Bennington Tobacconist
Bennington Tobacconist is celebrating over 60 years of dedication to quality products and exceptional service.
William E. Bennington founded Bennington Tobacconist in 1965. With careful consideration, the location was determined in Saint Armand’s Circle in Sarasota, Florida. Mr. Bennington had the foresight to institute custom hand mixed tobacco blends and hand rolled cigars. Being a family-operated tobacco shop; his three sons, Jack, Jim and Gary grew up in the business. They learned the meaning of service, quality and hard work. To this day, it is still family owned and operated in Sarasota by Jack, Jim and Gary Bennington. They continue to honor their father’s philosophy that quality products should be represented in a proper image.
Bennington Tobacco has hand blended high-quality pipe tobaccos since William E. Bennington, the founder, began the company in the fall of 1965. Mr. Bennington was an avid pipe smoker and recognized the opportunity in the lack of high-quality pipe tobacco brands in the U.S. market at that time. There were plenty of domestic “drug store” brands, but few imported brands of the calibers of Dunhill, Erinmore or Rattray’s for example.
In those days the tobacco manufacturers sold the basic blending ingredients i.e., Burleys, Virginias, Latakia, Perique, Maryland and Turkish tobaccos directly to the tobacconist and offered “formulas” as a general guide, which could be tweaked in order to create custom blends.
Bennington Blends No. 10, and No. 24 are two such blends and are still popular today. Blend No. 15 is patterned after the famed “Balkan Sobranie White Label,” which was very popular back then.
Mr. Bennington spent a good part of an evening with tweezers and a scale separating eight ounces of Balkan Sobranie into its component parts of Turkish, Latakia and Virginia to determine the ratios of the blend. He then refined it to his taste and introduced Blend No. 15 in 1966. Blend No. 33 is another original and is still quite popular. Blend No. 33 is patterned after Murray’s Erinmore Flake.
At Bennington’s, they still prefer the original method of buying the basic tobacco component ingredients and creating unique blends from them.
For over 60 years, Bennington Tobacconist has remained in the same location and has remained true to honor their father’s philosophy of providing excellent service and quality products.
Come and enjoy a large and finest variety of tobacco products, including cigars, humidors, pipes, accessories, lighters and ashtrays, e-liquids and more.
Customer Reviews:
“Awesome shop! They have hard-to-find tobacco and actually stock pipes. The owner knows his stuff too.” – Derek Plassman
“Jack was very professional and knowledgeable. Dan was very pleased with all recommendations for cigars and pipe tobacco. Always great service and always enjoy our annual in-person visit. Thanks for your expertise, Jack.” – Mary Murphy
“I have enjoyed coming to this store for the past several years. The owner and employees are all very nice and they have a great selection. Very professional.” – Stephen Vincent
“This store was truly one of a kind. Not many stores like this left. Clean store and great selection. The gentleman working who appeared to be the owner was very knowledgeable and offered impeccable customer service. Definitely recommend if you’re in the area and looking for a good cigar.” – Darryn Crook
“This tobacco shop has a vast selection of pipe tobaccos and fine cigars. I was able to find every item I was looking for. The staff were very knowledgeable and friendly. The location is great and fairly easy to park nearby on most days.” – Brendan C.
Address:
5 Filmore Drive
St. Armands, Sarasota, FL 34236
941-388-1562
Website:
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