Your Cigar Fantasy

INNOVATION doesn’t always necessarily end up in a good thing, but it is an essential driving force of human nature.

As the saying goes, if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got, so in the never-ending quest to better ourselves, generation by generation, we must always look to innovate.

In a traditional, very old sector like the cigar market, that can be tricky. Things that have been done a certain way for centuries are probably done that way for a good reason. Or are they? Isn’t it laziness to just keep doing something because that’s the way it’s always been done, regardless of whether you’ve checked to see if it really is best practice or not?

At Sautter, innovation means looking for new things to do as well as looking at new ways of doing old things. If something works well, you’d be daft to change it too much, but we’re very aware of that easy trap to do the same as everyone else.

Take events, for example. Cigar evenings tend to fall into a pattern of a cigar or two, combined with a drink for the occasion. There will often be some expertise in the form of either the cigar or drinks maker or both. This is a great formula for a few hours’ fun with like-minded people; but can we up the ante?

How about throwing in some other elements? Do folks want to see and try out accessories and other luxury products? Or would they prefer to sit down and enjoy a first-class meal to accompany their smokes and libations?

The choice, at the end of the day, is down to you, and that’s why we’d like to take this opportunity to ask you to help us formulate future events. What would you most like to see introduced in the cigar market? If you could design your perfect cigar evening, what would it look like? Your thoughts and ideas could help us formulate some really cracking events, tastings, who knows, maybe overseas trips to visit manufacturers across the cigar-making globe.

All of these things take a great deal of planning, financing, staffing and arranging, so we need some notice to get things up and running, but Sautter has always had the appetite to innovate in the cigar space and we will continue to do so.

This also applies to cigars themselves. We are not just reliant on what we are given. Sautter owner Laurence Davis has successfully arranged for his own line of smokes from legendary US producer, Pete Johnson of Tatuaje and these are flying off the shelves. You won’t find them on the website – a shop purchase only, but Mr Davis swears they’re the closest thing to a Cuban cigar outside Cuba he’s ever laid hand or palate on.

There is an increasing possibility of more of these types of collaborations as the traditional cigar market continues to shift, evolve, and take on new shapes. So again, let us know your cigar fantasies – and we’ll do our best to make them come true.