Mobile store treats cigars as an art form

There’s a new art form in Concord.

It’s organic, as handmade as your grandma’s crocheted doilies – and going up in value with every passing year.

Bob Hammel is one of the genre’s biggest collectors. He keeps 300 of the little works of art in his gallery on Spencer Avenue, a quiet street lined with 1940s era bungalow homes and clean-lined rectangular front lawns.

But in Hammel’s world, aficionados would call the gallery a humidor.

And they wouldn’t line up to view the art, but would rather burn each one down to a nub until nothing but ashes remain.

We’re talking about hand-rolled cigars.

Hammel doesn’t create them with his own hands, but he does admire one every night on his front porch. And he thinks if others knew the slow-burning pleasures of a perfectly aged cigar, they would want to join him.

That’s why the 45-year-old electrician by trade launched Satellite Cigar – a mobile stogie store that travels the area, offering cigar tastings to the inexperienced and delivery services to the seasoned smoker.

“Cigars are a lot like wine,” he said, pulling two from his humidor and pointing to a long, thin amber one and a stocky, short chestnut one. “This would be compared to a sweet wine. This would be like a very dry wine in comparison.”

Hammel picked up the habit himself a few years ago while visiting beachside cigar shops on a cigar tasting tour during a vacation.

When he came back to Concord, he couldn’t find the kinds of cigars he liked without driving farther than he wanted. He figured at least a few others felt the same way.

“I knew I couldn’t be the only frustrated cigar smoker here in town,” he said.

While cigarette use has declined in the past decade, loose tobacco and cigar sales have skyrocketed. A report issued last year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention marked a 33 percent decrease in cigarette smoking from 2000 to 2011, but a 123 percent increase in small and large-sized cigar smoking during the same time.

Hammel said there’s a big difference between the kinds of cigars he smokes and the kinds that are found behind the counter where hot dogs and Slurpees are sold.

“You can go into the gas station and get a cigar, but it’s a machine-made version that’s highly processed,” he said. “Hand-rolled cigars are more of an art form.”

Hammel has watched cigar-rollers blend leaves from different regions of the world to create cigars with unique flavors and aromas.

“It’s kind of like a recipe,” he said. “They burn one leaf, just smelling it and trying to see what it will produce when combined with something else.”

In the past, Hammel has shared his cigars – ranging from $3 and up– at local winery and microbrewery tastings. He’s been asked to guys’ night out events, too, and will go pretty much anywhere he’s requested.

By night’s end, new cigar smokers usually know the dos and don’ts of lighting up, and the kinds of tastes they prefer.

Hammel hopes to see more people lighting up on their front porches. A good cigar can take from 45 minutes to two hours to finish.

“It forces you to relax,” he said. “You can rush it and not enjoy it, but you have to set time aside if you want to smoke.”