“We will never rush the hands of time.”
What a beautiful motto for artisans to have.
For over four generations, the Fuente family has made cigars. As each unhurried year has passed, they’ve come to create some of the finest on Earth, with cigars routinely appearing on Cigar Aficionado’s Top 25 lists. Most recently, this includes the 2017 Cigar of the Year, the outstanding 97-rated Don Carlos Eye of the Shark.
Don Carlos himself (Carlos Fuente, Sr.) passed before he could enjoy the award, but his son “Carlito” Fuente, Jr. carries on the legacy from Chateau de la Fuente in the Dominican Republic as the family continues into a new generation.
Let’s turn back the clock a bit for a moment, shall we? Let’s go back to the beginning of Arturo Fuente cigars.
Arturo Fuente, Carlito’s grandfather, learned cigar making from his father. The first cigars produced under the name “Arturo Fuente” were created in 1912 in the Ybor City district of Tampa, Florida. At that time, Tampa was a major center of cigar production. It was a humble operation, with cigars rolled in-house (literally, in his house) with the help of his wife Cristina and his two sons, Carlos and Arturo Oscar.
Arturo Fuente cigars were made with Cuban tobacco right up until the U.S. embargo in the 1960s. At that point, the company had to switch to tobacco from the Dominican Republic. After Arturo’s passing, however, Carlos Sr. took things in a new direction, bringing Fuente cigars to Nicaragua, a land with rich soil from which many cigar companies were growing excellent tobacco. Much like the Padron cigar company, however, they suffered a factory fire during the revolution there and had to find a way to continue operations in a new location.
In 1980, the Fuentes moved production to Santiago in the Dominican Republic, and there you will find them to this day - four factories, six plantations, and over two thousand employees all working to produce the best cigars they can.
OpusX, Hemingway, Anejo, Casa Fuente, God of Fire… the list goes on and on.
The family has survived revolutions, factory fires, embargoes, and more, and has persevered through it all to come out on top.
Arturo, that’s a heck of a legacy you’ve got there.
