“Emma Viktorsson„

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MB Cigars Ladies adds a new lady, a professional ones. Please read the interview, I found it very interesting.

when did you start to smoke cigar?

It was gradual. The first time I tried a cigar was with friends at a High School Senior party (I was just turning 18 years old), a couple of friends and I shared a Montecristo No. 2. That was in Budapest, Hungary, which was where we lived during my teens. I was not impressed… It felt too harsh. A Cuban Montecristo is in fact smooth and creamy and a good medium plus in body, but maybe I was too young, or most likely the cigar was not of good quality and maybe not aged enough.

My father was in the management team of Swedish Match ever since I was 8 years old so tobacco was no stranger to me… I didn´t smoke cigarettes but I sometimes tried to puff some cigars once in a while but not often.

So when I really started smoking cigars I was 25 years old. I was working for the premium cigar lines of Swedish Match (General Cigar) so with work, events and seminars I was smoking more and more…. I was being trained in premium tobacco and the more I knew about this beautiful product the more I enjoyed smoking premium cigars.

why did you start to smoke cigar?

With my profession it was completely natural… There is no “why,” it was simply natural to do so.

how many cigars do you smoke during the day?

I don´t smoke every day. I smoke I would say three to four days a week. However, during business-trips and event-weeks I definitely smoke every day and then two to three cigars per day. Also, during the process of blending a new cigar, whether Jose Blanco blends, or in the case of Freyja which I blended, then I smoke a lot in one day and every day from Monday to Friday, work-days in the factory. However, during blending it´s difficult to say how many cigars smoke because then I smoke pure grade tobaccos and test blends… Sometimes I just test 4-5cm of one blend if it is completely off, but if another blend is truly great I will smoke the whole cigar… and so on… But in circumstances of no blending, marketing and sales business at the office (well I work from home) and when there are no business-trips or events, then I smoke one cigar per day and only about three times a week. But there are exceptions: last night I went out to dinner with friends and smoked two cigars.

which is the best place you have smoked a cigar?

The best place I have smoked a cigar… I would say two places: First is at a cigar-factory with all the premium tobacco aromas around me, the sound of the chavetas or walking through fermentation-bales… The other great place for is on a boat at sea, everything at sea is just wonderful for me!

 what do you use to cut the cigar?

I like a simple classic double guillotine cutter. A V-cut is also interesting and gives a good draw for me, but in this case I´m a classic girl and I like a classic clean cut.

how do you feel while you are smoking?

As seen above, it all depends on why I´m smoking: during blending I am extremely concentrated and I concentrate on every single note, taste, aroma, stimulation on every mm of my tongue and palate, in the nose on the retrohale – deep concentration and analyzing. I am also very much into details so in this case that care for details manifest. Any other time that I smoke, I also think deeply into the flavor, aroma, complexity, retrohale, stimulation, but in a more relaxed way of course… I like how a cigar feels in my hand, it is fully a wonderful experience with much stimulation. The cigar itself helps the athmosphere as much as the athmospher helps the cigar.

when do you light your first cigar of the day?

Again this depends… When I go to the factory in the morning that´s when I light up, aroud 9 in the morning with water and just a little bit of coffee.

At home I prefer a cigar at the end of the day after a day of hard work, it is then very relaxing.

what is the cigar for you?

I will not mention brands or manufacturers because being in the industry I don´t like to pick favorites. Also, if I choose some cigars then tomorrow morning I will wake and remember “Oh and that cigar! And that one!….!” Etc… But I like many different origins of premium tobacco and many different brands. Yet all in all I love first of all spice in a cigar, that spice that tingles inside the lips and that also manifests in the notes on the retrohale. On the other hand, I prefer when the strength and spice in the nose smooths out and doesn´t stay there too long. Second. I love creamy sweetness such in many well-constructed Cubans and I also love rich sweetness such like a dark chocolate kind which for example shows a lot in a Mexcian San Andres leaf. I need complexity and growth in a cigar to keep my mind busy and interested in what comes next. In body, I like a full body in actual “body” or “flavor-body,” yet in strength I like a medium to full body, sometimes a full one too but not the extra strong ones.

In sizes, I prefer thin ring gauges from a 38 Lancero to a classic 42 Corona…. I choose to not smoke over a 52 ring gauge, although a 54 Toro happens but very seldom. Mostly I moke Corona or Robusto or a Lancero if it´s available. In my line Freyja, I have a Pyramid, I love it! This Pyramid is a 6 and a half inches long cigar that starts off with a 52 ring gauge and grows thinner and thinner… and it really grows in profile. Last night I smoked a Freyja Pyramid and the nub was around a 40 Ring Gauge and extremely rich, the growth from 52 to 40 is a wonderful smoking road!

It was a real pleasure to read the inteview Emma. Thanks fot your time spending to do the interview. Good ashes.

-Massimo Busciolano-

  1. Ago 21, 2015 5:52 pm

    A good interview Emma long ashes to you

  2. Ago 23, 2015 9:10 pm

    Emma has matured into a consummate master of the industry. Her attitude and dedication to perfection is a breathe of fresh air to those of us that are tired of one dimensional cigars. I look forward to decades more of her achievements for my pleasure in cigars.

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