Phillips’s Dominican-made Heaven line is one of five major handmade brands in the relatively small segment of handmade, flavored cigars. She identified Havana Honeys as one of her major competitors, along with Miami Cigar & Co.’s Tatiana, independently-owned Cojimar and the flavours by C.A.O. line.

“I almost think there would be positive impact,” she noted, “since General could be expanding that line. It shows that the big cigar companies have a serious interest and are taking flavors a lot more seriously than they did previously.

“In a way could be good for us. With all of this starting up, there might be people starting to call us and want to be doing the same thing.”

One observer estimated the handmade flavored market at perhaps 10-15 million unit sales per year in the U.S., tiny compared to the machine-made market, but an expanding area for novice smokers and for women.

Phillips noted that her own line, Heaven, offers 14 flavors in two sizes with two additional sizes available in five different flavors. “We never thought we’d get past 10,” she said, “but people just kept asking for others.” Most recently, the Heaven line added two flavors: Mojito Madness and Mango-Licious. “Mojito Madness is doing really well,” Phillips explained. “We got lucky with that one, it was one of those shower thoughts that turned out well.”

Phillips started the Heaven line in 2000 and has been a tireless promoter of the brand, drawing attention not only with her wild flavor range – how about Chocolate Thunder, Angel’s Spice, Orange Dreamsicle or Aphrodite’s Amaretto – but also a variety of promotional programs. She struck a chord with cigar retailers and with trade show attendees for using young women attractively attired in white dresses and white wings (the Heavenly Angels, get it?) and the concept was quickly copied by others.

With just a handful of staff in her Naples, Florida headquarters, Phillips now has distribution for her brand across the U.S., Canada, almost all of Europe, plus Australia and the Caribbean.

A correction in case you missed it:
Some readers in Europe and the eastern U.S. may have seen our story on the Havana Honeys acquisition by General Cigar on Monday mis-displayed because of a coding error. In its incorrect form, it read that General was acquiring Cojimar and Heaven, which is not the case.

The error was corrected as soon as we knew about it and we apologize for any inconvenience. The “news” even reached Phillips.

“We had a laugh about it,” she said. “When one of our staff called and was worried about it, I said I checked our bank account and there was no more money in it today than there was yesterday.”