Episode 183 - Lee Marsh of Stolen Throne Cigars

You're listening to the only place on the internet that offers the perfect blend of high quality premium cigars and cryptocurrency news and commentary. Welcome to cigars and crypto. Now here's your host, Invest New York. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to this episode of cigars and crypto. Let me tell you, it's been a very, very, very, very long time since I put out a podcast, right?

I've been looking at different things to talk about doing my research. All kinds of things going on right now and markets, all kinds of things going on right now in the cigar industry. And I was at an event. At cigar sessions in Middletown, Delaware. And I ran into this gentleman. This guy blings some of the best boutique cigars. You have ever smoked in your fucking life.

I guarantee you. Okay. He is Lee, Marsh, and he is with stolen from cigars. Lee, how are you, sir? What's up, dude? I'm doing great. Man. Thanks so much. I don't know if I deserve that introduction by appreciate it. Trust me, man. Look, I happen to go into the lounge that day only because I had a friend who was looking for something that I knew was

there. And I don't really, I'm not on Facebook as much as I should be. So I did not know that there was a stolen from event. I walking, I see you and I see J.R. And I see a wall of stolen from I thought I was going to fall out of my shoes. I was elated. When I walked over to the table and I saw the

call to arms Corona, I thought I was going to die because I've had it once before, right? And that is that Vatola is my preference, right? That six by 46, six by 48, that range is the perfect kind of rapper to filler ratio for me. And I just knew I said, Lee, please, man, please come on. Please. Please talk to me. Please educate me. Please enlighten

my listeners and the consumers about one of the best boutique brands ever created stolen thrones. So don't worry about the intro, brother. Believe me, when I tell you, it is well deserved. It is well deserved. I appreciate that, man, for sure. I'm happy to be here. Awesome. So let's jump right in, man. I want to talk a little bit about you and what you do for

stolen thrones. And then I want to talk about stolen thrones. And I'm going to talk about the fantastic stolen thrones lineup. So let's start with you. Tell me about yourself, Lee. Well, you know, I'm originally a Baltimore boy. I was born and raised there. You know, and we're now in Virginia now. We've been in Virginia for about eight years. And that's obviously where stolen thrones had

quarter with and all that. So really for me, man, like, cigars have always been a passion. It started as, you know, like what we did Saturday night, man, like that's like my favorite thing in the world. I was hanging out with people shooting the shit and smoking cigars, you know. And, you know, it just kept building and building. And I say it all the time, like

this fire got lit, you know, the first time that, you know, I ever went to a factory and went through a tour and like saw the whole process. I just became enamored with it. And as I, as I continued to grow and all that kind of stuff, I was like, man, I could do this. I could do this. And we always say stupid shit like that.

Like everyone always thinks that like, hey, I could do that. Like with no understanding of what that is or how that part of it is to do. Like we always, like I don't know if it's our burvato or whatever. We always think we can do it. And it ended up in a shit time. We're working. I expected. But, you know, here we are. You know, that's

actually a great story, man. You'd be surprised. How many people say they can do it versus how many people actually try to do it? Versus how many people actually do it, right? It's one thing to say that you're going to do it. But the motivation, the dedication, the consistency, right? The wherewithal to do it is what separates so many people from their dream. So to know

that you, you, you got enamored with the process, especially on the factory tool, man. Factory tours like my favorite thing to do. I love that, man. I love just smelling tobacco. I love to see fermentation. I love to see the rollers. I love to see the craft because, you know, handmade premium cigars are not like Philly Blunts or Dutch masters, right? No. They're not machine rolled,

you know, it's an art to it as well as a science, man. And so shout out to you, man. Congrats to you. For going out and saying, I'm going to make a long lasting impression on the cigar world and doing it. Kudos. Thanks, man. And I tell you a point, man, I, I still get fired up. Like I like, you know, there's something romantic about it,

right? From the farms to the factories to everything, to the whole process fermentation, you know, the sourcing that belongs and all that kind of stuff. Like to this still now, man, here we are, you know, the Roas factories are going to be going up and running nonstop, you know, every time I'm in Nicaragua and stepping through that front door, I still feel the sense of excitement

of going in there. Like it, like to your point, it's, it's craft. It's a process, you know, and, and for us. And I, I mean, you were there Saturday. There's another guy that's super aspiring and like I gave him the honest of voice, like I told you, man, just do it. But do it the right way, right? You know, I was lucky enough to be raised

by an older generation that had a different mindset of how you apply yourself and the shit that you're supposed to do, right? And if you're going to do something, you do it right. And, and so there's no such thing as being halfway pregnant, right? You either are your not. If you're going to, if you're going to do it, you got to do it. And you got

to educate yourself and put yourself in a position to fail early and often and kind of learn and really apply. This is something that you want to do. And it is, man, it's a shit ton of work. Like we talked the other day, like, and a lot of it is the unknown, unknown. It's like I could, man, I had no concept. Of the amount of time,

effort and work that he was going to take. I knew what I was willing to put in. I was willing to do it no matter what, but like, it's a lot. It's a lot, but it's, it's rewarding to meet people like you and to have the events like we had Saturday and just spend time with people like that's what it's all about. And, and do it

and seeing both sides of that, right? It's super, super cool for me. Yeah, man, shout out to Pat of the owner of cigar sessions in Middletown, Delaware. Good dude. Yeah, man, I would tell you, he makes me work harder than any other shot owner. I got so many texts and I told him I was like, man, don't ask me to do an event for a while.

I love you, but like we're done for a while. Yeah, man, he's a real good dude, man, shout out to Pat. Absolutely. Absolutely. So, you know, during our conversation, one of the things that you said that really resonated with me was blending. And we talked a little bit about the blending process for creating a beautiful cigar, right? Tell me what it's like, like a day in

the life of the blender for stolen thrones. What, what does that look like? I mean, a lot of it to be honest with you is, you know, there's periods of everything, like everything has a season, right? When we first started out, and we were sourcing, you know, tobacco, we weren't really producing our own stuff yet, and didn't have really a catalog of inventory of stuff we

kept on hand. We were buying as we needed storing it, obviously, in no abundance, because we were producing cigars. A lot of it is creating that mental catalog in those notes and like becoming familiar with it. You have transforming, meal agriculture and also joy of organizationizing, taking advantage of that hearing feature. And being a professor, I believe in typing out your perfumes to specialist older folks

to fit into that range, to create the needs of those sure you have access to the type of kulls you can achieve with the product that you have available. It's all relationships, man, your farmers, your suppliers, and where you're getting the tobacco from. And that's where they really were, where it starts, and then knowing that tobacco, getting super familiar with it, like understanding notes, and nuances,

and dexterities, and what complexities you can get from this or that. And then it's trial and error at that point. And it's like the finishes and building upon that. But it's kind of like, if you've ever had an experience with or heard anyone talk about the process of glass blowing. Like glass blowing is such a super energy required craft, because you can, you know, you work

so hard and you build this thing and it's beautiful. And then at the final moment when you're like eating it and tempering it for the last time, it shatters and explodes. And then you got to start all over again. Right? Like that's the same process. There's been like, we talked like the three kingdoms are our most recent release in November of last year. That's like our

took me three years to create. Because I don't know. It's you never know what I'm one of those people were when I'm blending a cigar. I'm not trying to be myopic. I'm letting the tobacco dictate where it goes. I don't know it. When I see it, I know it when I smoke it. I know it when I feel it. And I just could, I just couldn't

get there. So constantly restarting and rehashing and restarting and rehashing. And like, so it is that trusting the process, allowing the tobacco to dictate your creativity and kind of pushing it that way. But it's a lot of like I said, man, like the biggest thing is just trial and error. And then once you have the blend, here's the biggest thing that conceptually I had no concept

of like whatsoever when we started. The amount of work it takes to keep things consistent. Like, you know, you picked up the called arms, everyone you smoke to stay exactly the same as to perform the same way. Like that is legitimately the hardest part. I used to tell people all the time. When I first started going to Nicaragua, 100% of my time was just fucking around.

Just messing with tobacco, doing all this, all the cool shit. Now like 80% of it is just sorting tobacco, checking tobacco, making sure the consistency, rebending to make sure the, the blends of each cigar stays where I needed to be. All those things. And like 20% of fucking around. Right? So it's like, it's a lot of work because the consistency for me is what's really, really

important. Like we get, we're super lucky to get enamored with all the beacolades and the support. What really means the most to me is when someone comes to me and say, you know what I love about your product? Every time I pick up a solar-themed product, I know what it's going to do. I know it's going to taste the same. I know it's going to perform.

And I know that I'm getting my value. And like, I think I'm going to be able to do that. Like, that's what means the most to me. And because to me, that's what a brand should do. Right? If you think about a brand that you go to, whatever it is clothing, shoes, cars, it's what, it's the reputation of that brand that you feel comfortable with. If

it's a radic, you're probably not fucking going back to that brand every day. So, you know, it's as much as the cool and romantic and creative process of it, the consistency, the consistency is what's king. Yeah. You know, man, that's actually a great segue into our next topic of discussion. And I've been chomping at the bit to get to it. Right? Because you said some buzzwords

there that had me fucking going, right? You said, you say, call the arms. You said, cookin' a crown. You said three kringles. Now like, I fucking ready to smoke. Right? So, let's jump into stone. I'm gonna throw. So, okay. You guys have a fantastic fucking product. And everyone that I have ever picked up has always burned well. It was always extremely well constructed. It always delivered

as promised every single time. Now, one of the things that Pat said to you when we were there, why don't know if he said it to you or someone setting next to me? He said, and he looked at me, he said, don't take smoke to every single thing that's in that humid door. Right? I smoke a lot of fucking cigars. Right? I really, really, really, really

like stolen thrones. Right? I really like stolen thrones, like a lot. And so, when I saw you, I was like, yo, I've got to talk to him. And I've got to have other people learn about stolen thrones. Right? But then it hit me. Fuck, if he comes on to show him people start listening, they're gonna start buying and fuck up and I won't be able to

get him. That's beside the point. Not gonna be selfish. You know what I mean? It's not fair. Right? We got to see it. That's a hell of a side. So tell me about stolen thrones, the stolen thrones lines. Right? What cigars do you guys currently put out? So stolen thrones essentially, man, if you want to get at the meta, what the brand is, it's essentially our

journey through tobacco. Right? Like we, we've always been cigar and we've been hearing junkies for the boutiques, smoking what's new, what's different, learning conceptually, just taking in everything we can. And really, you know, we have the crook of the crown, which is the baby. Everyone's always gonna go back to the crook because it got us here. Right? There's people that don't know who I am or

stolen thrones, but they know they like the crook of the crown. And I'm cool with that. It's never, like the brand was never supposed to be about me or J.R. It was always about the process and the product. Right? And so the cigar took off, like meteorically, like it was insane. I had, in a million years, I could have never could, like thought that that's how

it would go. And then we followed it up with your favorite the called arms, which was a complete 180 from what the crook is. And that was by design. Right? Like I always told people like, my biggest fear as a blender is I never want to be predictable. I never want to be that guy where you try and use the guard from us. You take the

band off and you're like, yep, that's a stolen thrones, you got like fuck. Right? Right. Right. Right. Like so. Um, and then, you know, we have the three kingdoms, which is our Ecuador and Habano that came out just in November of last year. I just, I guess it's almost a year ago now. Um, and again, just a completely different product, completely different experience, especially in the

Cuban princess. Busado like, so realistically, man, like what you're experiencing is just our journey, and you know, and it's kind of like we're getting a little bit braver with the guards that we do now, because, you know, you're getting your foot wet. And then you're like, okay, we'll do people understand what I'm trying to produce. And are they, they see where I'm going. And then, you

know, the feedback just like, answers some more, okay, let's do this, let's do that. You know, so the three, you know, the three kingdoms was kind of. And then, you know, I'm going to do a big ode to like a passion project because I'm a huge obanogai and we didn't have a obanogai. But also like, it was probably the biggest challenge in our my career to

this point because like I told you, it took me three, four, ten years to do it. So, you know, with, with the crook, the call and three kingdoms, you're getting drastically different experiences. But like you said, they all fall in that over arching standard of quality that we have. You know, and I'm going to say, and the good thing is, Noel and I have created such

a process for maintaining that quality, right, and pushing forward. And that doesn't mean that, like, it's a natural handmade product. That doesn't mean something bad's not going to happen because it does. As much as it's still keeps, so much as it keeps me up at night, it happens. And it's, it's impossible to get to zero, right, in terms of failure rate. I, I want to try.

I push it. But you know, I've got to say, I'm not going to be able to do that. You know, there's only so much you can do. People are human, you know, but really as, as the brand grows, you know, we, you'll probably see another offering from us. Maybe next year, we, we, we, we're getting rid of our limits now. So we're getting all our limits

out. The pan and queen will be coming. If we, if we, if we stop getting hurricanes. And those of you who are listening right now, did you just hear what Lee said? He said, they may be releasing something next year. Yeah. I mean, go. It's all, you know, it's one of those situations where. You know, I get that question a lot. Like when's the next thing?

I said, well, I don't know. I mean, the, the tobacco tells me the scars tell me when they're ready. And so when they're ready, it'll be out. And I, but I'm, I'm anticipating a new. Regular productions of our next year. So with that being said, you know, all things are suddenly changed, but that's, that's probably where we're headed. Because we wanted to take this year to

get back to normal, fulfill the demand that we already had for regular production and, and get some of these limited editions that people have been hearing about. We've been teasing for years. But because of the pandemic, we had to shift our focus. Right. We, like, you know, for me, you know, the way we approach business and you'll get this from Pat is we're about partnerships. It's

not transactional for us. And so when, when COVID happened, I couldn't in good conscience decide, all right, let's push out these super limited cigars. No, like we need to help our retailers stay in business. And how do you do that? Give them product that they sell every day. Right. And that's why we kind of delayed these limited editions to this year and they're part of next

years. Just start getting that off and then because once we got back to a pseudo normal, whatever normal is now regular production schedule. And we're going to be able to get back to normal. And kind of working through the debacle that COVID created as far as logistically. Yeah. And now it's time to kind of open the flood dates of creativity again. So what we've always been

working. I mean, don't think we ever stopped. I never stop unfortunately. So yeah, I would say that there's a good chance. You'll see another regular production release from us next year in 2023. That sounds beautiful. Look at what time. And I'm looking forward to trying it. So, you said something that really resonated with me just now. And I'm not, I'm going to swing back to that

because I need to hear this. What LEDs do you have out? Tell me what they are. And then if you will be so kind, tell me where I can find them because I have desperately been looking for these limited editions. And I don't know where to get them from. So you're going to be very upset with me. So to the, so, so, to this point, we've

been doing one shop exclusive. So once they're out and they're gone, they're gone. The only, the only recurring limited edition we do is the Argos. And that's a project for animal rescue that benefits every cigar, a dollar from every cigar soul goes directly to rescues. So we do that with a shop out of, went out of Melothea, Virginia, right outside of Richmond called Winston's. We do

that twice a year. The Argos are killer cigars. We do that twice a year. We do it in August. And then we do it in February. And we do the Corona in February, what you like, the 6546 Pigtail Corona. We do that in February and then August, we do a tour of the other things we've done for like cigar federation, like the Oath taker and war

council. We've done a lot of these, you know, one stop limited. So for us, when we talk about being boutique, like the day before, we do the same thing. Let me go staring, we can't let anyone get incapable. Let them get sucked up to a single shake. And I walk in and I can't do those sports without them. You got so many men in it and

most of them are like, we're going to keep going. We're on a couple of ceaseless ees and sort of six months later. Now the Phantom Queen is kind of a kind of shift from that, right? So the Phantom Queen is going to be a naturally released product. It's still going to be one and done, but it'll be available in all of our retail stores nationwide. So

you have, I mean, as long as you're quick to pull the trigger, you won't have a problem finding it in the location. And then we'll be doing the throne room reserve, which will probably come out next year. Which will be a vertical product, meaning that we're going to make all the cigars at the same time. And over time, we're going to release them. Batch by batch

year over year until they're gone. So every year, they'll be a little bit older sitting in Nicaragua in the aging room and then until they're gone. And that actually came from we were talking about the Saturday someone was talking to me about it. And that actually I got that idea actually from pin hook bourbon and rye they started doing a vertical release. And then the same

juice is a little bit older. And I was like, that's a really cool idea. So that's the plan. We're going to do that. But yeah. And then so you'll always see these spot ups. But if you follow us on Instagram and Facebook, you'll always be able to kind of figure out what we're doing. And find out we do a really good job at making sure people

know and are aware of what's going to happen. Because we know these limits because they're relatively small numbers compared to what we do elsewhere. So we know that they're going to sell out with liquid. And we want to give everyone a chance to grab them. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I'm going to be pre-ordering from Pat. Right. Yeah. Cause that's a good idea. Look, bro. Now that

I know the names, I'm going over there tomorrow. I'm going to lay up here. This is 500 dollars, bro. Like, oh, that for me, dog. Because when he's come out, I need him. You know what I mean? Yeah. They're going to go. So the fan and queen for sure. I mean, we've been teasing that for a while. That's been done. It was, the scars were done

about two years ago. And then, you know, COVID hit. And then we just, we just felt like it wasn't the right time to do that kind of thing. You know, and so everybody already created this buzz. Cause we've been talking about it. We've been handing it out events. It's like if you was, you know, feedback and kind of get everyone excited. And for those that don't

know, it's a full body Connecticut. Right. It's an Ecuadorian Connecticut over a Mexican San Diego binder and on a Corral Lumpur. So it's super rich, super full, super spicy. It's really intense. And a little story about that, like, we like challenges, right? Like JRI, neither of us really enjoy Connecticut, hugely. And we were like, well, what if we can make one that we really like. And

so like, that kind of started the ball rolling on that. So JR put together, you know, this was this passion project. You know, I was too busy doing other things and he ran with it. It's a super killer cigar. Yeah. I think people really like it. It's going to go fast, right? Like I expected them to be gone within the day they hit the selves. You

know, but yeah, man, we, you know, we'll keep pushing it out. And like I said, you know, you we do our best to keep everyone in the loop of what's coming next and where it'll be. So just make sure you're following us on Instagram and Facebook. Our website will be coming soon where that's actually in development, finishing up now. Cause I know people are going to

hammer me about swag, which they've been doing for months. So we'll be doing swag jobs on the website and all that kind of stuff too. So always trying to improve the process, always making sure that the people that care and want to be involved and support us can, can get all the information and all the access that they, they require. Now Lee, I want to take

a moment to thank you so much for joining me today for teaching me and teaching my listeners today for educating us and introducing some of us to the stolen Throen's brand. So tell people where we can find you in stolen Throen's online. You mentioned your socials. Yeah, that's the key spot right now. First of all, man, don't say thank you so much for your time. And

I'm glad to be here. I'm always willing to chat and cut it up, man, I can talk about the ship forever. But yeah, you're right. The socials are the big spot. We were super interactive. Feel free to message us if you're having a hard time finding a retailer or we're asking questions. Like please reach out. We love to interact. We will drop the new website. It

should be done sooner rather later. I don't have an interactive map for retailers. You know, it'll keep you up the date on all the new drops. Swag and product. We're going to have some really, really cool stuff there as far as productions and media stuff like that. So there's a big plan for the website. But for the next few months, I'm going to be doing a

lot of stuff. For now, I mean, feel free reach out to us on Facebook and Instagram. We love to hear from you. Outstanding. Ladies and gentlemen, Lee Marsh of stolen Throen's cigar. Sir, thank you so much for your time. I really do appreciate it. Yeah, thank you, man. Thank you.