Reliability, quality and always a perfect smoking pleasure – this is exactly how the Ashtons have secured an untouchable top spot in the cigar world. However, the brand was only launched in 1985 by Robert Levin, president of Holt’s Cigar Holdings. “Just half a dozen orders had been placed and only from our friends,” recalls Levin, who discovered a love of tobacco while working at his father’s cigar store. “Then, as now, our goal is a very intense flavored, aromatic cigar,” his son Sathya adds.
It is fortunate for all cigar lovers that Levin brought his long-time friend Arturo Fuente on board. Ashton cigars have been produced by the Fuente family in the Dominican Republic and by the García family in Nicaragua up to the present day, and varieties from mild to strong are available at a wide range of prices. Only the finest tobacco is used, with a maturation period of up to four years, in French oak barrels. The Ashton VSG is a classic introduced in 1999 and is still a top seller. Incidentally, the name ‘Ashton’ is a tribute to the famous English pipe-maker William Ashton Taylor.