A Half Century of Joya
“The guards are superstitious at night,” says Juan Martínez. The president of Joya de Nicaragua is standing in a cavernous back hallway on the first floor of his company’s cigar…
Texas Businessman Sets His Sights On Cigars
In an uncertain era when many cigarmakers are proceeding cautiously , a bold new cigar company has entered the playing field with guns blazing—Micallef Cigars. The Texas-based company launched seven cigar lines…
Q&A: Nestor Andrés Plasencia of Plasencia Tobacco
Tobacco scion Nestor Andrés Plasencia is a fifth generation grower and cigar manufacturer whose family has been in the business for more than 100 years. After decades of providing tobacco…
Moving Mountains
Most people avoid driving the Pan-American Highway at night, especially in the mountainous region of northern Nicaragua where the Estelí valley becomes mired by a very particular kind of darkness,…
Life After Number One
January 6, 2012, 10 A.M. A button is pressed in New York City and a copper, gold and blue cigar band appears on the screens of a waiting world. A…
In Memoriam: Alejandro Robaina
Per Reuters: Cuban tobacco legend Alejandro Robaina, known in international cigar circles for producing the best of his country’s famous tobacco leaves, died on Saturday at the age of 91, a…