During the cigar boom of the 1990s, there was a resurgence of women cigar smokers in the United States, and I was honored to be invited to give the very first all-women’s cigar seminar. It was held at the no-longer-existing Dunhill store on Union Square in San Francisco, which at that time carried a wide assortment of cigars, and the event received widespread news coverage.
Seventy-five women showed up for my seminar and the only two men in the store were Michael Pelusi the manager, and myself. It was a great ratio! But the most interesting thing was that there were no soccer-Moms attending. They were all business women and executives. Unlike men, who smoke cigars for pleasure, when asked why they were interested in cigar smoking, the majority of them said it was to put them on an even keel with men in the workplace. “Some of us don’t like to play golf,” one of them told me.
