Stolen Throne Interview with Lee and JR

I am pretty happy to land the first interview with owners Lee and JR of the newly launched Stolen Throne cigar brand. Their official launch was June 1 and they are currently available at https://store.cigarfederation.com/products/stolen-throne-cigars?variant=23292854861882 Be sure to check them out! Let’s get a little more info about them and the brand shall we?

So tell us a little bit about yourself/selves. (Background, occupation, hobbies, interest, etc.)

JR: My background is in Supply Chain Management. My wife and I are fans and supporters of the Old Dominion University sports programs. My partner and I are also avid fans and season ticket holders of the Baltimore Ravens. Other than cigars, I really enjoy traveling to other countries.

Lee: I kind of been all over the place. I have lived and traveled all over the world. I am currently in the IT/Project Management field. Like JR, I am an avid sports fan from Baltimore, MD so I love my Ravens and Orioles.

How long have you been into cigars?

JR: I’ve been into cigars for over 20 years. I remember sitting with my brother in-law after work and enjoying a cigar with a brew or two.

Lee: JR is much MUCH older than me lol. But I have been into cigars for a decade or so. I fell in love with the different tobaccos and how flavors marry and really what the smoking experience is. Time spent with family and friends connecting, that’s meaningful. Think about it, when you smoke a cigar, you are most likely at peace.

What made you decide to start your own brand?

JR: My partner, Lee and I would talk about starting our own company when we worked together. I remember how we’d stress the need for a quality, ready to smoke boutique. We wanted a brand that quality was never compromised. And that our passion was reflected in each cigar.

Lee: JR really hit it on the head. As our palates developed along with our passion for tobacco the desire to create something different really started building and never really subsided.

Walk us through the process if you will.

Lee: It was a pretty simple process albeit time consuming lol. Basically once we decided who we wanted to work with we hit the ground running. Sampling tons and tons of tobacco, prototyping, tweaking, so on and so forth. It was the naming of the company and all the red tape and administrative stuff that was cumbersome and difficult.

Tell us about the brand. Does the name have a story behind it? How did you pick a factory to work with?

Lee: It’s a funny story actually. As we have said this has been years in the making. Well someone in the industry, who we won’t name didn’t take too kindly to the idea of JR and I venturing into the business. They made some off color comments to the effect of “there is no seat for you at the table.” Well, me being me I responded with choice words and ended with “I’ll steal one…” Stolen Throne was born. LOL

Working with Noel Rojas has to be a pretty cool experience. Care to discuss that a bit?

Lee: Noel has been great. I can’t say enough about him. He really let us loose and control the blending process which was really important to me. He has so much knowledge and lessons learned to share. We have just clicked and I can’t really envision Stolen Throne being produced with someone else.

Let’s talk about the cigars. (Blends if you want to disclose or not is fine, sizes, price point, etc.)

Lee: The Crook of the Crown is our baby lol. It’s a 10 year aged San Andres Maduro wrapper over Indonesian binder and Nicaraguan fillers.

What can people expect from the blends?

JR: Crook of the Crown is a full-bodied, medium plus strength smoke that offers strong espresso notes balanced with some black pepper spice and rounded out by a subtle sweetness from that beautiful well aged wrapper.

The artwork is really cool. Any story behind the names or artwork?

JR: Coming up with a name was arduous process. We came up with numerous names, but none was appealing. Finally, Lee floated the names Stolen Throne and Crook of the Crown. Perfection doesn’t come easily, lol

Lee: The artwork is all JR. He actually sketched it up on a napkin while we were smoking and a few bourbons deep I believe. lol

Where can they be purchased?

We are happy to announce that Crook of the Crown can be purchased from Cigar Federation!

What can we expect over the next few months?

We have already started on future projects, but our major focus is to continue to get the Crook into the hands of the people.

Anything else you want to add?

We just want to thank everyone for the support as we start this journey, the feedback has been excellent! Thank you Scott for giving us a voice.

Thanks for taking the time to do this. We look forward to watching this journey and experience these cigars. Best of luck to you!

Stolen Throne cigars can be purchased at https://store.cigarfederation.com/products/stolen-throne-cigars?variant=23292854861882