By Mona Sandefur
Mon Oct 26, 2009, 01:19 PM CDT
From Perdomo to Acid to 5 Vegas and Gurkha, cigar smokers now have a wider selection from which to choose.
The Smoke Break owner Cindy Schmechel said the cigar humidor officially opened on Friday inside the store, located at 601 W. Main St., Benton.
“This is a first for Franklin County,” she said. “We have opened the first walk-in cigar humidor in the county.”
Her husband Dan said many items have been added to the store since it opened on Sept. 1
“We had 99 products on Sept. 30 and are now up to 330,” he said. “We expect to do the same thing with the cigars. Cindy will be expanding the line to include a range of humidors for cigar smokers.”
Schmechel said that until the humidors arrive in the store customers would receive a humidification disc with their purchase.
“Cigars are like a fine wine and get better with time,” she said. “Optimum humidity for a humidor is 70 percent. When we sell cigars, customers receive a humidification disc and a ziplock bag to store them in when they get home. All you do is soak the disc in cold water, dry the outside and put it in the ziplock bag with your cigars.”
She said the roll your own variety of cigarettes has tripled since The Smoke Break opened its doors.
“I am pushing people more toward rolling their own cigarettes and have even depleted the distributor of rolling machines because it is becoming so popular,” Schmechel said. “I have also expanded my cigarette line but will not stop there.
“The next thing to stock shelves will be blends of pipe tobacco,” she said. “I will be setting up a blending bar where customers can select their own blends of tobacco and buy the blends by the ounce.”
Schmechel said she is still taking customer requests for more items for the store.
“I am trying to track down a particular brand of snuff for some of the people who work at the Galatia mine,” she said. “Since I opened the store, people have been giving me a lot of great comments. Folks say they are saving time and money because they were having to drive to Carbondale, Mt. Vernon or even St. Louis to get smoking supplies they wanted.”
Dan Schmechel said customers seem to flock to Cindy.
“People seem to just love her,” he said. “She takes the time to talk with them and all of them comment about how knowledgeable she is about the products she offers. People compliment her, saying the services The Smoke Break provides are excellent.”
He said he anticipates the store would be pretty well stocked in another six weeks.
A grand opening has been scheduled for Nov. 16.
Hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For more information, call 435-3333.
