An Evening with Gurkha Cigars

Thursday, November 18, 2010 - Chattanooga, TN

Kaizad Hansotia with Burns Manager, Matt Allen

Burns Tobacconist was host last Thursday to Kaizad Hansotia of Gurkha Cigars in one of his very few in-store appearances that he makes during the year. Dozens of customers came out to meet Kaizer (his preferred nickname) and light up a Shaggy, the cigar of the night for the members. Quite a few boxes were seen going out the door, too, as each box purchases got 5 entries into the raffle for the beautiful Triad humidor that was on display throughout the evening. In the end, Tracy Brown, Burns' biggest Gurkha fan ended up winning the humidor and I honestly cannot think of a person who deserved it more.

Special Ops Box with Cigars and Knife

I got to Burns very early in the day (long story) and started off the smoking with one of the new Viper cigars. Although it has been panned by some, I found it to be pretty decent; I prefer the Ninja, though, and had one of those later in the evening. Along the way I got to spend close to 15 minutes interviewing Kaizer about his cigars, his philosophies on luxury items, weapons, single-malt Scotches, and other things. Kaizer is a very interesting person with a wide variety of interests that may not fit into the precise definition most consumers may want to have for a cigar company owner. He comes from a marketing background and has used that experience to shape his cigar company in a way that is unlike virtually all others: unique packaging and presentation that is unforgettable and, at times, audacious.

After the interview I was presented another interesting question from a BOTL on Twitter and decided to ask it as well: "Why so many lines of cigars?" According to one count I found online, there were around 100 cigars that carrying the Gurkha brand in some fashion. Kaizer explained that he was merely catering to the will of a public that was always looking for something new and different. I think this is especially prevalent in the online/catalog cigar business where "new and different" garners the most pages in the catalog or prime ad placement on a site's home page.

I came away from the evening with a different, and perhaps better, understanding of Gurkha Cigars and the man behind them. While his sticks still may not appeal to everyone, there cannot be any doubt that he has a great business sense and a lot of appeal to a wide variety of smokers.