How to Train Staff to Sell Cigars They Don't Smoke

Most of the servers and bartenders who end up working a cigar case have never smoked one, and they are not going to start. That is fine. The MDC catalog holds 5,960 cigars, and nobody on a floor crew is learning 5,960 of anything. A server needs to answer four or five predictable questions and name three cigars with confidence. That is the whole job. Everything past that is a conversation the guest is happy to lead.

What follows is the training I give new hospitality accounts when the case goes in. It takes under an hour and it does not require anyone to light anything.

What do customers actually ask a server about cigars?

Guests ask five things, in roughly this order: what do you have, what is mild, what is strong, how long will this take, and can I smoke it here. A server who can answer those five without hesitating will handle about nine out of ten cigar interactions at a bar or restaurant. Nothing on that list requires tasting notes or brand history.

The fifth question is the one that gets programs in trouble. Smoking rules are set by state and local law and sometimes by the lease, so the answer has to be exact and the same from every employee. Write the house answer on a card and tape it inside the humidor door. Federal minimum age for tobacco sales is 21, with no exceptions, and the FDA’s Tobacco 21 page is the reference to print and keep in the manager binder.

Question four, how long, is the easiest win. A cigar burns roughly an inch every 15 to 20 minutes, so a 5 inch cigar runs about an hour and a 6 inch cigar runs closer to 90 minutes. Teach that one ratio and a server can steer a guest who has a table waiting.

How do you describe cigar strength without jargon?

Use a three word scale: mild, medium, full. Tie each word to a familiar drink. Mild is a pilsner, medium is a bourbon on the rocks, full is a cask strength pour. Never say “notes of cedar and leather” to a guest you cannot back it up with. A server who says “that one is on the stronger side, most people pair it with a dark spirit” sounds honest and sells more.

The second thing to teach is that strength and flavor are different. A dark wrapper does not automatically mean a strong cigar, and plenty of light wrapped cigars hit harder than they look. Staff who repeat the dark equals strong myth will steer a first timer wrong and that guest never orders a second one.

Size matters more than most people expect. A thicker cigar burns cooler and slower, so a 60 ring gauge cigar is usually a gentler experience than the same blend in a thin format. Across 4,199 cigars in the MDC catalog with recorded measurements, the average comes out at 5.77 inches long and 51.6 ring gauge, which is a useful mental anchor for what “normal” looks like in the case.

What is the difference between a Connecticut and a Maduro wrapper?

Connecticut wrappers are light tan and generally mild to medium. Maduro wrappers are dark brown to near black, aged or cooked longer, and usually read sweeter and richer. Habano and Corojo wrappers sit in between, reddish brown, medium bodied, often a little peppery. Those four words cover the overwhelming majority of what sits in a hotel or restaurant case.

That is the entire wrapper lesson. A server does not need to know the country of origin of the binder. A server needs to look at a cigar, see light or dark, and say something true about it.

Which cigars should a server be able to recommend by name?

Three. One mild and approachable, one medium crowd pleaser, one dark after dinner cigar. Three names, memorized, with a one sentence pitch each. Programs that try to train the whole case end up with staff who recommend nothing. Programs with three house picks sell those three constantly and let curious guests browse the rest on their own.

The average cigar in the MDC catalog measures 5.77 inches by 51.6 ring gauge, and the three picks below bracket that average rather than cluster on it, which gives a server an obvious short, standard, and oversized option to point at.

House pick	Wrapper	What the server says	Size	Pack
Rocky Patel Catch 22 Connecticut Sixty	Connecticut, light tan	"Mildest thing we carry. Good with a beer or a white wine."	6 x 60	22 per box, $148.00
AJ Fernandez Enclave Habano Churchill	Habano, reddish brown	"Middle of the road, the one most people land on. About 90 minutes."	7 x 50	20 per box, $147.00
Asylum 13 Oblongata Maduro 6x52	Maduro, dark	"Our biggest one. Order it after dinner with something dark."	6 x 52	25 per box, $225.00

Swap the names for whatever your case actually holds. The structure is the point. Print the table, laminate it, put it next to the POS.

How do you handle cutting and lighting if the staff has never done it?

Cut above the shoulder of the cap, not into the body, and take off the smallest amount that still draws. Light with a torch or a wooden match, never a standard liquid fuel lighter, and toast the foot before drawing. Ten minutes of practice on two sacrificial cigars from an open box is enough for any server to look competent.

Do the practice with real cigars and let staff ruin a couple. A cigar cut too deep unravels in a guest’s hand, and that is a comp and an apology. Two wasted cigars during training is a cheap way to avoid that. The same session is the right time to show where the humidification device sits and what the hygrometer should read, which is covered in detail on the humidor setup page.

How often does a venue actually reorder a cigar?

Across 1,197 repeat purchases of the same cigar by the same venue in the MDC invoice corpus, the median gap between orders is 113 days and the average is 165 days. That means a typical box moves over roughly three to five months. A cigar sitting untouched past six months is a staff problem or a selection problem, not a demand problem.

Use that number as your training scoreboard. If the three house picks are turning inside 113 days and the rest of the case is not, the training is working and the case is simply too broad. The most common box size in the catalog is 20 cigars, accounting for 37.3% of all cigar SKUs, and packs of 10 or fewer account for 16.7%, so a slow moving slot can be refilled with a smaller pack instead of a full box while the program finds its footing.

What should staff never say about a cigar?

Never guarantee a flavor, never invent a story about the brand, and never tell a guest a cigar is “the best” one in the case. Say what is true: light or dark, mild or strong, short or long, and what people usually drink with it. Honest and brief beats confident and wrong every single time, and guests can tell the difference immediately.

The other hard line is anything resembling a health claim. Cigars are regulated tobacco products. The FDA cigar page and the TTB tobacco page are the primary references for what applies to packaging, labeling, and the federal side of the business. Staff repeat what is on the box and nothing else.

How long should the whole training take?

One hour, once, plus a laminated card. Fifteen minutes on the five questions, ten minutes on wrapper and strength language, ten minutes on cut and light practice, fifteen minutes on the three house picks, and ten minutes on the house smoking rules. Re-run it whenever you hire, not on a schedule.

The MDC catalog runs from $1.00 to $1999.00 per unit, which means a case can be built at almost any price point, but the training does not change with the price. Three names, five answers, one hour. More on building the case itself is on the hospitality page.

Sources and method: figures drawn from the MDC invoice corpus of 24,004 line items linked to products between 2016-04-19 and 2026-10-21, a live catalog of 5,969 active products of which 5,960 are cigars, dimension data from 4,199 cigars with recorded measurements, and 1,197 repeat purchases of the same cigar by the same venue. Regulatory references from FDA and TTB.

If you are putting a case in and want a starting three picks matched to your bar list, tell us what you pour and we will build the shortlist.

Written by Peter Roth. Last reviewed October 26, 2026.