The Plasencia family has perfected the art of growing tobacco since
1865, when Don Eduardo Plasencia arrived in Vuelta Abajo, Cuba, to work in the
tobacco fields. He came from the Canary Islands in Spain and, shortly after,
his nephew Sixto Plasencia took over the business, added another tobacco farm
and began to expand it.
Since then, five generations have grown tobacco uninterruptedly: first
in Cuba and now in Central America, where it is grown in many places: four
different regions of Nicaragua, three different regions of Honduras, in Costa
Rica and in Panama. Consistent with the family tradition, they maintain the
passion for a business that demands dedication and a special vocation to
constantly improve.
They didn't always make cigars, and in 1986, when they started doing so,
they decided to make them for other companies. Today they roll more than 40
million cigars a year for many of the most recognized brands in the market,
which include, among many others, Oliva, Rocky Patel, Casa Magna, Villiger,
Alec Bradley, Royal Gold, Ventura Cigar, and Padilla, in addition to an iconic
brand such as Montecristo, manufactured for Altadis U.S.A.
In 2017, in an effort to diversify, and after a century and a half
dedicated to growing tobacco and 30 years making cigars for other companies,
the family decided to manufacture their own brands. In 2019 they added two very
striking series to their catalog: the Plasencia Alma series, made up of Alma
del Campo, Alma del Fuego and Alma Fuerte; a completely Nicaraguan mix (wrapper,
binder and filler), with the layer grown in the sun in the Jalapa Valley and
the rest grown in the volcanic soil of Ometepe Island. The other was the
Cosecha 146 series, made with tobacco from Nicaragua and Honduras, to celebrate
the 146-harvest taken in 2011 from family fields, as a reminder of the first
tobacco harvest in 1865.
Since then, they have not stopped reaping success with their premium
cigars, which have received significant scores from specialized magazines. For
example, in the 2020 rankings, the Plasencia Alma Fuerte Robustus I, was selected
The Best Tobacco of 2020 by the European magazine Cigar Journal, and the
Plasencia Cosecha 146 La Vega cigar, was selected by Cigar Aficionado among the
25 Best Cigars of this year.
More recently, in the February 2022 edition of Cigar Aficionado,
dedicated to commenting on the stellar cigars “every smoker should look for”,
the Plasencia Alma Fuerte Generación V was selected with a rating of 92 points.
The Plasencia family is a pioneer in growing organic tobacco and
currently has the certification of the Organic Crop Improvement Association
(OCIA) International. The Plasencia Reserva Original line (previously called
Reserva Organica) is made with tobacco grown completely organically and, in an
attempt to maintain the sustainability of the companies and the industry in
general, they plant around 68 acres of organic tobacco each year.
Plasencia is today the largest tobacco producer in the world, with more
than 6,000 employees, 4 factories and 8 plantations in Honduras and Nicaragua.
It also stands out for being a vertically integrated company that works in
detail the production of seeds, tobacco cultivation, processing, manufacturing
and distribution to almost 70 countries in the world.