Cigar Weekly

Rion · 01-25-2007, 10:48 AM

I have had a few people ask me about the Gorilla Fingers
Here is the Sizes/Flavors and history

Gorilla Fingers come in Two sizes and 3 Flavors.
5x60 "Thumb" Natural Wrapper
5x60 "Thumb" Maduro Wrapper
5.5x44 "Ring" Maduro Wrapper

The history of the gorilla finger:

H. Bolz Was invited to play course #4 at Cog Hill one Thursday afternoon in May of 1997. After the round of golf his golf partner took him to a local bar & grill for a great burger and a couple of glasses of cognac. After lunch the friend pulled out a leather cigar case and two cigars "Cuban Montecristo No. 2's" JH was not an avid cigar smoker yet, but he was hooked after that experience. That same week he bought his first humidor and began reading up about cigars & the industry. By November of 1997 JH was in the cigar business, he bought a small 800 Sq. Ft cigar store in Elgin Illinois. In the summer of 1998 JH was sharing ideas with a friend one afternoon and Gorilla Fingers was born. Experimenting with a bundle of free samples he received, the 5X65 dark black maduro cigars (they looked like gorilla fingers) were not the most sought after (size) cigar in the industry at this time, however the binder, filler and wrapper on this cigar was pretty good quality, so they spun some ideas of what to do with them and decided to try flavoring them with cognac. Experiment after experiment, JH finally mastered a unique and consistent way to age them in cognac. The process of starting with quality tobacco and superior cognac was unlike the competition who would spray bad tobacco with cheep cognac and try to sell them to the public. JH began making 20 Gorilla Fingers at a time but this would soon change as the demand for this cigar grew and other sizes were requested. He had to begin a serious production, as the process of making them took a minimum of 30 days. Many glass jars were needed and 4 new sizes were added to the line up, JH was tripping over glass jars but loved every minute of it, in 2001 JH decided to move his store to a better location in downtown Elgin, where he had better parking, and a larger store & store front. He continued on with business and even launched a web site called GorillaFingers.com JH faced one problem with the gorilla fingers online business, he realized after making up a batch of all 5 sizes of Gorilla Fingers and packaging them in their individual humidor bag (Lars Tetens Style) he realized that the cigars would lose their flavor a bit... unlike the flavor you get when you personally pull them right out of the jar at his store, this was a big problem for JH and not wanting to ruin the name of the cigar and his secret process he decided to pull the web site down. He continued to sell the gorilla fingers out of his retail store and began plotting a way to fix the non consistent flavor problem (for online sales), not to mention the problem he was having with his distributor (delivery and back order problems) he knew he could not have this if he went online to the world, so he decided that a trip to the Dominican republic was due. JH needed to find superior quality tobacco and a manufacturer that could provide all his sizes and enough of it on a consistent basis. Six weeks away from his trip to the Dominican Republic, in through his door walks the President of Midwest Distribution for Lars Tetens... the famous Hendrix Hoecker (one of Lars best friends). As a big fan of Lars Tetens, JH enjoyed the conversation with Hendrix and obviously cigars soon became the topic of discussion. Smoking a complimentary Happy Cuba #3 from Hendrix, JH offered Hendrix one of his famous Gorilla Fingers. Hendrix enjoyed the cigar very much and listened intently as JH began talking about the Gorilla Finger production problems. This is where it all started... JH asked Hendrix if Lars could provide the tobacco and Hendrix said "let's call Lars". That same evening, one thing led to another and after further discussion we decided to form a strategic relationship & incorporate the Gorilla Finger Name & Cognac aging process with the Lars Tetens famous conditioning process, super premium tobacco & aged Courvoisier that Lars has access to. After several meetings in regard to the binder, filler, Wrapper, Draw & Cognac. Lars put a blend & infusion together that is out of this world and the draw? Well... Flawless! With tobaccos aged from 3 to 8 years this Ecuadorian, Dominican binder & filler wrapped up in a beautiful African Cameroon maduro wrapper is one of the greatest cigars Lars Tetens has ever produced. He even pre cut each cigar so it's ready to enjoy right out of his state of the art humidor bag that each and every cigar is gently placed in. We decided to come out with a 5X60 size to start, with more sizes to be added soon. Compared to other super premium cigars on the market, this cigar is a super value when you consider everything involved and the process in which this cigar goes through to finally get on to a shelf in your local cigar store. When you pick up a Gorilla Finger by Lars Tetens you will know you are truly smoking something extraordinarily and something that a lot of care and preparation went in to.

Here is a quote from the Lars Tetens book "Lars on Gars" which simply, like no other way describes a Lars Tetens designed cigar.

The cigar is mystical. It cannot be described by words. It must be experienced. It is the evolved essence. It gives without taking.

01-25-2007, 10:48 AM	#1
Rion Starting Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: St. Louis Posts: 20	Gorilla Fingers I have had a few people ask me about the Gorilla Fingers Here is the Sizes/Flavors and history Gorilla Fingers come in Two sizes and 3 Flavors. 5x60 "Thumb" Natural Wrapper 5x60 "Thumb" Maduro Wrapper 5.5x44 "Ring" Maduro Wrapper The history of the gorilla finger: H. Bolz Was invited to play course #4 at Cog Hill one Thursday afternoon in May of 1997. After the round of golf his golf partner took him to a local bar & grill for a great burger and a couple of glasses of cognac. After lunch the friend pulled out a leather cigar case and two cigars "Cuban Montecristo No. 2's" JH was not an avid cigar smoker yet, but he was hooked after that experience. That same week he bought his first humidor and began reading up about cigars & the industry. By November of 1997 JH was in the cigar business, he bought a small 800 Sq. Ft cigar store in Elgin Illinois. In the summer of 1998 JH was sharing ideas with a friend one afternoon and Gorilla Fingers was born. Experimenting with a bundle of free samples he received, the 5X65 dark black maduro cigars (they looked like gorilla fingers) were not the most sought after (size) cigar in the industry at this time, however the binder, filler and wrapper on this cigar was pretty good quality, so they spun some ideas of what to do with them and decided to try flavoring them with cognac. Experiment after experiment, JH finally mastered a unique and consistent way to age them in cognac. The process of starting with quality tobacco and superior cognac was unlike the competition who would spray bad tobacco with cheep cognac and try to sell them to the public. JH began making 20 Gorilla Fingers at a time but this would soon change as the demand for this cigar grew and other sizes were requested. He had to begin a serious production, as the process of making them took a minimum of 30 days. Many glass jars were needed and 4 new sizes were added to the line up, JH was tripping over glass jars but loved every minute of it, in 2001 JH decided to move his store to a better location in downtown Elgin, where he had better parking, and a larger store & store front. He continued on with business and even launched a web site called GorillaFingers.com JH faced one problem with the gorilla fingers online business, he realized after making up a batch of all 5 sizes of Gorilla Fingers and packaging them in their individual humidor bag (Lars Tetens Style) he realized that the cigars would lose their flavor a bit... unlike the flavor you get when you personally pull them right out of the jar at his store, this was a big problem for JH and not wanting to ruin the name of the cigar and his secret process he decided to pull the web site down. He continued to sell the gorilla fingers out of his retail store and began plotting a way to fix the non consistent flavor problem (for online sales), not to mention the problem he was having with his distributor (delivery and back order problems) he knew he could not have this if he went online to the world, so he decided that a trip to the Dominican republic was due. JH needed to find superior quality tobacco and a manufacturer that could provide all his sizes and enough of it on a consistent basis. Six weeks away from his trip to the Dominican Republic, in through his door walks the President of Midwest Distribution for Lars Tetens... the famous Hendrix Hoecker (one of Lars best friends). As a big fan of Lars Tetens, JH enjoyed the conversation with Hendrix and obviously cigars soon became the topic of discussion. Smoking a complimentary Happy Cuba #3 from Hendrix, JH offered Hendrix one of his famous Gorilla Fingers. Hendrix enjoyed the cigar very much and listened intently as JH began talking about the Gorilla Finger production problems. This is where it all started... JH asked Hendrix if Lars could provide the tobacco and Hendrix said "let's call Lars". That same evening, one thing led to another and after further discussion we decided to form a strategic relationship & incorporate the Gorilla Finger Name & Cognac aging process with the Lars Tetens famous conditioning process, super premium tobacco & aged Courvoisier that Lars has access to. After several meetings in regard to the binder, filler, Wrapper, Draw & Cognac. Lars put a blend & infusion together that is out of this world and the draw? Well... Flawless! With tobaccos aged from 3 to 8 years this Ecuadorian, Dominican binder & filler wrapped up in a beautiful African Cameroon maduro wrapper is one of the greatest cigars Lars Tetens has ever produced. He even pre cut each cigar so it's ready to enjoy right out of his state of the art humidor bag that each and every cigar is gently placed in. We decided to come out with a 5X60 size to start, with more sizes to be added soon. Compared to other super premium cigars on the market, this cigar is a super value when you consider everything involved and the process in which this cigar goes through to finally get on to a shelf in your local cigar store. When you pick up a Gorilla Finger by Lars Tetens you will know you are truly smoking something extraordinarily and something that a lot of care and preparation went in to. Here is a quote from the Lars Tetens book "Lars on Gars" which simply, like no other way describes a Lars Tetens designed cigar. The cigar is mystical. It cannot be described by words. It must be experienced. It is the evolved essence. It gives without taking.