The Corporate Cigar Gift: What to Send Clients, Partners and the Team

A corporate cigar gift solves a problem that a fruit basket never will: it gets used in front of other people, and the person who sent it gets mentioned when it does. The way we build a company list is in three tiers, and the first tier starts with a single well-made object from our cigar gift sets and accessory sets, ordered once for every name. The second tier is a box for the accounts that mattered most this year, and the third is one piece for the relationship that made the year.

What we see across our own business customers is that this is a recurring, budgeted purchase. It is placed once a year, usually by one person on behalf of a firm, and it has to work for a list where nobody is certain who smokes and who does not. That last point decides most of what follows, because the right answer for an uncertain list is an accessory, and the right answer for a known cigar smoker is a box with his name on the card.

Why a corporate cigar gift works, and when it does not

Most year-end business gifts disappear within a week. A cutter, a lighter or a leather case does not. It lives in a pocket or on a desk, it gets used in company, and it carries the giver's name every time it comes out. That visibility is the whole case for giving something from this world rather than another bottle. The second argument is consistency: a list of twenty people can receive twenty of the same object, in the same box, and every one of them reads as a deliberate choice rather than a catalogue order.

Where it does not work is simple. A box of cigars goes only to an adult you know smokes them. If you are not sure, you send the accessory, and you lose nothing by doing so, because the cutter and the lighter are the pieces a cigar smoker uses every single time and a non-smoker still keeps on the desk. Everything on this page is sold to adults 21 and over, and we will tell you plainly if a choice does not fit the person you describe to us.

The short answer: one list, three tiers

Tier	Our pick	Why it fits	Price today
The whole list	Brizard and Co Elite Series 2 cutter, Croco Black	Flat enough for a pocket, double guillotine, a leather inlay that reads as jewelry rather than tooling.	$130.00
The whole list	S.T. Dupont Slim 7 lighter, black lacquer	A torch flame from a Paris house everyone on the list has heard of, refillable and serviceable for years.	$295.00
The whole list	Brizard and Co Show Band 3 cigar case, Dakota Black	Three cigars protected in black leather. The case a man carries to the dinner you invited him to.	$230.00
Key accounts	Zino Platinum Crown Series Barrel Gran Toro, box of 10 tubos	Ten cigars in individual tubes, so the box can sit on a desk for months and still be right.	$456.50
Key accounts	El Septimo Botticelli Salomon, box of 20	A grand Costa Rican figurado from the Sacred Arts Collection in a box that gets opened in front of people.	$600.00
Key accounts	El Septimo Sacred Arts Van Gogh gift box: ashtray, cutter and lighter	The complete desk set in one presentation box. Nothing to assemble, nothing to guess.	$731.00
The one relationship	S.T. Dupont Le Grand Cling, black and palladium	Twin soft flames and a torch in one lighter, built for cigars, kept for twenty years.	$1,895.00
The one relationship	Maccarrone Amalfi 75-count humidor	An Italian handcrafted humidor that becomes the piece of furniture the gift is remembered by.	$3,850.00

Tier one: the whole list, one object, ordered twenty times

The first tier is where most of the budget goes and where most of the mistakes happen, because the temptation is to spread it thin across twenty different things. Do the opposite. Choose one object that works for anyone who smokes a cigar, and order it for every name. Our starting point is the Elite Series 2 cutter in Croco Black, a flat double guillotine from Brizard and Co with a spring release and a leather inlay, rated to a 52 ring gauge. It is the piece people pick up off our counter and turn over in their hands, and at $130.00 it sits comfortably inside the per-person line most firms give us.

If the list is senior and the budget allows a step up, the S.T. Dupont Slim 7 in black lacquer is the lighter we send. It is a torch flame, so it works on a terrace as well as in a lounge, it is refillable and serviceable rather than disposable, and the name on it needs no explanation to anyone. We keep the whole range of cigar cutters and torch lighters on hand, so if you want a different finish for a particular person, we can match it without breaking the set.

The third option in this tier is the leather case. A Brizard Show Band holds three cigars and goes into a jacket pocket; it is the gift that arrives at your own dinner or your own golf day in the hands of the person you gave it to, which is a quietly satisfying thing to watch.

The picks from all three tiers, with live prices. Every piece is in stock and can be gift boxed.

Tier two: key accounts, the box that gets opened in front of people

For the handful of clients and partners who shaped the year, the gift moves from an object to a box, and the box has to be one you would be glad to see opened at a table of people you know. Our first choice is the El Septimo Botticelli Salomon, box of 20, a 7½ by 58 figurado from the Sacred Arts Collection, rolled in Costa Rica and medium to full in body. Our own tasting note on it runs to espresso and earth up front, then cocoa, aged leather and dark wood as the Salomon opens up; it is a cigar that rewards an evening rather than a coffee break, which is exactly the signal a key-account gift should send.

We stock El Septimo deeper than anyone else we know of: more than a hundred El Septimo listings are live on our site today, and dozens of lines are available by the box, so if Botticelli is not the right fit we can match the person to the line. The full range is in our El Septimo collection, and every box can be presented with a handwritten card.

If you would rather send cigars that will keep on a desk for months without a humidor, the Zino Platinum Crown Series Barrel Gran Toro, box of 10 tubos is the answer. Each 6 by 60 cigar is sealed in its own aluminum tube, Zino Platinum is Davidoff's modern luxury line, and a box of ten reads as generous without being excessive. And for the account where you want to send the whole desk rather than the cigars alone, the Sacred Arts Van Gogh gift box puts a torch lighter, a guillotine cutter and a porcelain ashtray in one presentation box, so the gift is complete the moment it is opened.

Tier three: the one relationship that made the year

Every list has one name at the top. For that person the gift is a single object that will outlast the relationship it marks, and there are two we would choose between. The first is the S.T. Dupont Le Grand Cling in black and palladium. Le Grand is the S.T. Dupont built for cigars: two soft flames and a torch in the same piece, the lacquer and palladium of the Paris house, and the sound of the lid that people who own one recognize from across a room. We are an authorized S.T. Dupont retailer, and the S.T. Dupont collection we carry runs from the Slim 7 to Le Grand, so the whole list can be drawn from one house if you prefer a single signature.

The second is a humidor, and for a gift of this weight we send Maccarrone. The Amalfi 75-count is handcrafted in Italy, holds a working collection rather than a token one, and becomes the piece of furniture the gift is remembered by. Our Maccarrone humidors go up from there in count and in marquetry, and if the person already owns a humidor, a limited edition from the same house is the version of this gift that does not duplicate what he has.

Executive gifts and client gift ideas when you do not know who smokes

This is the question we are asked most, and the answer is the accessory. A cutter, a lighter or a case is right for anyone who smokes cigars and is still a handsome desk object for anyone who does not, so it carries no risk on a mixed list. Cigars themselves go only to adults you know enjoy them. If you do know, and you want help choosing, our Cigar Finder narrows the whole shop to a short list in four questions, and we are happy to do the same by phone for a list of names.

For executive gifts specifically, the S.T. Dupont pieces are the ones that need no explanation in any boardroom, and the Maccarrone humidors are the ones that get photographed. For broader client gift ideas, the Brizard cutters and cases give you a consistent presentation across a large list at a sensible per-person cost. We wrote a separate guide to the closing gift for a single client, and another on what to give from you, the team or the company to your boss; this page is for the list.

Presentation, the card and the name on the piece

A business gift for men is judged in the first ten seconds, before anything is lit. Every piece on this page can be gift boxed by us, and every box can go out with a handwritten card in your words rather than ours. Personalized designs and custom messages are available where offered; the details are on our customization page, and we will tell you which pieces take a name cleanly and which are better left as the maker finished them.

If the list is large, keep the presentation identical from the first name to the last. Same box, same card stock, same wording with the name changed. The consistency is what makes twenty gifts look like one decision, and that is what a company gift is meant to look like.

Timing a corporate order

Company lists are the orders we most want to see early, because they are the ones that need to arrive together. Tell us the headcount, the per-person budget and the date you need the gifts in hand, by phone or by email, and we will confirm what is in stock in the quantity you need before anything is charged. For a list that mixes tiers, we will pack each tier separately and label it so nothing gets handed to the wrong person. If you are also sending a few of these to the people who ran the deal on your own side, our guide to the holiday cigar gift by occasion covers the office and the stocking as well as the client.

Every set above is in stock today, with live prices.

The short version

Build the list in three tiers. One object for everyone, ordered as a set: the Brizard Elite Series 2 cutter or the S.T. Dupont Slim 7. A box for the key accounts: El Septimo Botticelli by the twenty, or Zino Platinum tubos by the ten, or the Van Gogh desk set. One piece for the relationship that made the year: Le Grand, or a Maccarrone humidor. Keep the presentation identical, write the cards yourself, and give us the headcount early.