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The Garcias have gone to Honduras where they’ve constructed a new factory and started growing their own tobacco.
Three years ago, the Garcias quietly purchased 360 manzanas (about 890 acres) in Talanga with the intention of growing their own Honduran tobacco to diversify My Father’s portfolio of cigars, which to this point has been almost entirely Nicaraguan. When Pepín and his son, Jaime, first encountered the plot of land, it was overgrown and wild, but once they uncovered the dirt, they were taken by its similarities to Cuba.
“You couldn’t see the soil,” Jaime tells Cigar Aficionado in an exclusive interview. “It was all bushes but it’s surrounded by rivers. You had richness. When we saw those soils, we had a flashback to Cuba and San Luís. It’s virgin soil and was not a tobacco farm. There are three types of soil on the farm so you can grow stronger and softer tobaccos.”
Pepín was initially skeptical about Honduran tobacco, but soon had a change of heart.
“I didn’t believe it was that good,” he says of Honduran leaf. “But when you blend it, it’s like a Cuban cigar from the good times. The combustion is very easy.”
They named the farm Finca La Opulencia. Afterward, the Garcias built a 78,000 square foot factory with the capacity for 150 to 200 rollers, called My Father Cigars Honduras, and cigars have been rolled there since February (construction was completed last November). The factory’s inaugural brand, My Father Blue, is a Honduran-heavy blend. Besides the Connecticut rosado broadleaf wrapper, all the tobacco (Corojo and Criollo varietals) comes from the Garcia’s Honduran farm. The blue packaging pays homage to the colors of the Honduran flag, while the secondary band marks the year of the brand’s debut. It’s intended to be a medium-to-full-bodied cigar.
