PEDDLING YANKEE SMOKE : CENTURY-OLD FIRM RIDES CIGAR CRAZE.

Byline: Susan M. Vaughn The New York Times

Frank Topper has seen his family's cigar business through many ups and down during his 43-year tenure, but he has never seen a boom like the one of the last two years.

``We have a quarter- to a half-million cigars on back order. It's ridiculous,'' said Topper, owner and president of the Topper Cigar Co.

The company's sales volume has increased 35 percent to 40 percent this year, and not just for its premium imported cigars. Sales are up 15 to 20 percent for domestic cigars as well. ``It would be up a lot more if we could get the product,'' Topper said.

In recent months, the Topper firm has added 10 new customers a day as cigar stores continue to open around the country, but it can't hurry up the growing or processing of cigars, which takes two to three years.

``It's simple supply and demand,'' said Topper's son Chris, 28, the company's vice president and salesman. The demand, from both women and men, has taken off in recent months.

Frank Topper, still sporting a crew cut at the age of 67, seems amused by the latest cigar craze, which he suspects is a fad that will last maybe four to five years. Like the state motto, ``Qui Transtulit Sustinet'' (He Who Transplanted Still Sustains), the Topper Cigar Co. sustained in Connecticut since Frank's father, Curtis, moved the sales operation to Meriden at the onset of the Great Depression.

Topper Cigar got its start when Curt's father, B.P. Topper, moved to McSherrystown in south central Pennsylvania, population 1,700, a leading cigar manufacturing center with 20 cigar factories. After an apprenticeship as a cigar maker, B.P. Topper opened his own factory in 1896. Curt, his oldest son, joined the business in 1926 and was put in charge of expanding sales in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In 1929 he decided to enter the New England market, choosing Meriden because of its central location. At that time, Connecticut tobacco growing hit its peak, harvesting 30,800 acres in 1931 compared with 2,000 acres this year.

Handing out samples

Over the next 30 years, Curt built Topper to be one of the leading cigar brands in New England. He was known for handing out samples to almost everyone he met - in the street, at a restaurant, wherever.

Frank had never intended to join the family business. He earned degrees in accounting and law and served in the military. But after B.P. Topper died in 1953, Curt sent Frank to McSherrystown to learn about manufacturing handmade cigars. At the plant, he found 45 dedicated cigar makers who prided themselves in the uniformity of their cigars, but he discovered a problem.

``All our employees were dying off,'' he said. By 1962, only 25 hand cigar makers - average age, 70 - remained. Frank kept the plant running until 1969 even though the output was only a few hundred cigars a day compared to 4,000 to 5,000 a day by machine.

The loss of skilled cigar makers combined with a growing business prompted Curt and Frank to ask cousins who were operating a machine-made cigar factory in McSherrystown to make their cigars. They believed that arrangement would maintain quality and preserve the family business environment, which Frank and Chris see as a key to Topper Cigar's longevity.

``It's good to make that personal contact,'' Frank said.

``It's kind of nice to know a family is running it,'' Chris added.

Topper Cigars are still made by Topper cousins at F.X. Smith's Sons Co. in McSherrystown. While Topper has sustained its business, the number of cigar makers in the country has dwindled from about 5,000 in 1935 to 500 in 1955 and about 150 in 1975, Frank said. Connecticut's last cigar manufacturers closed in the last few years when the state's cigar tax went to 20 percent, Frank said.

The 1990s cigar smoking craze, which created $1 billion in sales last year, has presented some new but pleasant challenges for the 100-year-old business.

Topper has been known most for a quality domestic cigar. Its most popular cigar still sells for less than $1, but the Toppers are trying to meet the demand for the more expensive cigars that cost from $3 to $6, with some as high as $20.

``Twenty dollars is a lot to spend for a cigar in the United States,'' Chris said.

The Toppers import their top-of-the-line, handmade cigars from Honduras, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua, most still with Connecticut Valley binders and wrappers, the Toppers said.

Fine Connecticut tobacco

The Toppers discussed the quality of Connecticut Valley tobacco with their longtime supplier, Henry Maturo, during a stop this fall at a tobacco shed in Somers, where Jamaican workers prepared tobacco leaves for shipping.

``You can't grow it anywhere else. There's something about the valley,'' Maturo said. Although Frank believes Cuban tobacco is still the best for filler, he agreed that Connecticut Valley tobacco, fairly mild, is the best for binding and wrapping, enhancing the flavor of the cigar.

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Photo

Photo: Connecticut tobacco is considered a world-class product, produced by a combination of the shade, the soil and the humid climate.