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product. Now his challenge was to
create his own cigars and offer them
through special orders after each
event. The result was the London
Cut line, hand-rolled, bourbon-aged
Dominicans available in a four-cigar
sampler for $50 and in variations
up to a $265, 20-cigar gift box that
includes a fifth of top-tier bourbon.
But there was something else
Brown yearned to create: a quality,
eminently smokable gold cigar. The
idea wasn’t all that new. Other cigar
producers had offered gold cigars that
were really only good as expensive,
glittery souvenirs. Actually trying
to smoke them would have been a
huge disappointment.
Brown was convinced that he could make a true smok-
er’s cigar from pure edible gold, and that’s just what he
did. Of course, even his own technique was flawed at first,
resulting in an off-putting price tag of more than $200 per
cigar at retail, a price he was ultimately able to bring down
by refining his infusion formula.
“At our current price points,”
Brown said, “our cigars are no longer
out of people’s reach. We can talk to
event planners for occasions such as
bachelor parties where 50 dollars or
more is not a crazy amount to pay
for a unique gift to commemorate a
special occasion.”
Today, Cigar Row’s London Cut
and Gold Cut products occupy the
lion’s share of Brown’s attention. Yet
he always finds time to be active as a
speaker and mentor with the Harbor
Entrepreneur Center, a non-profit
training center and incubator for
start-ups and small-to-medium-
sized businesses throughout the
Charleston region.
Now that he’s conquered the cigar market for seri-
ous gold lovers, perhaps Brown might consider creating
a martini-laced cigar with its own catchy name. Maybe
something like the “007.”
Dave Brown, at one time a professional tennis
player, found his true calling when he went to
work at a West Ashley cigar store.
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