Pictured from left to right: Tony Rawlings, Kerry Knight
What’s the Casa de Sueños story? How did you all get into the cigar business?
Kerry Knight: Our story is one that takes a group of guys who love cigars, and all come from different backgrounds and ethnicities. All of us had the dream that it would be amazing if we could one day blend our own cigars. Ozhen, one of the owners of CDS, and the owner of the lounge where we all meet, was able to set us up with a blending session at the De Los Reyes factory. The rest is history.
Tell us more about the De Los Reyes connection?
Tony Rawlings: Ozhen became an official SAGA cigars lounge which is rolled by the De Los Reyes factory. And over time that became a great relationship with them and they took us on. It was a no brainier for us. The factory is fantastic from the quality of tobacco to the construction and draw. From seed to final product, you can’t ask for a better factory and we are family - we treat each other like that.
Kerry Knight: It was magical from the start working with the Reyes family and continues to be that way.
What was the hardest part about making a blend come together like you wanted?
Tony Rawlings: For me the hardest part would be finding that perfect blend of tobacco that gives you the wow factor. Something that someone doesn't want to put down. With us, we all have similar cigar profiles we want in a cigar so blending a cigar together is not that hard.
Kerry Knight: The hardest part in the beginning was being patient and trusting your palate. All of us from the start didn’t just want to produce our own cigars but wanted to produce something that when you smoke it you don’t want to put it down. We are very lucky to all have similar palates, which makes blending the profile we are going for a lot easier.
What is something that most people don’t know about you?
Tony Rawlings: I think what a lot of people don't know about us is yes, it's a business and you have to make money, but we blend cigars honestly just for people to enjoy. We are called house of dreams and we want people to be able to smoke our cigar and dream about their goals and life and how to enjoy it.
With such a large group behind Casa de Sueños, how hard is it to make sure each voice is heard while making branding decisions? What’s the division of labor?
Kerry Knight: For the most part, we are all on the same page when it comes to making any decision. If for some reason someone is not, then we go by majority. We have never had any problems running our business this way, and we all believe there is nothing we can not all talk about or work through.
Outside of cigars, what other hobbies do you have?
Tony Rawlings: I am a drummer and have been playing since I was 8 years old. I like carpentry work as well, so I do a lot of the projects at my house myself. I am also into watching documentaries. My father always told me that if you know a little bit about everything you can talk about anything, so I look for information and documentaries give me that.
Kerry Knight: It’s not really a hobby, but I do love my exercise. I try to work out 5-6 days a week, and I have done it most of my life. I was a huge fan of Orangetheory gyms before the pandemic. During the pandemic, my wife and I purchased all the different workout machines and weights to make our own home gym.
If our Small Batch family could only know one thing about you and your brand, what would it be?
Tony Rawlings: That we are always going to give a quality product and we are always trying new things. To everyone that smokes Casa De Sueños, I want to thank you for your support. And while you’re smoking a CDS, Dream DIFFERENTLY!
Kerry Knight: We are always working very hard to give our customers the highest quality premium cigars. On behalf of the rest of my brothers/friends/business partners, I want to thank each and every one of you for the great support. Remember to Dream Differently.
What can Casa de Sueños fans look forward to in the next 12-18 months?
Tony Rawlings: Well hopefully in March the Angelito will be released which is our Connecticut blend that we are excited about. There are some other projects we are working on that I can't talk about yet.
Kerry Knight: Hopefully in the very near future we will be releasing our Connecticut blend, “Angelito”. We are extremely excited for this release, just as we have been with our two previous releases. We believe if you like a good breakfast cigar that you are going to love “Angelito”.
We are working on some other projects as well and are always trying to come up with premium cigars that we can be proud of.
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