PCA: Tell us a little about yourself and your company Howard g cigars.
Howard Gumbs, Jr.: I’m from Orlando, Florida, and my background is in sales and marketing. I started smoking cigars about 17 years ago. I became a regular at Corona Cigar Co. headquarters store on Sand Lake Road in Orlando where I met a lot of influential people, including the great Avo Uvezian. Over a few years, Avo and I shared countless numbers of cigars and stories. In fact, the most impactful story was one evening when we were sitting outside at Corona Cigar and Avo said, “You should be in the cigar business.” When I replied, “Why me?”, he said, “Because you love the people like I love the people.” Hence, the seed was planted in my head. A few months later, Avo transitioned to the upper room with the pearly gates and I was honored to be one of the guys to attend his celebration of life.
What’s new in 2025 at Howard G?
This year is our 5th year anniversary. We have a few different projects releasing this year. Our Sampler packs for Black Moses and Magic Stick, and our Five Rings which is three Leon Searcy cigars and two 10fahkine cigars that honors Searcy’s three National Championships with University of Miami Hurricanes and Ike Taylor’s two Super Bowl wins with the Pittsburgh Steelers. We will also be releasing the samplers for The Perfect Round and Black Moses Lanceros in June. And in the fall we will be releasing our 5th year anniversary sticks.
If you could have dinner with any two people (living or dead), who would it be and why?
If I could have dinner with a deceased person, it would be with my father Howard Gumbs, Sr. My dad passed away in 2019, so he wasn’t able to see our name on my cigar company. I would love to ask him a lot of questions and share with him how things have been over the last six years. I got married and my son graduated from high school. We would eat our usual ribeye steak, baked potato and asparagus.
The living person I would love to have dinner with is Ronald Isley from the Isley Brothers. Known as Mr. Biggs, he has been my favorite artist, who has paved the way for so many legendary musicians to follow. Even though I met him before I would love to have dinner and deep-dive into his story and what was happening in his life when he was creating legendary albums for more than 65 years.
Describe your ideal cigar smoking experience.
My ideal smoking experience is after a nice meal with family or friends, to light up a Black Moses paired with a nice scotch or cabernet with light jazz music in the background.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
I have been blessed to have numerous older friends who love to impart knowledge to me. Nothing sticks out more to me than what my mother has been telling me my whole life: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.” Proverbs 3: 5-6 .
– Photo courtesy of Howard G Cigars.
This story first appeared in PCA The Magazine, Volume 2, 2025. To receive a copy of this magazine, you must be a current PCA member. Join or renew today at premiumcigars.org/membership.