Who is Vance Taylor and how did you get into the cigar industry?
I was a late bloomer and didn’t smoke my first cigar until 16 years ago when I found out my (now) ex and I were pregnant with our first child. I was instantly in love (with both cigars and fatherhood 🙂) and proceeded to nerd out on cigars, their history, tobacco, the industry, the online and in-person communities - all of it. In 2015 I volunteered to work the cash and carry table for an ashtray company at IPCPR and as a result met Luj (RIP, brother) who had a small, boutique cigar brand he was making at Artista in the DR. Fast forward past several trips with Luj to the Dominican Republic, and many years of expanding my network in the industry, and I knew that my future involved building a cigar business with purpose and passion. During all of this time, and up until a year ago when I “burned the boats” and exited corporate America, I was working in health tech, where I helped triple the annual revenues of my last company before taking an early exit in order to, at long last, pursue my dream. I launched the business, Stoic Cigars, Inc, in June of 2024 with our first product going live in November.
What does Stoicism mean to you and why did you decide to name your cigar brand after this philosophy?
I’d stumbled upon this philosophy a couple of years ago when I came across the book “How to Think Like a Roman Emperor” by Donald Robertson. I thought I was getting another book on leadership and self-improvement (which it is) but came away with so much more. A new perspective on how to not only deal with the natural challenges of life, but to embrace and leverage them. In its simplest definition Stoicism is the practice of living in accordance with nature. Not nature as in “the environment”, but rather the nature of man, the natural order of the universe, and all of the things, good or bad, that happen beyond the bounds of our control. I applied this way of thinking and living to my cigar brand, because to me, there is so much synergy between the practice of stoicism: mindfulness, meditation, reflection, etc. and cigar smoking, with its innate ability to slow you down, give you time to pause, reflect, work through, and come to a place of acceptance with, all of the things going on in your life.
How much of the Stoic philosophy can cigar enthusiasts see/feel/experience in your brand?
Hopefully our customers experience a solid, introductory level exposure to Stoicism by engaging with our cigars and brand. It’s a fine line between planting seeds of thought for cultivation and consideration, and being preachy/self-righteous in your tone and story. My hope here is that by engaging the brand and gaining a cursory understanding of what Stoicism is and where it came from, customers might begin to invest some of their valuable cigar smoking time diving deeper into what it means to live stoically, ponder some of the ideas captured in the 4 key virtues of Stoicism: Wisdom, Courage, Justice and Moderation (which correlate to the 4 sizes of each core blend from Stoic Cigars), and gain increasing levels of peace of mind, confidence and alignment as a result.
How did you decide on Klaas Kelner’s factory in the Dominican Republic?
This is a great story because it possesses a level of serendipity that leaves you with a fun, “meant-to-be” impression. When I decided to exit my position at my last company and pursue this project, I booked a flight to the Dominican Republic and started reaching out to factories. I had high hopes for one specific factory, but, not wanting to put all of my eggs in one basket, I also scheduled to meet with as many other potential partners as I could in the 2.5 weeks I was there.
The keys for me were:
- I had to be responsible for, and hands on with, the creation of the blend from the start
- A partner who was consistent and passionate about quality control
- Knowledgeable about, and with access to, the highest quality tobacco available
After securing all of my meetings and shortly before I left, I spoke to an industry friend of mine about what I was doing and he told me I should really try to see Klaas Kelner while I was there. I didn’t know how to contact him so I reached out on Instagram. I didn’t hear back that day and forgot about it until a couple of days later, one day before I departed for Santiago, when he responded and suggested a quick video call to talk about my vision. We found an open day on my itinerary and blocked time to meet, smoke and blend. Klaas and Kelner Cigars, S.A.S checked all of the boxes for me and I got that clear sense in my gut that this was the place where Stoic Cigars needed to be made. Klaas and his family have become great friends and incredible partners and I often think about all of the circumstances that had to line up perfectly for us to have even met and found each other in the first place. The one point of praise I’ve received from every single person who’s smoked Stoic and offered feedback is “the construction is flawless”. That’s all Klaas. He’s obsessed with quality.
What is your methodology when it comes to blending? What do you look for?
Being so new to this process, it would be pretentious (and, frankly, dishonest) to claim I have a system or “methodology”, per se, but what I can tell you is that I do have a keen awareness of balance and apply most of my focus there. Of course we want to get the strength right, and flavor profile right, but none of that matters if the blend falls out of balance. I think anyone who smokes our initial blend will tell you that it’s complex, flavorful and easy to smoke, because, although we’re using 7 different tobaccos in the blend, they don’t fight with one another, and come together so harmoniously to create the full-flavor profile we wanted. This was a complex and sophisticated undertaking for my first attempt at blending a cigar. I had come across a really unique tobacco from an undisclosed country in South America and fell in love with it for its uncommon brightness and acidity. I was determined to use it but found it really touchy to get right. The smallest tweak to any of the 5 tobaccos in the filler would throw the whole blend off. It was such a great learning experience for me and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.
What have been your favorite moments of creating a new brand? And the hardest?
Hands down my favorite part of the experience has been the response and reaction from people who don’t know me and smoke my cigar for the first time. (I say people who don’t know me because I know their responses are unbiased and genuine). It’s so rewarding and fulfilling to know that you created something that’s bringing joy and pleasure to another human being. Wow. Of course I’d imagined and hoped for that experience, but, similar to becoming a parent for the first time, you don’t really get it until it happens to you.
The hardest part has been something else everyone tells you about but you don’t fully appreciate until you’re dealing with it, personally. That would be the supply chain and product coordination challenges in the industry. One of the allures of the cigar industry is that it’s still very “old world” in many ways. It can help us slow down and return to simpler, less techo-chaotic times. But this charm, when it bleeds into the business operations realm of our industry, can be a real challenge. I think it’s more about learning and getting in sync with the cadence and flow of our industry. I’m getting there, but it exists in such stark contrast from where I came that it’s taking me a lot of time and tolerance to adjust.
Talk to us about some of the ways that Stoic Cigars is innovating in the industry.
We have grand ambitions for contributing new innovations to the space. At present we provide a slick little web app that allows customers who smoke our cigars to automatically log the cigar they’re smoking in a digital journal, earn reward points, climb the leaderboard, and exchange points for Stoic gear, by entering in the unique ID found under the main band. They can also log any non-Stoic cigar they smoke in this journal and always know what they smoked, where they smoked it, how they personally rated it, etc. This is version 1 of what will continue to grow in value innovation for the cigar community and we’re excited to be bringing something else in addition to affordable, super premium cigars, to our industry.
What are 3 things that most people don’t know about you personally?
Haha… well…let me just make sure none of these are security answers to my bank accounts
- I was born and raised LDS (Mormon), which was NOT conducive to forming the foundation of a future cigar manufacturer, (though I’ve managed to overcome that, I think.)
- I have 3 beautiful, teenage, children and a Bernese Mountain Dog named Daisy.
- My gorgeous MUCH better half, Nicole, is also a cigar smoker and will be increasingly active in the business as we scale up. Right now she’s graciously working a “real job” to help pay the bills while I pursue my dream. I’m blessed and humbled by the remarkable people in my life who have supported, are supporting, and will support me on this journey.
Is there a question that you’ve always wanted to be asked? If so, I’d love to hear the answer as well!
Haha this is a great question. You should write interviews and questionnaires for a living! I don’t know if there’s something I’m dying to tell, really, but I do think a fun question for this specific interview might be “what did you want to be when you grew up?”, and/or “what did you go to school for?”. It would give readers a good idea of how far away many of us landed from our original visions for our lives 😂
As for me.. in grade school I was convinced I was going to be an astronaut. As I prepared for college I thought: law school and the airforce (keeping astronaut as a slim, but viable possibility). As fate would have it, I climbed so quickly within the company where I worked while going to school that I dropped out in year 3 and focused instead on accelerating my career.
How would you pair your debut Stoic blend? Any favorites or variations depending on the vitola?
I hate non-answer answers but I’m going to do it anyway.. it’s such a versatile cigar because of the flavor complexity that I’ve had really great experiences with it in a wide range of pairings. I love to smoke the Courage (5 x 50) in the late morning, pre-lunch window with my second americano. There’s a bright acidity in there that goes really beautifully with a good cup of tea as well, if that’s your jam. As for spirits I’ve smoked the Wisdom (7 x 48) most often with Bourbon or Rye. I’m more of a Rye guy myself, but a less spicy, more caramelly and/or fruit forward bourbon does pair better with this blend in my opinion. There’s a small batch bourbon I got as a wedding present in 2023 called Frank August that has a really distinct and delicious note of green apple that really plays well with the Stoic blend.
What can fans of Stoic look forward to in the next 12-18 months?
We have so much in the pipeline for growth in 2025! We’ll be releasing a new, slightly darker blend this summer that will join Stoic as a core line, available in the 4 existing vitolas. We also have planned a really exciting release for PCA 2026 that will add two new blends to the portfolio and really round out our core offering. I don’t want to overwhelm retailers with a whole bunch of new blends, LEs and exclusives, so we’re planning to build slowly and with intentionality, supporting our retail partners in acquiring new, regular customers and providing an unbeatable smoking experience.
Also, go to www.stoiccigars.com and click on “Account” in the top right to access our web app. There are a bunch of cool updates underway now and more to come for the Stoic base online.
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