Location Location


It’s not surprising that the handmade cigars are made in the countries where the tobacco is grown. Of course Cuba is the country that springs to mind when you’re thinking of handmade cigars but there are plenty of other Central and South American countries where cigars are rolled by hand.

That’s not the case though with machine-made cigars. There certainly are a number of factories in those South American countries but the two biggest manufacturers of cigars … Altadis and Swedish Match … have factories in Europe, Indonesia and even right here in the United States.

It’s a Family Business

While big companies dominate the machine-made cigar business at the premium end of the market it’s more of a family business and names like Davidoff, Fuente and Oliva are well known. When it comes to the growing of premium tobacco leaf then the Oliva family’s name appears once more along with the Padrons and the Torano family.

So now I’ve taken you from seed to shelf and along the way I’ve shown you just what a labor intensive industry this is. When you put that much heart and soul into producing a fine cigar, what may have previously seemed like a high-priced luxury item now seems like a pretty good deal.