Artisanal Cigarette Brand
Hestia natural “cigs”
United States
Hestia is boxed in a bright-orange package with a Lichtenstein-like design on the front and one of a dozen literary quotes from the likes of Hemingway and O’Hara on the back. (Technically, these cigarettes are actually cigars, since the company refuses to use the all-white fire-retardant papers required to be branded a cigarette.)
The ideal Hestia customer is the smoker with discerning tastes, the type who prefers a small-batch whiskey made in Brooklyn to a Bud Light or a handcrafted Etsy phone case to a Chinese-made hunk of plastic.
“I’m targeting people who already enjoy tobacco and are looking for a purer alternative,” explains product creator David Sley. Hestia products (named for the Greek goddess of the hearth) are made from 100% additive-free all-natural tobacco.
His goal, he added, is simply to do for tobacco what small-batch producers of whiskeys and heirloom tomatoes were doing around the country.
Sley says pack-a-day smokers find his brand “too strong” and aren’t really his market, but those who “just smoke when they drink” are a key demo. Despite their affordability — two packs sell for $10 online — Sley compares his cigarettes to a craft liquor, insisting that he wants to “identify with a higher end market” than the competition.
More information: www.hestiatobacco.com