Over four generations, the Toraño family has come to play a significant role in the cigar industry. Like so many multi-generational cigar families, the Toraños have seen their share of hardship. The Toraño cigar story starts with Carlos Toraño’s grandfather, Don Santiago Torano, making his way to Cuba by way of Spain in 1916.
Shortly after arriving, and still under the age of 20, Santiago formed Toraño & Co., where he would broker Cuban tobacco to companies in Cuba and elsewhere. Success came early to Toraño & Co., and in the early 1920s, Santiago sent for his three brothers in Spain to aid his newfound business.
Santiago had three sons who followed in his footsteps. There was Jaime, Jose, and Carlos. The Toraño’s operations continued to grow, and the family now controlled 23 farms, growing primarily shade wrappers over a combined 400 – 600 acres. The tobacco brokering gig was still in full swing, though it would be decades until the creation of Carlos Toraño cigars.
In 1959, the night before Castro nationalized Cuba’s tobacco industry, Carlos Toraño fled the island, losing everything but a stash of the family’s cherished tobacco seed and the knowledge acquired over three generations in the tobacco business. During their time in Cuba, the Toraños developed a relationship with the Cullman family, which owned General Cigar Co. After General Cigar received word of what happened in Cuba, they extended an invite to Carlos to work with them in the Dominican Republic.
Over the next decade, Carlos worked to put the family business back together. Perhaps one of his greatest contributions to the cigar industry was introducing the "Piloto Cubano" seed from Cuba to the Dominican Republic and teaching local farmers how to grow it.
After Carlos and Jaime passed away, Jimmy, Jaime's son, took the company's reins. Jaime asked his cousin Carlos to leave his job selling computer systems in Miami to join the family business. Carlos agreed and would soon become the prominent force in this new generation of the Toraño business.
With the desire to provide clients with more complex tobacco blends, the Toraños traveled around the world sampling tobaccos from Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, India, Jamaica, and more. In 1994 the Toraño family took the next logical step and began manufacturing cigars under their own brand. They wanted to ensure the quality and consistency of their cigars, so they opened up factories in Nicaragua and Honduras to produce Carlos Toraño cigars. Soon, these factories were also manufacturing premiums for Dunhill, CAO, Gurkha, and more.
One of the best-selling Toraño brands is the Toraño Casa Toraño, which uses an Ecuadorian Connecticut shade leaf to help create a mild-medium cigar once only available to Toraño family members, friends, and employees. Then there’s the Toraño Exodus Gold 1959, which showcases a Habana 2000 wrapper—a hybrid of Cuban-seed and Connecticut shade. Many smokers state the Habana 2000 provides the same look, taste, and feel of a Cuban leaf.
Whatever your pleasure is, Carlos Toraño cigars offer you a way to get that and more.
Please enjoy Carlos Toraño cigars at your leisure.
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