Jump to full article: Denver (CO) Post, 2008-04-07
Author: William Porter Denver Post Columnist
Intro: Sometime this month, an Army captain in Iraq named Ryan Main will receive a small white box mailed from a shop just a few home runs from Coors Field.
When Main opens it, he'll find 25 premium cigars, fragrant with Dominican tobacco, hand-rolled and shipped by a total stranger.
The stranger's name is Clay Carl ton. Whatever his other claims to fame, one stands out: He's the only Coloradan holding both a barber's license and a federal cigar manufacturing license.
"We really don't know who we're sending these cigars to," Carlton said. "They generally just go to an Army Post Office address. But that's fine. We know the troops enjoy them. They've sent us letters from the field."
Carlton owns Palma Cigar Co., housed in a brick building at 2207 Larimer St. The one-man tobacco operation is in the front, his two-chair barber shop in back. . . .
There are few if any pleasures soldiering in Iraq, but Carlton is bringing a bit of comfort to the troops, one cigar at a time.
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