The journey north in Nicaragua from Estelí to Jalapa is a long and sometimes bumpy one, but worth the ride if you want to fully understand Nicaragua’s diverse tobacco regions. The closer you get to Jalapa, the more you see that nature has free reign, as the landscape remains wild and unspoiled, the roads still pitted and unpaved. While Estelí is known for its distinctively powerful, spicy leaf, many cigarmakers
Every cigar you will smoke next year is already growing, or already harvested. The 2026 crop is in: cut in the first half of the year across the Caribbean and Central America, curing in barns now. What do we know about it? Less than you would expect, and the gaps are part of the story. Cuba: the documented strain Cuba is the one origin with a published paper trail, and
Altura Cigars is taking a distinctive approach to tobacco cultivation. According to founder Jacob Ifrach, the company grows its tobacco at around 1,350 meters above sea level, where cold temperatures and high humidity create unusually challenging conditions. Much of the tobacco is cultivated in greenhouses, with the plants taking two to three times longer to grow than in traditional tobacco regions. Curing can last four to five months, while fermentation requires up to 18
t’s late February and the fields of the Vuelta Abajo, Cuba’s prime tobacco growing region, are in the throes of harvest. From the town of Consulacion del Sur to the village of San Juan y Martinez and beyond, cigar tobacco is growing from small sun-grown plants just a month old to five-foot-high wrapper tobacco that is protected under cheesecloth. There’s a slow, methodical pace to the harvest. Dusty, rusty trucks
Discover how tobacco seeds define the flavor, aroma, and strength of premium cigars. Episode 3 of Privada’s Masterclass explores Broadleaf, Shade, Habano, San Andrés, and more to reveal how seeds shape every cigar from seed to smoke. Soil is the foundation: Nutrient-rich, carefully managed soil directly determines the strength and quality of tobacco. Cultivation practices matter: From germination to topping, each step ensures flavorful, healthy leaves for premium cigars. Leaf
ith its trickling fountain and cloistered courtyard, Plasencia Cigars S.A. in Nicaragua seems more like a monastery than a factory. Workers holding tobacco quietly walk from one end of the covered quadrangle to the other, sometimes in pairs, then disappear through a doorway. Somehow, all the noise of Estelí outside of these four walls has been neutralized. It’s equally tranquil in the rolling gallery, where cigarmakers toil at every table
Even though I’m in Cuba at the start of the tobacco harvest, it’s beginning to seem as if there isn’t any tobacco on the island. My driver and I have been on the road for more than an hour without seeing a single leaf. The long, straight highway that takes us southwest from Havana to Pinar del Río cuts through thousands of acres of farmland, but it’s mostly grains, rice,
Tabacuba aims to finally achieve this goal that was missed last year, thanks in particular to solar-powered irrigation. Tabacuba hopes to plant 14,000 hectares of tobacco next season in Vuelta Abajo, the country’s main tobacco-growing region, according to a report from the official Cuban news agency ACN. This target for cultivated area is the same as the one set before the 2025-2026 season, but ultimately, just over 10,000 hectares of tobacco were planted –