Crafting something that endures takes time and character. You’ll find plenty of both in the people and history that make JM Tobacco.

A birthday gift from a 17 year old to his father, California jeweler John Mahroukian, led to the creation of Los Angeles-based JM Tobacco, Inc. Anto Mahroukian, president of JM Tobacco, delights in recounting the story.

“It was my dad’s birthday in 1994,” Mahroukian recalls. “I bought him an expensive cigar. I don’t even remember what it was, but it cost about $20. He smoked it and he liked it. He asked how much I paid for it, and when I told him, he was shocked.”

John Mahroukian – the “JM” in the company’s name and on its cigar bands – saw an opportunity with cigars selling for such a premium. The elder Mahroukian owned a jewelry factory in the Dominican Republic and told his factory foreman to check out the local cigar factories and ship him some samples. “He found a factory that would make private label cigars for us and my father ordered 10,000 cigars at about a buck each,” Anto recounts. JM Tobacco was born…

Still, John Mahroukian wasn’t quite sure about his pending business venture. “We had a bunch of cigars, but no name and no band,” Anto says. “And my father was a daily cigar smoker. That’s why he’d say after he ordered the cigars that if we didn’t even sell one stick, he had enough cigars for the rest of his life at a dollar apiece.”

“It’s safe to say, it was a wise investment.”