The Tobacco Seeds

The process starts here:

• Specially selected seeds
• Selected soil
• Selected climate

The Plantations

Our Vegas de Santiago Costa Rican tobacco grows on the volcanic mountains of Santiago de Puriscal (alt. 1,102m / 3,400ft).
The special climate, with its perfect dose of rainfall and humidity, which is combined with a period of dryness is ideal for growing and curing naturally premium-quality tobacco plants.
Here the tobacco is planted in a rotating process with crops of corn to keep the soil rich and fertile.

Harvesting

Tobacco leaves are individually harvested according to their size, position on the plant and their maturity, leaf by leaf.
This is done by hand, following the ancestral knowledge of cultivating tobacco, a sacred plant for the former indigenous population.

Drying and Fermentation

The first drying step is carried out under shelters in the middle of the fields during harvesting.

Next, a very complex rotating process of hydrating and dehydrating the leaves takes place in big warehouses to produce the fermentation that will give the tobacco its maturity, color, taste and strengh.

This aging process is absolutely natural and, as with wine, it takes a minimum of three years for the tobacco to reach its full maturity in flavor and color.

Selection and Storage

Again and again, leaf by leaf, with patience and courage, in the hands of dedicated and concentrated people, mostly women, the leaves are selected, deveined, collected and stored according to their variety, type (tripe, binder, wrapper) and their quality (1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th).
The tobacco leaves are now ready for the market.

From the Farm to the Manufacture

Our production manager travels from farm to farm in the different countries producing tobacco to select personnally the best tobacco leaves in taste and texture.
The tobacco is packed by ballots of 50kg then shipped in tons to the manufacture.
The imported tobacco comes from the best farms in Nicaragua, Ecuador, the USA, Indonesia and the Caribbean.

Manufacturing Activities

The ballots of tobacco are stored in our warehouse in Santiago de Puriscal. Some may go through a new fermentation process to bring the leaves to a darker maduro colour and a stronger taste.

Control and Selection

Each leaf is again individually controlled, selected, deveined, unfolded and collected according to its type, colour and qualities.
It’s one of the most important activities in the manufacturing process.
At this stage, the tobacco leaves have a surprising leathery feel and quality.

Manufacturing Premium Cigars

The different varieties of tobacco leaves are assembled together according to the cigars lines and rolled to perfection.

All the cigars produced in our workshop are totally hand made (even our small “Chiquititos”) using the tubing technique, which we consider to be the best to guarantee the regular burn of the cigar.

Mr. Luis Santana Lamas was our master of production. He worked for 25 years at the H. Upmann plant in Cuba. He was also advisor to cigar companies in Central America, the Dominican Republic and the United States. 

Before passing away, he was one of the ten most famous cigar experts in the world. We are keeping his "know-how" as an invaluable heritage.

The secrets of the master, our selection of the finest tobacco, the best Cuban cigar-making techniques, and our strict quality-control procedure guarantee the consumer an excellent cigar.

The Storeroom

The cigars are stored in our specially acclimatized storeroom for three months, in order to let them develop their aroma.

Band, Boxes and Expedition

Our skillful expedition team will select your cigars, fix the appropriate ring around each one, protect each cigar with a cellophane wrap and place it into a cedar box or arrange them into a bundle.
To preserve the quality until the end, it is all done by hand…

Your cigars are now ready for shipment.

They will reach you wherever you are, worldwide, and bring you this fantastic experience of smoking Vegas de Santiago premium cigars.

From Seeds... to Ashes...

A cigar is so much more than something to smoke. It is a universal link between nature and man.

Pura Vida!