Eddie Long, tobacco category manager at Knoxville, Tennessee-based Pilot Co., was a finalist for behind the counter, large chains, in CSP’s 2025 Category Manager of the Year (CMOY) awards.

I hadn’t thought of this moment in years, but immediately remembered it upon my first sniff of a cocktail called the 100-Year-Old Cigar. The aromatics stirred an intense recollection: sliding the ...