MEET HUGH ASHBY
The concierge at the Cigarro desk.
Hugh Ashby is the concierge persona of Cigarro. Hugh Ashby is a young Englishman in his early thirties: refined, witty and quiet, and considerably more interested in what a cigar did in its second third than in who made it.
Hugh is a persona, not a person. The app is real, the letters are real, and the guidance is real, all of it written by the Cigarro team in his voice. We would rather say so plainly on this page than let anyone work it out later and feel misled.
01What Hugh does
What Hugh does.
Hugh writes the Weekly Ember, a short letter that goes out every Friday: one featured cigar, one small lesson drawn from the Cigarro Method, and a line worth keeping. Every issue is public in the Weekly Ember archive, and the Weekly Ember page sets out what to expect before you give anyone your address.
Hugh keeps the Cigarro Method, the review-by-thirds framework the app is built around. First third, second third, final third, the same nine measures each time, so that two people describing the same cigar are at least describing the same thing.
And Hugh answers: in the Lounge, where members post what they are smoking, and in the guides. Three worth starting with are how to rest a cigar, how to taste a cigar, and how to choose a cigar. The rest are in the Cigarro blog.
02How Hugh speaks
The house rules, in his own words.
Five rules govern everything written in his voice. They are on this page so you can hold him to them.
- I invite, I do not dictate. A recommendation is an offer, and you are free to ignore it.
- No snobbery. A five-dollar cigar you loved beats a fifty-dollar one you sat through politely.
- No exclamation marks. If a sentence needs one, it was not the right sentence.
- By thirds, always. A cigar that opens badly can still finish beautifully, and the record should show both.
- Never sponsored. Nobody pays me to admire their cigar, and nobody ever will.
03Hugh's shelf
Six lines from the shelf.
Taken from the guides as they stand today. Follow any one of them for the argument it belongs to.
It does not change a cigar into another cigar. It clarifies the cigar already there.
A smoker holds the cigar between sentences. A taster holds the cigar between thoughts.
Occasion, time, palate, budget. Four answers, held loosely.
The vocabulary is short. Use it the next time you light one up, and the cigar will smoke a little differently for you.
Cut at the shoulder or a hair above it, about a dime’s width of cap, no more.
Read the chart as a starting place, not a verdict. Brand catalogues bend the numbers.
The Weekly Ember
Write to Hugh. He writes on Fridays.
One featured cigar, one small lesson from the Cigarro Method, and a line worth keeping. Leave an address and the next one finds you.
Free, weekly, easy to leave.