Matthew Tabacco (Smokin Tabacco)
Matthew Tabacco is an American cigar industry journalist who owns the cigar media website Smokin Tabacco. He was born and raised in the Greater Boston area. Matt began smoking cigars and living up to his unique namesake in 2017. In 2019, he created the Smokin Tabacco name after a suggestion from a very close friend. As of 2022, Smokin Tabacco has become a major news and multi-media site that also hosts cigar and product reviews, trade show coverage, two podcasts and an annual fundraiser for Cigar Family Charitable Foundation. [1]
Early life
Matt grew up just north of Boston, Massachusetts in a small town called Boxford. His mother is a homemaker and his father is an electrician. He also has one sister.
After high school, he attended community college for a short time before deciding to go to trade school and join the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers like his father.
Cigar career
What began as just a social indulgence became a world of everything premium cigars - learning from some of the biggest and best in the business such as David Garofalo and Jonathan Carney. From casual smoking to lighting up on the hit podcasts The Smokin Tabacco Show and the Spare Notes Series to covering trade shows, Matthew focuses on covering every aspect of the premium cigar business.
Additionally, three more faces make up the team. His wife, Nicole Tabacco, sits in the co-owner and Vice-President role, producing both shows, creating digital media, and maintaining SmokinTabacco.com, among many other tasks.
Jonathan Carney, Vice-President of Sales for La Flor Dominicana also makes a regular appearance as a co-host and contributor on The Smokin Tabacco Show. The original concept and creation of the Smokin Tabacco Show was his idea and the first episode was a failure and dubbed "The May Day Eve Massacre". It is a lost episode that many have never seen but can be found in social media archives.
In 2021, Smokin Tabacco joined forces with William Cooper of Cigar-Coop.com to bring the second successful podcast to Smokin Tabacco - the Spare Notes Series. In alternating Saturday nights, Matthew and Coop get together to talk about the hot topics in the cigar industry.
Smokin Tabacco began as a simple social media page on Instagram to showcase pictures of different cigars and the premium cigar lifestyle in September 2019. Since then, the name has become known not only as Matthew Tabacco’s new nickname but also as the place where cigar smokers can go to find the latest and most exciting news and information on what is happening in the cigar industry or be entertained by one of their shows.
Personal life
Matt is an Electrician by day and works in the Boston area. Matthew met his wife, Nicole Tabacco in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. They met online and bonded over Matt's interest in cigars. Matt proposed to Nicole a year later in Las Vegas during the 2021 Premium Cigar Association Trade Show and they married the following year in Las Vegas again the same week as the 2022 Premium Cigar Association Trade Show.
Last name
Many people believe that Matt's last name is a "stage" name or a pseudonym. "Tabacco" as it is spelled is his legal last name given at birth and not a fake name he uses for his cigar endeavors. In fact, it was the primary factor that influenced his involvement in the industry to begin with.