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Stories

Pairings, places, reflections and the families behind the cigars.

Cigar Houses

Arturo Fuente: A Century of Fire, Patience and Dominican Tobacco

From a West Tampa workshop in 1912 to the OpusX. How the Fuente family survived fires, revolutions and a hurricane to become one of the most beloved houses in cigars.

October 20, 2026
Cigar Houses

Davidoff: From a Geneva Shop to Dominican Elegance

Zino Davidoff turned a small Geneva tobacco shop into a byword for luxury. He made cigars in Cuba, broke with the island, and found a new home in the Dominican Republic.

October 20, 2026
Cigar Houses

My Father: A Son's Tribute That Became a House

Don Pepín García came to Miami from Cuba in 2003 and opened a small factory in Little Havana. His son Jaime secretly made him a cigar, and that tribute ended up naming the whole company.

October 20, 2026
Cigar Houses

Oliva: From 1886 Vuelta Abajo to Cigar of the Year

Four generations of Cuban growers who, once in Nicaragua, created the Serie V and won Cigar Aficionado's top award with a cigar named for their patriarch.

October 20, 2026
Cigar Houses

Padrón: A Hammer, $600 and the Cigar Aficionado Record

José Orlando Padrón left Cuba with nothing and founded his company in Miami in 1964. He survived bombs, boycotts and an embargo to create some of the most awarded cigars in the world.

October 20, 2026
Cigar Houses

Plasencia: Five Generations Who Started Over Three Times

From Vuelta Abajo in 1865 to Nicaragua and Honduras. The Plasencia family lost its land in two revolutions, became one of the world's great tobacco growers, and now puts its own name on the band.

October 20, 2026
Cigar Houses

Reformed Cigars: Estelí Tobacco With a Mission

A Nicaraguan brand born from a Bible study in Estelí, with blends named for reformers and profits that go back to the tobacco community.

October 20, 2026