Tobacco Growing Regions – Central America
Cuba remains among the premiere tobacco growing regions in the world. Despite decades of deterioration caused by the Castro regime, Cuban cigars are still some of the very finest.
The Vuelta Abajo section of the Pinar del Rio area in western Cuba has the natural conditions and the skilled growers and tobacconists needed to keep them ranking high. Factories in Havana still attract the best labor needed to make one of Cuba's few outstanding exports.
Though illegal for import into the U.S. since 1962, many Americans continue to find a way to enjoy a great Habano. Full-bodied, spicy and robust, Cuban cigars are a favorite of those who like a very strong smoke.
Many in the tobacco business fled Cuba after 1959 to settle elsewhere. Their sons and grandsons continue the tradition of producing fine tobacco and quality cigars learned from their ancestors. Chief among these are the growers and cigar makers of the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Ecuador and other Central American and Caribbean countries.
Ecuador, for example, has a full line of tobacco products used in filler and wrapper. Tobacco growers use both shade-grown and sun-grown techniques to produce a range of flavor profiles. Some use seeds from plants that originated in Cuba, others from as far away as Sumatra. Wrapper tobacco is even produced using Connecticut seed from the famed Connecticut River Valley.
Honduran growers also take advantage of that fine Connecticut seed to produce shade-grown wrapper leaf, along with the Cuban-seed tobaccos they grow. Long troubled by blue mold infestations, the industry is fighting back against great odds.
Part of the odds the Hondurans suffer from is a border with Nicaragua, which is still shaking off the effects of a 10-year long Civil War. Though contained to a relatively small part of the country, it had a significant effect on the entire tobacco industry in both countries. Yet they continue to produce a strong, spicy tobacco very reminiscent of native Cuban.
The Dominican Republic is probably home to the finest cigars outside Cuba. Made from tobacco grown in the northern part of the country, their output is based largely on Cuban seed ancestors. The climate and the knowledgeable growers combine efforts to make a complex, full-flavored cigar.
Central America remains one of the premiere regions for producing great tobacco and quality cigars. Thankfully, quality cigar production is still largely a hand craft and the skill doesn't require modern machinery and infrastructure. Cigar smokers everywhere are the beneficiaries.
