SEPTEMBER 2026
THE EDIT
Made for This.
Time. Invitation. Belonging.
TIME
Coming from emergency services made Chanelle Smith acutely aware of time.
Limited time between calls, time spent preparing for the next place she would have to rush to, and an ever-present understanding that circumstances and lives could change quickly.
That awareness followed her beyond the job.
It made her conscious not simply of having time, but of what deserved it.
Cigars offered an unusual contrast.
They weren't meant to be rushed.
A cigar asked for an hour, sometimes two, and within that time the experience could become almost anything.
AN EXPERIENCE WORTH SHARING
Eventually, Chanelle wanted Rachel to understand what she had found.
There was only one problem.
Rachel hated the cigars Chanelle made for her.
To Rachel, who had never smoked cigars before, they tasted “like trees.” She disliked the aroma and, influenced by her own perceptions of cigar smoking, initially considered the practice somewhat unladylike.
At first, Chanelle did what many of us do when sharing something we love. She tried to make her experience Rachel’s.
The lesson came when she realized that cigars weren’t cookie-cutter. Preference mattered.
Inviting someone into an experience did not require them to experience it exactly as she did. Chanelle stopped trying to make Rachel like her preference and started listening to what Rachel actually liked.
She made the experience lighter. More aromatic. She explored recognizable flavors inspired by Rachel’s preferences and the things she enjoyed pairing. Even presentation mattered. The band should be beautiful. The cigar should feel considered before it was ever lit.
What began as tailoring a cigar to one person revealed a much larger idea:
There could be another way in.
"
It Made her conscious not simply of having time, but of what deserved it,
"
Sometimes it was stillness: headphones, an audiobook, coffee and the luxury of being alone.
Sometimes it was conversation with her wife.
Sometimes it was friends, laughter and a game.
And sometimes the cigar itself became the object of attention—the differences in tobacco, region, construction and the seemingly endless variety contained within the craft.
There was no single correct experience.
That freedom became part of what Chanelle loved.
If she was going to intentionally carve that time out of her life, she wanted the cigar accompanying it to be worthy of it.
ANOTHER LANE
Chanelle knew exactly what choosing infusion could mean.
Within cigar culture, infused cigars often carried assumptions about quality. Some smokers would dismiss one before ever lighting it.
She understood the criticism because many of the things traditional smokers cared about mattered to her, too.
Tobacco mattered.
Construction mattered.
Consistency mattered.
Craftsmanship mattered.
What she questioned was the assumption that flavor required sacrificing any of them.
Chanelle describes herself, laughingly, as a “line stepper.”
Raquel became an opportunity to step across this particular one.
The goal was never to convince traditional cigar smokers that they were wrong for enjoying traditional cigars. Nor was it to suggest infusion was the only way forward.
The ambition was simpler:
Create another quality option.
Another lane into a culture Chanelle had come to value deeply.
THE TABLE
Years before Raquel fully took shape, Chanelle and Rachel attended the Premium Cigar Association gathering in Las Vegas.
There they encountered people who demonstrated another side of cigar culture.
Cigar connoisseur, Sheri Jones welcomed them, made introductions and helped them navigate an industry they were still discovering. Chanelle met Stacey Bozeman of Smoked The Collection during that same trip.
Rachel may not yet have known the difference between cigar cuts, but she understood the hospitality.
Years later, those relationships had become friendships.
At a birthday celebration for Stacey in North Carolina, Chanelle found herself sitting among a group of women she describes simply as amazing.
Some were old friends. Others were newer.
Their backgrounds differed. Their stories differed.
Raquel was among the cigars being enjoyed.
And sitting beside Chanelle was Rachel.
"
Chanelle, I loved that. I had SUCH a great time!
"
This time Rachel wasn’t cautiously trying one of Chanelle’s experiments. She was cutting her own cigar.
Lighting it.
Talking.
Laughing.
Connecting.
Chanelle looked around the gathering and recognized something that had been present throughout her own relationship with cigar culture.
The cigars were their vehicle to the table.
They provided a commonality, but the commonality wasn’t the destination. It created the opening through which people could learn everything else about one another.
After the celebration, Rachel got into the car, looked at Chanelle and said:
“Chanelle, I loved that. I had SUCH a great time.”
They talked about the women and the conversations all the way back to their hotel.
Years after Chanelle first tried to bring Rachel into an experience she loved, Rachel had found her own way into it.
WHAT ELEVATES THE MOMENT
That distinction sits at the heart of Every Moment Elevated.
An elevated moment does not require a tailored suit, a beautiful hat, an expensive bottle or an extraordinary destination. Those things can be wonderful, but they aren’t what makes the moment matter.
Sometimes elevation is celebration.
Sometimes it’s camaraderie.
Sometimes it’s a conversation with someone you love.
Sometimes it’s community.
And sometimes it’s being completely alone because solitude is exactly what you need.
The moment belongs to the person experiencing it.
For Chanelle, a cigar is sensory; the aroma, flavor, texture, construction and even the experience of looking down at a beautifully presented cigar in your hand.
If someone deliberately gives an hour or two of their life to an experience, the cigar should contribute something worthy of that time.
Raquel isn’t intended to manufacture the moment.
The moment is already yours.
The ambition is to heighten what’s already there.
MADE FOR THIS
Cigar culture has given Chanelle something she doesn’t want to gatekeep.
It has given her friendships, conversations, community, craftsmanship to appreciate and experiences she might never have encountered otherwise.
She doesn’t believe intimidation, assumptions or misunderstanding should unnecessarily prevent someone else from discovering the same world. Nor does she believe everyone must enter it the same way.
Rachel didn’t.
That was part of the lesson.
There is more than one lane to the destination.
Raquel is one of them.
For the experienced smoker, it is another premium cigar worthy of consideration.
For someone discovering cigars for the first time, it can be another place to begin. What matters is that wherever someone enters, the cigar earns its place.
Years from now, Chanelle hopes choosing a Raquel carries a simple confidence: that the person holding it knows they have chosen something made with quality, craftsmanship and intention.
Then the rest belongs to them.
The conversation.
The celebration.
The quiet.
The company.
The hour they’ve chosen to keep for themselves.
Their time. Their moment. A cigar worthy of being there.
SEPTEMBER 2026 THE EDIT
