Quintero

About

Quintero Cigars Quintero cigars are unusual in the Cuban cigar pantheon in that they were not originally born in Havana. Cigar production was once spread across the island, only becoming concentrated in Havana more recently. It was in the southern city of Cinfuegos, in 1924, that Agustín Quintero decided to set up his factory, aided by his four brothers. The tobacco used when the brand first started was from the Vuelta Arriba in Remedios, local to the first factory’s location. Still today the logo printed on each box and tubo to contain Quintero cigars proudly bears the name of the city in which the brand was born. While proud of their roots in the south, Quintero became a Havana brand in the 1940s as the brothers sought to increase the size of their production and upgrade their tobacco to the Vuelta Abajo stock of Pinar del Rio used today. Key to their success was the abilities of Augustin as a selector and blender of tobacco. Having made a reputation for earthy, rich flavours with the tobacco of the south, he managed to select the right crops and producers from the more premium stock to maintain that brand identity, leading to his cigars having a very distinctive taste. They found their biggest welcome in the markets of Spain, where the preference was for these raw, pure tobacco notes, and by the 1950s Quintero found themselves one of the most popular brands on the Iberian peninsula, along with Juan Lopez . Huge change came the way of the Cuban cigar industry in 1960, with Quintero more affected than most. After Castro nationalised all production it was decided that Quintero would abandon their handmade heritage in favour of being a completely machine-made brand. Rolling machines had become prevalent in the industry during the 1950s as they offered great opportunity to increase production while lowering cost, and for decades Quintero was the only brand made in this way but still exported on a global scale. Over the course of the next 40 years Quintero’s vitolario