Gurkha Cigars and Vrijdag printers (Holland) have recently won an award at the famous SAPPI European printing awards for their execution and printing of the Gurkha Royal Challenge band and box artwork. This prestigious award recognizes the ability to print complicated and multi-process designs, using precision and sophisticated techniques. Vrijdag printers are world renowned for their printing techniques and innovation and look forward to continuing their strong relationship with Gurkha cigars.

Inspired by Gurkha Chairman and founder Mr. K Hansotia, the Gurkha Royal Challenge artwork is based on an ornate design using gold foil and dusting techniques to create a truly outstanding presentation. This cigar has quickly become a staple of the Gurkha portfolio and has established itself as one of Gurkha’s best selling cigars. To match the outstanding artwork, the cigar provides a memorable smoking experience, featuring a Connecticut Shade/Ecuadorian wrapper, that is complimented by a Habano/Honduran binder and Nicaraguan/Dominican fillers. Hand-crafted in Nicaragua, this smooth and creamy cigar has a mild to medium flavor profile with tasting notes of vanilla, hazelnut and sweet spice and has recently been awarded a 91 rating by Cigar Snob Magazine.

The Beach Cigar Group, makers of the super premium cigar brand Gurkha, is proud to announce that they have officially changed their name to the Gurkha Cigar Group, Inc. Effective immediately, this decision was made to re-emphasize the link between the brand and company name.

“This is a natural and progressive move for the company as we link our identity even more with the Gurkha brand,” said Gary Hyams, President of Gurkha Cigar Group. “The new name is also appropriate to further signal the positive direction the company is taking and will be a tremendous help as we position the Gurkha brand internationally.”

The year 2012 is a special year for the company as they celebrate the 125th Anniversary of the Gurkha brand. It was this year back in 1887, at the height of the British rule that colonial soldiers 
began to make their own cigars from local tobacco. The fondness of the British for these legendary Nepalese
fighters inspired them to name their cigars ‘Gurkhas’.

“The decision to announce our new company name was to also made to co-inside with the celebration of the 125th Anniversary,” said Kaizad Hansotia, Chairman of Gurkha Cigar Group. “We are currently working on a very special anniversary cigar to celebrate this momentous occasion, which we will introduce later on this year.” Be sure to look out for more information regarding the celebration of the Gurkha 125th Anniversary.

Gurkha is one of the most famous brands of luxury hand-made cigars. Having extraordinary quality and premium blends of tobacco, Gurkha is known for limited release and rare tobacco products with outstanding and artistically oriented packaging. Considered the ‘Rolls Royce’ of cigars, this super premium brand is enjoyed by many of the world’s elite including members of royalty, military, leading government officials and celebrities. More information on Gurkha Cigars can be found on the company’s web-site: www.gurkhacigars.com or on Facebook: Gurkhacigars Twitter: @Gurkhacigars.

Recently we had the pleasure of sitting down with Gary Hyams, CEO and President of Beach Cigar Group Inc, parent company of Gurkha Cigars. Gary has been in the industry for over thirty years and has held some pretty interesting and diverse positions throughout his storied career. Most recently he was the Chairman of CAO international part of the Scandinavian Tobacco Group, but In the last year he left STG, and decided to take on a new challenge. Gary accepted the position of CEO and President of Beach Cigar Group Inc. in the hopes of building on their current success and taking them to the next level.

The following is an illuminating interview with a man who has spent most of his career studying the industry and working in it. Gary was kind enough to talk with us about his new position with Gurkha, where he sees the company in the market, and where they are headed to next:

Cigar Brief (CB): What do you see the role of your company being in the current market place?

Gary Hyams (Gary): I think Gurkha has a very strong brand name that can target a variety of different consumers. We can position ourselves at different points in the market place because we have a variety of blends at different price points. We have the world’s most expensive cigar with His Majesty’s Reserve and other Ltd lines like the Triad, Genghis Khan and Black Dragon, but we also have brands that are high volume lines at reasonable price points such as Evil, Assassin, Vintage Shaggy and Ninja. Overall, we are always striving to be innovative and create a diverse portfolio with unique packaging.

CB: How would you describe your current lineup of cigars, and its niche in the market?

Gary: As mentioned, I think Gurkha can appeal to a large consumer base because of our variety of blends and price points that cater to all market sectors. Our core brands are all unique, with their own character, and we are placing a strong emphasis on our 3 new brands: Cellar Reserve, Royal Challenge and Seduction, which are all retailer exclusive brands that cannot be purchased online. We did this to further enhance our support for the Brick and Mortar and look to further grow our relationship with these customers moving forward. I also believe there has been a trend in the popularity of cigars from boutique manufacturers. As a family owned business, we look to capitalize on this trend in the marketplace.

CB: What were some of the challenges you faced when you switched from your role at CAO and Scandanavian Tobacco Group to your new role at Gurkha?

Gary: Well I think the first thing is that CAO was originally a boutique company as well but was acquired in by Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG), a large multi national company, so there was an immediate change in the structure and controls in the way that the business was run. My own background is from a private, family run cigar business in the UK, so I am very familiar with the many additional challenges that a small business can face. Certainly, even though CAO was owned by a large corporate entity, I tried to maintain the unique culture of the company. So, being at Gurkha is like going back to my roots in a way and like all things there are many benefits, but also some limitations, as we do not have some of the financial muscle that is available at large, corporate entities. My main challenge therefore is to grow the business without having available some of the huge resources I had become accustomed to whilst working for a large, multi-national company.

CB: Gurkha has been producing what seems to be a large amount of lines each year. Are there plans to keep this pace, or to start to slow down that approach and create fewer lines with a focus on the limited run model that seems to be sweeping the industry?

Gary: That’s a good question because it’s true in that we do have a large portfolio of brands that have evolved over the years. Certainly, one of my immediate strategies has been to rationalize the range so that we can focus more on what I call the core brands of Gurkha. Having said that, we still plan to continue with some of the Ltd edition brands that the company has become famous for, such as the Triad, HMR, Genghis Khan, Warlord, Black Dragon etc, but our volume focus will certainly move emphatically to the core brands such as Cellar Reserve, Royal Challenge, Seduction, Evil, Ninja, Assassin, Grand Reserve, Shaggy’s etc.

CB: This year saw the release of the Wicked Indie a cigar that was hailed as being part of the new East India Trading Company. In that press release you called it the first in the line of the new subsidiary East India Trading Company. Can you explain to our audience what the chief difference is between the Gurkha lines and the new East India lines?

Gary: I think Gurkha is a unique brand within itself, but from a Marketing point of view, we also wanted to have the option of brining out new, innovative brands that did not always reflect the unique Gurkha image. Kaizad was lucky enough to have secured the trademark for the East India Trading Company several years ago, which origins go back to being the first company who were trading in tobacco. We were able to use this as a vehicle for launching new, edgy cigar concepts at very competitive price points, such as the Wicked Indie, which has an MSRP starting at $4.79. East India is allowing us to explore a different marketing strategy to Gurkha, but we are still retaining the focus on the cigar. We plan further extensions from East India Trading this summer.

CB: Speaking of your lines, with the influx of boutiques have you seen a need to adapt or change your business strategies?

Gary: To be honest, I think the emphasis on boutique brands is really helping us. The way the brand has always been marketed has been very special and the packaging and presentation is totally unique. So, we are enjoying the benefits of this trend, but at the same time looking to explore other avenues that the consumer may be driven to in the future.

CB: What is your main approach to creating and maintaining brand consistency and loyalty?

Gary: Well, I think our main focus here is ultimately the product and to ensure we maintain the quality and consistency of each cigar. This is not as easy as it sounds as premium cigars are organic, hand-made products, so there will always be some variation from batch to batch. The challenge therefore is for us is to work with the best factories and to maintain and improve the quality control and performance of the cigars we produce.

CB: What do you want a customer to walk away with after smoking one of your cigars?

Gary: I think the goal for all cigar manufacturers is for our consumers to have the best smoking experience possible and to become brand loyal and obviously come back for more.

CB: Lastly, are there any new projects on the horizon that you can tell us about?

Gary: Here at Gurkha, there are always new products on the horizon, but this year we are working on a very special project for our 125th Anniversary, which the brand celebrates this year. We are sampling and working on the blend and packaging as we speak and are excited about the year ahead. We also have other new products and line extensions in the works that we will reveal at a later date.

I want to thank you and Cigar Brief for your time and support and look forward to enjoying a cigar with you in the near future.

Gurkha cigars are always in my humidor. Ever since I was in college, I always appreciated cigars made by them. The first time I had an Evil was my sophomore year of college. I remember walking into a new smoke shop and seeing them sitting on the shelf. They drew my attention because they had a very unique band. Up until that time, all of the Gurkhas I had smoked had roughly the same band. This one, however, had a very rustic look to it. After I smoked a few in college, I never saw them in another store.

A few months ago, Gurkha released the XO sizes for some of their biggest brands. The XOs are a series of 6” x 60 cigars. One of them happened to be the Evil. A friend of mine sent me one of them that he received and asked me to review it. After sitting in my humidor for a while, I decided it was a good day to enjoy a huge cigar like this one.

This cigar features a dark brown wrapper that is clearly very oily. The oils in the wrapper give this cigar a nice shine. There were a couple of thin veins that ran through this cigar, which I knew wouldn’t affect the burn pattern. The cap was consisted of two layers, both of which sat perfectly flush. The cigar had one soft spot by the band, and the foot was also soft. Other than that, the cigar was very solid. When I first smelled this cigar, I noticed just how sweet the cigar smelled.

Once I lit the cigar up, I was expecting some strong spice, but instead I was hit with a strong woodiness. There was a little bit of spice, but it was very light. Along with the spice came some creaminess. The spice quickly mellowed out and the woodiness and earthiness of this cigar took over.

Once this cigar burned down about an inch or so, the flavor became very toasty with some subtle sweet notes. It slightly resembled sugared toast. The creaminess picked up a great deal as well. As I continued to smoke this cigar, there seemed to be some leather flavors that came out and coated my palate. The light spice started to sit on my tongue also.

As I rounded into the second third of this cigar I noticed just how creamy this cigar was. The creaminess had lightened up a bit, but it was still a main flavor. The woodiness and earthiness remained strong as I continued to smoke this huge cigar. The leather notes also became very robust as I smoked as well.

Once I got to the halfway point of this cigar, there was a little bit more spice that came out. Just when I was getting used to the flavors, I was greeted with a light coffee flavor. Once the coffee came out, I had a bunch of breakfast flavors; the sugared toast, and the coffee.

The last couple inches were pretty much the same as the second third. The creaminess and leather notes were the main flavors while the wood and earth notes were mellowed out. The biggest difference was the spice. The spice came out quite a bit more and led to a strong and full flavored finish to this cigar.

The ash on this cigar was a mix of gray shades as well as brown. The ash also held on for about 2 inches at a time. The burn was a little wavy at first, but it evened out, and stayed even after the halfway point. The draw was very easy and helped to produce a thick light gray smoke. The smoke also gave off a very earthy and woody aroma.

This is one of the Gurkha cigars that I really enjoy. I personally like it best in the toro, but I was given the new XO, so I reviewed this one. The flavors are great throughout this cigar are very good. I recommend this cigar to people who like medium to full bodied cigar. I give this one a 4 out of 5.

Thanks for reading,

Zack the Stogie Man

Well, it was time to light it up. The smoke started off medium in body with a strong buttery toast flavor complemented by a lightly sour peppery finish. Even the smoke drifting off the burning tip smelled fantastic. The ash was a very attractive white color. Towards the end of the first third a nice creamy flavor entered the picture. It did require 1 very minor burn correction after the first ash fell off.

The sour finish faded in the second third and was replaced with a sweet honey finish! This was a welcomed change of pace and I could not wait to see what it had in for me next. In the final third the Black Dragon developed into the spicy cherrybomb that I had expected it to be from the start. The peppery finish increased dramatically toward the end of the smoke.

Overall I was extremely impressed by the Black Dragon. It was nothing like I expected it to be. I thought it was going to be a full bodied, spicy pepper cigar… boy was I wrong! It was extremely complex with sour and sweet flavors trading places the entire length of the cigar. I was alsosurprised to find that this tiny cigar lasted for 45 minutes. Much like the other Gurkhas I have smoked in the past, the Black Dragon leaves a strong buttery flavor coating in your mouth for several hours… so don’t expect to be kissing your significant other for quite some time! Gurkhas are a bit overpriced in my opinion, but if you find a good deal on the Black Dragon… get one!

G.C.