Nick Melillo was faced with a difficult decision in 2014: either he would have continued in his position as Executive Vice President of International Operations and Head Blender of Drew Estate, which he had held since 2003, or he would have seized the opportunity to finally use his twenty years of arduous experience and his access to the best cigar tobacco to create the cigars of his dreams!

For the sake of the leaf, the decision was simple, and the Foundation Cigar Company was established in 2015.

Nick began smoking cigars in high school, going to their neighbourhood shop in New Haven, Connecticut, on Saturdays with his brother and grandfather. Nick convinced them to offer him a weekend job after learning every information about every cigar in the humidor.

Nick's love for working with cigars was evident right away, but after four years at Calabash Shoppe, he decided to tour the world since the vast world was calling. After a long international journey that was strikingly similar to Raiders of the Lost Ark, Nick got a call from Jonathan Drew in 2003.

In order to manage the setup and operations of his new cigar firm, Drew Estate, Jonathan required someone who was ready to go to Nicaragua and had a thorough understanding of and passion for cigars. Nick instantly jumped on board and began fermenting tobacco and blending cigars, two things that fundamentally altered the cigar industry in the early years of the twenty-first century.

Melillo ultimately established the Foundation Cigar Company in 2015 after branching out on his own.

The world's most popular podcaster, Joe Rogan, is famously promoting the cigars as the best available cigars without being asked, compensated, or promoted. They have also won accolades and ratings like #1 Best Buy (Cigar Afficionado), Cigar Of The Year (Cigar Snob), and #3 in Cigar Afficionado's top 25 2019 cigars.

The foundation of Foundation Cigar Company, however, is in the cigar smoker themselves—that moment of pure presence filled with smoke, that subtly thunderous connection to modern science, ancient legacy, and sincere devotion for the leaf. Anyone who sits and listens will be able to get this from Melillo and Foundation Cigar Company indefinitely. For the sake of the leaf, of course.