YORKTOWN — Stolen Throne Cigars of Yorktown has only been in business for a few years, but its cigars are making quite a name for themselves.
Debuting at the Premium Cigar Association Convention and Trade Show next week in Las Vegas, the Yorktown Fleet cigar is the newest creation from Stolen Throne Cigars. The cigar is made entirely of Nicaraguan tobacco.
Stolen Throne Cigar began as an outlet opportunity for Lee Marsh.
“I had been really successful in other parts of my life, but it’s one of those scenarios where I wasn’t ever passionate about what I was doing. All my other jobs paid the bills, but I was never enthused to get up and go to work. I have smoked cigars for a very long time and I’ve always been passionate about them. I think for me, it was really the first time I went to the Dominican Republic and saw a factory and a farm that I thought I could do it,” Marsh said.
After returning from the Dominican Republic, Marsh was determined to do something with his new hobby.
“I kept thinking about it and it finally came to a point where I knew I needed to either do something about it or not take any action at all. At that point, I thought that I could do it and I just tried it as a whim. I’m one of those people where I’m either all in or all out. I committed 100% and we never looked back,” Marsh said.
Marsh takes his craft seriously, never putting out a product until it’s completely ready. The company started in 2018, but didn’t launch its first cigar until May of 2019.
Headquartered in Yorktown, Marsh wanted to find a way to honor the rich history of the area with a new cigar.
“We’re in such a historical area that we wanted to pay homage to Virginia with our company. Yorktown was such a meaningful place during the American Revolution. It just came to me about Yorktown and the Yorktown Fleet and it was a perfect storm of an idea to celebrate our heritage,” Marsh said.
Marsh puts his all into each cigar product he puts out. For him, it’s about the quality of the product, not the quantity.
“I compare making a new cigar to the process of making an album. I never know how long it’s going to take, I never know when it will be ready, and it’s done when it’s done. On average, a new development project for us takes about a year and a half,” Marsh said.
While Stolen Throne does not sell directly to consumers, their cigars are available in stores in Yorktown, Hampton, Newport News, and Norfolk. Its website boasts a cigar locator for those interested in trying out the Yorktown company’s products.
Marsh’s passion for cigar making is what keeps him going, even on the tough days. He prides himself on the fact that people are constantly reaching out to him via social media to share what smoking one of the products means to them.
He replies directly to every message that Stolen Throne Cigars receives.
“When people smoke our cigars in meaningful moments, they got a new job or had a baby, or they had a bad day and their time is limited and they want to relax, and they choose ours, it’s an amazing feeling. When people choose to spend their hard-earned money on our stuff as compared to the copious amounts of other options that they have, I take that super personally,” Marsh said.
Never in his wildest dreams did Marsh think that Stolen Throne would take off the way that it did.
“I always believed in what we were doing, but we’ve made such a footprint in the industry in such a small amount of time. To be at a point where I can do this full time for a living, I still can’t believe all that we’ve accomplished,” Marsh said.
For more information on Stolen Throne Cigars, visit stolenthronecigars.com.
