway, and Don Carlos.  Many a customer has commented that they have never seen so many Fuente cigars in any of the other cigar stores they have frequented. 

For 11 years the Fuente company conducted a nationwide in-store display contest, providing the winners with an all-expense paid trip to the Dominican Republic, guests of the Fuente family. 

In 2001 Smoke N’ Sticks was one of the 25 runners-up. In 2002, over 450 stores throughout the United States participated in the contest, and our display was selected by Tobacconist Magazine as one of the 4 grand prize winners.

We are very proud to say that this is the first time a cigar store in California was selected as a grand prize winner in the Arturo Fuente Display Contest.

Larry and his wife, Judy, spent five fantastic days in the Dominican Republic as the guests of the Fuente family, touring the factory and the farm, being treated royally by everyone connected with the family, and spent the last two days in a private section of a beautiful resort in Porta Plata.  And, of course, smoked some really great cigars!   

As a display contest winner, you become part of the extended Fuente family and your store gets cigars that are not available anywhere else.  We are the only store in California that has received not only the original shipment, but subsequent shipments as well of sungrown Flor Fina 858s, sungrown rosada 858s, and sungrown Hemingway Classics.

From time to time, we expect that additional special release Fuente cigars will be shipped to us and we will certainly post these cigars on our website.  When we do receive these special release cigars, they are available only for purchase in the store.  We will not ship any of these cigars as we want only our store customers to get the benefit of our good fortune. 

Larry also received from Carlito Fuente a special Opus X cigar shaped like a baseball bat.  These cigars were made for Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs, who has been involved in various charitable ventures with the Fuentes in the Dominican Republic and this cigar is presently on display in the store, along with autographed photos of the winning display, and of Carlito Fuente and his sister Cynthia Suarez. 

There will soon be released another special Fuente presentation called the “Cigar in the Bottle”®.  This is a special bottle of  Grand Pommier Brandy with a Forbidden X in a glass cylinder coming up from the bottom of the bottle.  To find out more about this product, visit www.cigarinthebottle.com. 

Because of our special connection with the Fuente family, one of these bottles will be made available to Smoke N’ Sticks to be used as part of a fund raiser for the  Fuentes’ Cigar Family Charitable Foundation. 

This foundation was created by the Fuentes and Newman families (Cuesta-Rey, La Unica, etc.) to finance the building of a school, medical facility, sports complex and recreational center on 23 acres of land adjacent to Chateau de la Fuente, as well as a new water filtration system for the people who live in Caribe in the Dominican Republic.  This is their way of giving back to the community and to the people who work for them.  For more information on the foundation, visit www.cigarfamilycharitablefoundation.org. 

As an authorized dealer of Atoll cigar cases, we have also received several of the limited release Atoll Opus X cigar cases.  These cedar-lined cigar cases, made of Italian leather, have a hardwood cap with the Opus X logo, and contain 3 Opus X cigars.  With only 999 of each of the three finishes of these cases being made for the entire country, we were fortunate to be able to get several for our customers. 

See our 5 7 PHOTOS page for pictures from Larry’s trip.