If you like the Cusano 18 or the Cusano Corojo cigars as I do, then you have two guys to thank.

Two Guys Smoke Shop in New Hampshire.

The Fall issue of Smoke Magazine has a condensed version of the story. Michael Chiusano, the man who developed the Cusano line and branded it with an easier-to-spell-and-pronounce phonetic version of his family name explains, “I thought I was just going to make 50 boxes and send them to my customers in the investment business as sort of a thank you.” That’s not how it turned out, fortunately.

Michael, prior to creating one of the hottest cigar companies around, worked as a money manager for Shearson Lehman and later started his own investment firm. Cigars were a hobby and diversion for him, not a business. Then, on a trip to the Dominican Republic in 1995 to help set up financing for a sugar cane maufacturer, Chiusano was given a locally made cigar as a gift by a family member of the plantation owner. The tobacco for the cigar had been grown on spent sugar cane land, and processed in their own factory. Michael smoked the cigar a few days later and was amazed at how good the flavor and draw was.

He went back to the man who had given him the cigar, and the two worked out a blend that Chiusano liked even better.

When he returned to Boston, where he was living at the time, he brought 100 of the cigars back with him. “My thinking was ‘these are great,’” Chiusano said. “I can give them to my friends and clients. I wasn’t looking to get into the cigar business. I was just making stuff I liked and I was a fan of Cuban cigars. It just happened.” He started handing out cigars using his company letterhead as a cigar band.

One of the friends he gave a cigar to was David Garofalo of Two Guys Smoke Shop, where he bought most of his cigars. Garofalo was impressed, but doubted whether Chiusano could get them in quantity. On Chiusano’s next Dominican trip, he trademarked the Cusano name and brought back 50 boxes of the cigar he had helped develop. “When I returned to Boston, I took David to lunch and showed him a box. He was amazed that I could get it done. I asked if he wanted to sell them in his shop and he said ‘I’ll take them all,’ I said ‘great’ and told him that I had 50 boxes. He said ‘I’ll take all you can make’ and ordered 500 boxes.”

That was 10,000 cigars. From that point, things snowballed.

An editor for Smoke Magazine stopped into the Two Guys Smoke Shop and noticed a large number of boxes of Cusano Hermanos, a cigar he had never heard of before. David talked him into reviewing the cigar for the magazine. He agreed, and the rating appeared in the first anniversary issue of Smoke. Chiusano’s Corona Maduro received the highest rating in that issue, tied with the Padron Anniversario Maduro. The toll free number for Michael’s investment company was suddenly flooded with calls from tobacco shops and dealers interested in ordering the new cigar. More than fifty quantity orders came in over the next three weeks. Remembering how it all started, Chiusano said, “Word-of-mouth support got us going in the beginning.”

A $50,000 investment in the new venture allowed further development. Chiusano also took on a partner, Bill Finley, to act as company director. The investment business was soon left behind as the cigar business continued to grow. This was during the Cigar Boom, and times were good. The established major brand labels like Macanudo were in short supply, and the arrival of a highly rated new cigar that was actually available to ship was welcomed.

“When I started, there were 200 other cigar companies that sprouted,” Chiusano said. “I think I am one of five of those companies that are still in business.”

Now he sells Cusanos in the millions, but he still focuses on what he looks for himself — great tasting cigars that smoke and burn perfectly and sell for a very reasonable price. “I smoke coronas, which I think are the hardest to get complexity in their blends,” Chiusano said. “If you can make a corona right, you can do anything right.”

To help him do things right, Chiusano works with legendary cigar maker Hendrik Kelner at Tabadom in the Dominican Republic. Kelner is the man responsible for some of the finest and most sought-after brands in the world: Davidoff, Avo, Troya, Paul Garmirian and The Griffin’s. Chiusano met Kellner in 1997 and gave him one of the highest-rated Cusano cigars of that time to sample. “I asked him, ‘Can you make it?’ He puffed it, looked at me, smiled, and said ‘I can make it better.’”

Doing things right has led to a rapid and steady growth for the company. Several of their cigars, such as the Killer Cameroon, are cult classics with devoted followings. Company sales have tripled over the past five years. “We’re selling as much as we can make,” says Chiusano. “We’re making a good product at the right price and smokers appreciate that. This was our plan all along. It’s the momentum that’s taken us by surprise.”

What comes next for the company? “To us, Cusano is more than just a brand.” says Chiusano. “It’s a promise of quality, consistency, and value that we take very seriously. Long term we will not waver from that promise. We will continue to quietly obsess over quality.”

That sounds like a formula for success to me.

Look for a review of one of my favorite Cusano cigars coming up on Friday.