About me: who is behind the Stogie Den?

Hi! My name is Dennis Kroese and I'm the guy who created the Stogie Den. I live in Louisville, Kentucky with my beautiful wife and two wonderful stepchildren, but I'm actually originally from the Netherlands. I moved to the U.S. in 2004 and lived here ever since - it's definitely the country I want to spend the rest of my life. In fact, I already run a website for Dutch people who want to travel to the U.S. so I can share my love for this wonderful country with as many people as possible.

So why did I decide to create the Stogie Den?

I very much enjoy smoking a good cigar, but when I first got interested in this wonderful and relaxing hobby, I had no idea where to start. I knew nothing about where to get cigars, which ones to get, how to smoke them, how to store them... heck, I was just clueless. But when I turned to the web for assistance, I noticed that although there are many cigar sites out there, very few of them have any kind of structured information on cigars. You really have to search far and wide for tidbits of helpful cigar information, and dig deep.

On top of that, most cigar sites out there are built by companies who are trying to sell you cigars. There's definitely no shortage of sites where you can buy cigars, but there are very few independent cigar sites. That's when I thought: why don't I try to provide the independent help that cigar smokers need? Now that I've pieced together all I need to know about cigars, I'm betting there are lots of people out there - like you - who could use an organized and centralized source of information about smoking cigars. Note that I'm not a "cigar expert" by any stretch of the term! I'm simply trying to share what I learned with other enthusiasts.

Another thing I found over the years is that while there are many great cigar deals and prices out there, it's very difficult to find them. As a "frugal Dutchman", I love hunting for deals, but what good is finding them if you can't share them with fellow cigar enthusiasts? Since I find it enjoyable to peruse many different cigar sites on a daily basis and stumble upon a bunch of deals doing that, I might as well share the best deals with you and save you some money in the process, right?

So why the name "Stogie Den", you ask?

Well, a den is often described as "a room, often secluded, in a house or apartment, designed to provide a quiet, comfortable, and informal atmosphere for conversation, reading, writing, etc." It's here that you can sit down, have a drink, relax and be away from the world. In other words: a wonderful place to smoke a cigar! Besides that, my first name Dennis is sometimes shortened to "Den", so that made sense for me as well. All in all, the name describes perfectly what my ideal space is for enjoying a stogie, and my hope is that the Stogie Den will become one of your favorite cigar-related hangouts as well.

In the end, this is what the Stogie Den is for: to help you find the information you need about cigars, and to point you in the right direction for the best cigar prices. But I hope that I'm not alone in this: if you have knowledge of cigars or deals you'd like to share with other enthusiasts, please don't hesitate to tell me about them! I would love to hear your feedback on the Stogie Den, what you'd like me to add, and what you know about cigars that I should include here. So please, do contact me if you have something - anything - cigar-related you want to share or discuss.

Thanks for visiting the Stogie Den. If you like it, please do add it to your favorites and come back often!