Launch price: $9.97·Less than one good cigar·Instant PDF download
The Southern Gentleman's Cigar Handbook

A tobacco farmer's son on fine cigars

Pay for the leaf, not the band.

Forty-six years of cigars and forty years of reading fine print as a small-town lawyer, from a man who grew up hanging burley in his father's barn. For the man who already enjoys a few good cigars a week and wants to buy smarter, keep them right, and enjoy every one more.

  • The cigars worth the money at every price, and the famous ones that aren't
  • A $40 humidor setup that beats most $300 ones
  • Fix a bad burn, a bitter finish, or a tunneling draw
  • Host, gift, and share cigars like a gentleman
  • Keep the peace at home: smoke without the smell
See the three shelves

LAUNCH PRICEAbout what one everyday cigar costs.

Cover of The Southern Gentleman's Cigar Handbook by Hollis Treadwell, showing a silver-haired man in a leather vest with a cigar in a leather chair by the fire
16chapters
3price shelves, named cigars
7printable pages
46years of cigars behind it
30day refund promise

Every fall of my boyhood ended in a barn

Leaf takes land, weather, hands and time.

Stand in a tobacco barn in Middle Tennessee in late October. The light comes through the gaps in the boards in long yellow bars, and over your head the burley hangs tier on tier into the dark. Hollis grew up in a barn like that, cutting and hanging tobacco by hand with his father every fall.

Now walk into a cigar shop sixty years later. The clerk sets down a cigar with a gold band and a story about a rare harvest, and your hand is already headed for your wallet.

"Leaf takes land, weather, hands and time, and those cost money. A gold band takes a printer."

That's what this book is about: knowing what a cigar's price actually buys, so your money goes to the leaf and the hands that rolled it.

Tobacco leaves hanging to cure in the rafters of an old wooden barn, with long bars of evening light through the boards
One of the illustrations in the book: where the leaf comes from.

What your money is really buying

A few facts that change what you put on the counter.

Chapter 1 reads a cigar's price the way a lawyer reads a contract. Here's some of what it finds.

Under $20

Past about $20, ratings barely move. One reviewer's panel scored 155 cigars in a year, and the average stayed between 88.27 and 88.40 in every price band from under $10 to $20.

Chapter 1, from Cigar Coop's 2025 rankings by price

$9.50 to $13.06

The same cigar, run through each state's tobacco tax: about $9.50 in Florida and about $13.06 in New York. Same leaf, three and a half dollars apart.

Chapter 1, from halfwheel's state tax comparison

24 cigars at $7 or less

Cigar Aficionado's 2025 Best Buys list held 24 handmade cigars at $7 or less, each scoring 87 to 92 in a blind tasting.

Chapter 2, from Cigar Aficionado's Best Buys of 2025

Two wooden rocking chairs on a farmhouse porch at golden hour, a cigar and a glass of bourbon on the side table, pasture and an old barn beyond

A good cigar is an hour you give yourself. This book makes sure you spend it on a good one.

The idea at the heart of Part One

Three shelves, and the right cigar on each.

Every price has cigars that outsmoke their price. Chapter 2 names them, with sizes, strength, typical prices and what to pour, so you buy those every week and save the splurge for a reason.

The everyday shelf

About $6 to $10

The cigars to keep by the box. Easy to hand a friend, good enough that you'll never apologize for them.

The weekend shelf

About $10 to $18

Where an extra few dollars buy real leaf and steadiness, and where the famous names are worth it, and where they aren't.

The occasion shelf

$20 and up

For the wedding, the retirement, the night that deserves it. Buy these on purpose, not out of habit.

Diagram of a three-shelf cigar cabinet labeled everyday about $6 to $10, weekend about $10 to $18, and occasion $20 and up

Prices are as checked in October 2026 and vary by state and shop. The book tells you where each number came from so you can check it yourself.

About the price of one cigar off the everyday shelf.

What the book settles

Five things you'll never have to wonder about again.

Three cigars on a worn wooden table beside a glass of bourbon

1

The cigars worth the money at every price

And the famous ones that cost more than they smoke. Named cigars, sizes and prices on three shelves.

Chapters 1 to 3

A clear gasketed plastic box holding rows of cigars with humidity packs and a digital hygrometer reading 69 percent

2

A $40 humidor that beats most $300 ones

A sealed box, two humidity packs and a hygrometer that reads to your phone. About $33 for the core, about $41 with the calibration kit.

Chapter 6

Diagram of three cigar ends: an even burn, a canoe and a tunnel

3

Fix a bad burn, a bitter finish, or a tunneling draw

What to do on the ninth hole when one side runs ahead, the draw goes hot, and your partner is watching.

Chapter 8

Four older men laughing on a screened porch at dusk, one offering an open box of cigars to another

4

Host, gift, and share cigars like a gentleman

The house box you're proud to hand out, how to offer it, what to do for the man who doesn't smoke, and the manners that matter when another man hands you his best cigar.

Chapters 13 to 15

Two rocking chairs on a screened porch at dusk with a box fan in the window and a lit house beyond

5

Keep the peace at home

Where to smoke so the air moves, and the same-night routine for clothes, house and car so the smell stays outside.

Chapter 12

Diagram of the $40 humidor: a sealed plastic box with cigars, humidity packs and a hygrometer, each labeled
The $40 setup, as drawn in the book.

From Chapter 6

The $40 humidor, line by line.

Steady humidity and steady temperature matter more than the box they sit in. Here's the shopping list from the book, with the exact parts named inside.

Sealed gasket box$12.99
Two 69% humidity packs$8.92
Digital hygrometer that reads to your phone$11.56
Calibration kit$7.65
Total, before tax and shipping$41.12

Prices as checked in October 2026; they vary by shop.

A glass of bourbon and a resting cigar on a porch rail at sunset over a pasture

By the last page

What you'll be able to do

Not a coffee-table book of bands. A working handbook, with the numbers and the sources, by a man who reads the fine print.

  • Read a cigar's price before you pay it, and tell the leaf from the band
  • Keep three shelves of cigars that outsmoke their price
  • Find your cigar in singles, then buy the box from whoever sells it fresh
  • Know plainly what the law lets an American do with Cuban cigars
  • Spot a fake, a dry box, beetles or mold in five minutes
  • Set up storage that holds, and prove it with a calibrated hygrometer
  • Age what's built to age, and put up a box for a milestone years away
  • Pick the right size for the half hour, the evening or the round of golf
  • Taste on purpose, run a blind tasting, and pour the right bourbon with it
  • Host, gift and share like a gentleman, and pass the habit of the slow hour on

What's inside

Sixteen chapters in four parts.

Every chapter opens on a familiar scene, settles one question, gives you the rule, and ends with a short checklist and the lines that tell you when to stop or walk away.

  1. Part One: Buying well
  2. What You're Really Paying ForTax, markup and what a price actually buys
  3. The Best Cigars at Every PriceThe three shelves, with named cigars and what to pour
  4. Buying Like an InsiderBox or singles, shop or online, clubs and lockers
  5. Cubans, HonestlyWhat the law says, plainly, and whether chasing them is worth it
  6. Spotting a Fake or a Bad BoxCounterfeits, dry boxes, beetles and mold
  7. Part Two: Keeping and collecting
  8. A Humidor That WorksThe $40 setup, proving it, and travel
  9. Aging and Building a CollectionWhat improves, how long to rest, and the milestone box
  10. Part Three: Enjoying them more
  11. Fixing What Goes Wrong in the AshtrayTunnels, canoes, tight draws and a bitter last third
  12. The Right Cigar for the Time You HaveFrom a thirty-minute porch sit to a round of golf
  13. Training Your PalateTasting on purpose and the blind tasting night
  14. What to Pour With ItBourbon at three price levels, and the alternatives
  15. Part Four: Life with cigars
  16. Keeping the Peace at HomeWhere to smoke and the same-night routine
  17. Hosting Men at Your HouseThe house shelf, and the guest who doesn't smoke
  18. Manners Worth KnowingLounges, weddings, porches and the offered cigar
  19. Cigars for the Big Moments, and GiftsA birth, a wedding, a retirement, a hard day
  20. Passing It OnSharing an unhurried hour with a grown son or grandson
Every walk-away and stop line in one place 7 printable pages Sources by chapter
Diagram of six cigar sizes from petit corona to torpedo with lengths and ring gauge
Read the numbers, not the name
Diagram of a cigar showing a beetle pinhole, a crack and mold
The five-minute box check
Four men at a porch table writing notes beside numbered cigars at a blind tasting
The blind tasting night
A warm cigar room with leather chairs, a fireplace and a side table with an ashtray and a glass
Hosting at your house

Look inside

Real pages from the book.

Three pages from the book: the Chapter 1 opener, the everyday shelf table with named cigars and prices, and the Chapter 6 humidor opener
Three printable pages: the three-shelf list, the $40 humidor list and the collection log
Seven printable pages to keep by the humidor
Diagram of three gift steps labeled about $25, about $50 and about $100
The gift table, at three prices

Checked, not guessed

Every price, rule and rating comes from a source you can check.

Hollis spent forty years reading fine print, and he cites his work: government rules, the magazines' own blind tastings, the humidity makers' own guidance and current shop prices, listed chapter by chapter at the back.

Cigar AficionadohalfwheelCigar CoopTTBFDAEPABovedaWhisky AdvocateCornell Law School LII

Is it for you?

Who it's for, and who should skip it.

It's for you if

  • You already enjoy a few good cigars a week and learned it piecemeal
  • You want to stop overpaying for bands and box art
  • Your humidor reads 70% every day and your cigars still crack
  • You host, gift or share cigars and want to do it right

Lines the book never crosses

  • Never a cigar for anyone under 21
  • Never drive after drinking, and never let a guest
  • Never carry Cuban cigars home to the United States
A wooden cigar box tied with twine and a paper tag on a sunny porch table

Buying it for a cigar man?

A gift he'll actually keep by the humidor.

For a father, a husband or a friend who already smokes, this is a handbook he'll use every week. And if you're the one buying for him, Chapter 15 has a gift table for what to give a cigar man at three prices.

$25A small, chosen thing
$50A five-pack done right
$100A box he'll remember
Hollis Treadwell, a silver-haired man with a trimmed beard in a chambray shirt and leather vest, seated in a leather wingback chair with a cigar

Meet Hollis

"The cigar is the excuse. The hour is the gift."

Hollis Treadwell is the voice of this book: a tobacco farmer's son from Middle Tennessee who practiced law for forty years at a small-town firm and has enjoyed cigars for forty-six. He reads the label before the band, and he'll tell you plainly which cigars are worth it.

Harlan bought three boxes of a cigar he'd smoked once at a wedding, and gave most of them away over the next two years. Singles first, then the box.

Clyde smoked a box a month of an everyday-shelf cigar for years, and never once apologized for it.

Hollis Treadwell is a pen name, and the stories in the book are composites. The facts aren't stories: every price, rule and rating comes from the sources listed at the back.

Launch price

The Southern Gentleman's Cigar Handbook

$9.97
  • The complete handbook as a PDF
  • 16 chapters in four parts, each with a rule, a checklist and its stop lines
  • The three shelves: named cigars, sizes, strength, prices and what to pour
  • The $40 humidor list, part by part
  • 7 printable pages: three-shelf list, troubleshooting card, box inspection, humidor list, tasting sheets, collection log and gift table
  • Instant download; read it on a tablet, phone or computer, or print the pages

About the price of one everyday cigar.

If this book doesn't help you, email me within 30 days for a full refund.

Secure checkout and delivery through Gumroad.

Questions

Straight answers.

What exactly do I get?

The complete handbook as a PDF: 16 chapters in four parts, a chapter collecting every walk-away and stop line, seven printable pages, and sources by chapter. You download it right after checkout.

I've smoked for years. Will I learn anything?

That's who it's written for. It skips cutting and lighting and goes straight to price, storage, aging, fixing a cigar that goes wrong, pairing, hosting and gifts.

Does it name actual cigars and prices?

Yes. Chapter 2 names cigars on three price shelves with sizes, strength labels and typical prices as checked in October 2026, and tells you where each number came from. Prices vary by state and shop.

Does it tell me how to get Cuban cigars?

No. Chapter 4 explains plainly what the law lets an American do and why a "Cuban" from a street seller is almost always a fake. It isn't legal advice, and the rules change.

Who is Hollis Treadwell?

Hollis Treadwell is a pen name, and the stories in the book are composites. The prices, rules and ratings come from the sources named at the back.

Is this a health book?

No. It's for adults 21 and over who already enjoy cigars, and it isn't health advice. There is no safe level of tobacco use, and the book doesn't encourage anyone to start.

Can I buy it as a gift?

Yes. Buy it, download the PDF and send it to him, or print it.

What if it doesn't help?

If this book doesn't help you, email me within 30 days for a full refund.

An older man and his grown grandson talking on the porch steps of a farmhouse at sunset

The cigar is the excuse. The hour is the gift.

Spend the hour on a cigar worth it, kept right, with the right glass beside it.

Launch price · $9.97