Gregory Mottola is a true cigar boomer, meaning that he started smoking in 1996 at the peak of the cigar boom. During college, discretionary funds were spent on midnight crossings over Niagara Falls into Canada from Upstate New York to buy as many Cuban cigars as he could afford.
Somewhere in between smuggling Cuban cigars and smoking them, he acquired an English degree and went on to become a technical writer for various computer programming and industrial trade magazines in New York City. This went on for about six years until an opportunity arose to work at Cigar Aficionado as a Tasting Coordinator.
Mottola got the job, probably more on passion than lifestyle writing experience, and went on to become Senior Editor of Cigar Aficionado. While still overseeing and orchestrating the blind tasting process, Mottola also manages the magazine's editorial cycles and reports on the industry for the magazine, Cigar Insider newsletter and the Cigar Aficionado website.
