Arturo Fuente Cigars
Arturo Fuente is among the most revered makers of premium cigars in the world. The legendary Fuente family has blended and crafted the brand’s award-winning portfolio in the Dominican Republic for generations. Today, Carlito Fuente continues traditions set in place by his father, Carlos Fuente Sr., and his grandfather, Arturo Fuente. Iconic cigars like Fuente Fuente Opus X, Arturo Fuente Anejo, and Arturo Fuente Hemingway express the family’s unrivaled passion and dedication for premium tobaccos. Explore a world-renowned collection from a brand that boasts countless top scores and ‘Top 10’ rankings in Cigar Aficionado, including the ‘#1 Cigar of the Year’ for 2017 with the 97-rated Arturo Fuente Don Carlos Eye of the Shark and 94-points in 2018 for Arturo Fuente Hemingway Work of Art.
CIGARS
Arturo Fuente
Price Per Cigar:$1.88 - $8.3047 options availableStrength: MediumCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: Varies30 Reviewsread more
Arturo Fuente Anejo
Price Per Cigar:$9.30 - $16.0023 options availableStrength: FullCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: Connecticut Broadleaf66 Reviewsread more
Arturo Fuente Chateau Series
Price Per Cigar:$5.09 - $9.7028 options availableStrength: MediumCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: Varies20 Reviewsread more
Arturo Fuente Claro
Price Per Cigar:$2.64 - $6.709 options availableStrength: MediumCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: Candela2 Reviewsread more
Arturo Fuente Don Carlos
Price Per Cigar:$7.15 - $13.1021 options availableStrength: MediumCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: Cameroon21 Reviewsread more
Arturo Fuente Hemingway
Price Per Cigar:$5.59 - $15.2021 options availableStrength: MediumCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: Cameroon51 Reviewsread more
Arturo Fuente Hemingway Maduro
Price Per Cigar:$6.25 - $15.2021 options availableStrength: MediumCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: Connecticut Broadleaf26 Reviewsread more
Arturo Fuente It's a Boy / It's a Girl
Price Per Cigar:Only $2.592 options availableStrength: MediumCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: Connecticut Shaderead more
Arturo Fuente Seleccion d'Oro
Price Per Cigar:$5.19 - $6.706 options availableStrength: MediumCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: Connecticut Shade1 Reviewread more
Don Carlos Edicion de Aniversario
Price Per Cigar:$28.90 - $31.0011 options availableStrength: MediumCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: Dominican4 Reviewsread more
Fuente Fuente Opus X Lost City
Price Per Cigar:$28.90 - $31.0017 options availableStrength: FullCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: Dominican5 Reviewsread more
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ARTURO FUENTE BRAND HISTORY
The Arturo Fuente brand is globally renowned for producing numerous iconic, top-selling cigars. The brand’s origins began more than a century ago with the birth of Arturo Fuente in 1887 in Cuba. Fuente immigrated to the U.S. in the early 1900s, settling first in Key West, Florida. A thriving cigar industry attracted a large contingent of Cuban, Spanish and Italian immigrants to Florida’s recently founded Ybor City in pursuit of the American Dream. Fuente would eventually settle in West Tampa, a sister town to Ybor City, as the area quickly became a mecca for those working in the cigar business. By the early 1920s, the burgeoning Arturo Fuente Company employed 500 people handcrafting cigars with Cuban tobacco. Despite the company’s early success, tragedy struck in 1924 when Fuente’s West Tampa factory was destroyed by a fire. Fuente would spend more than two decades working as a general manager to repay debts on losses sustained as a result of the fire.
In the early 1930s, Fuente married and began a family with Cristina Trujillo. By 1940, Arturo’s pursuit of making fine cigars had been reignited as sons Arturo Jr. and Carlos Arturo rolled 50 cigars per day after school in the family’s home. Throughout the 1950s, Carlos Arturo Fuente would embrace a critical leadership role within the company. Several risky endeavors, including the unheard-of strategy of selling cigars on credit, paid off and proved essential in building brand awareness. Carlos effectively established distributors in both Miami and Manhattan over the next decade, greatly increasing consumer reach. As Arturo Fuente Sr. approached retirement, Carlos purchased his brother’s share of the business for one dollar and solely assumed the company’s reigns. Following the acquisition of a two-story building in Ybor City in the 1960s to serve as the brand’s factory, Carlos doubled the number of employees to 100 people. As rumors of the Cuban trade embargo swirled, Carlos Fuente keenly purchased a three-year supply of Cuban tobacco, ensuring the brand’s survival until new products could be brought to market. Subsequently, 1966 saw the release of Flor de Orlando, the Fuente’s first handmade cigar that did not utilize any Cuban tobacco. By this time, the brand’s reputation was well-regarded for a high level of quality and craftsmanship. Carlos again expanded operations with the purchase of The Charles the Great Building on 22nd Street in Ybor City to support the brand’s growth.
The legendary Flor Fina 8-5-8 cigar was released in 1975 to commemorate the passing of Arturo Fuente at the age of 85 in 1973. As the 1970s unfolded, Carlos Fuente grew tobacco in a handful of Central American regions, including Puerto Rico, Mexico, Honduras and Nicaragua. Chaotic political conditions proved too difficult to maintain operations in a number of areas. The Fuente family would again lose a key cigar factory in Nicaragua as the Sandinistas eroded the nation’s stability. It was production at the Ybor City location in Florida that sustained the brand during this period.
Undeterred by recent political and production challenges, Carlos began a new venture in the Dominican Republic. As his son, Carlito, became more involved in the family business, Carlos debuted the first Arturo Fuente Hemingway cigars in the early 1980s. The new product line was originally nicknamed “fancy tails” due to the unique Figurado shape in which the cigars were rolled. Thanks to an article in March of 1984 by Cigar Connoisseur Magazine, the brand was launched into the global spotlight. Demand for cigars from the Dominican Republic flourished in the 1980s, leading to the Fuente family’s partnership with the Newman family, under the Fuente Newman umbrella, to increase U.S. distribution. The brand could fundamentally advance a progressive agenda as a result.
A handful of influential factors fueled skyrocketing demand during the Cigar Boom of the 1990s, such as the debut of Cigar Aficionado magazine in conjunction with a prosperous economic landscape. Carlito Fuente would emerge as a creative force under his father’s guidance as the Fuente brand achieved an elevated status. Among Carlito’s most notable contributions was the development of Fuente Fuente Opus X, the first cigar to utilize a wrapper leaf from the Dominican Republic. Carlito Fuente’s persistent experimentation in successfully creating a true Dominican puro revealed the culmination of generations of knowledge in growing, fermenting, and blending tobacco to a pinnacle standard. To this day, the ultra-rare Opus X, is one of the most sought-after cigars ever released.
ARTURO FUENTE BRAND OVERVIEW
In the wake of its rich and storied history, the Arturo Fuente brand is responsible for producing some of the most recognizable cigars in the world. The early success of the Arturo Fuente Hemingway line cemented the company’s reputation for quality without compromise in the modern U.S. cigar market. Patiently aged wrappers from Cameroon adorn the now legendary and approachable blend of Dominican binder and filler tobaccos in the Hemingway series. Perhaps the most distinguishing characteristic of Hemingway is the figured shape, or Figurado format, in which every cigar is rolled. In uncovering several classic Cuban cigar molds in one of his old warehouses in Florida, Carlos Fuente Sr. made a calculated decision to resurrect the artfully shaped formats with the Hemingway series in the early 1980s, despite the extra skill and training required of rollers to execute the patient design. The top-selling sizes include the Arturo Fuente Hemingway Short Story and the Arturo Fuente Hemingway Signature. The cigar is not only visually striking, but provides a unique concentration of the blend in the elegantly tapered shape. Other well-known variations include the Hemingway Classic, Hemingway Best Seller, Hemingway Masterpiece and Hemingway Work of Art. Due to its phenomenal appeal, the Fuente family later introduced the Hemingway Maduro series, which presents the blend in a dark and lustrous Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper. Available at select retailers, Hemingway Between the Lines marries both a Connecticut and Maduro wrapper in a rare barber-pole cigar in the impressive Figurado shape.
In addition to Hemingway, the Fuente brand portfolio encompasses several other bestselling blends. The original Arturo Fuente line is available in dozens of classic formats with a wealth of wrapper options, including Cameroon, Connecticut, Connecticut Broadleaf, Ecuador and Candela. Quintessential Dominican approachability is conveyed with a remarkable depth of flavor and aroma in mild to medium-bodied profiles that exhibit the brand’s unflinching consistency. Arturo Fuente Chateau Fuente is legendary for offering rich and accessible tasting notes of cedar, coffee and nuts in a range of cool-burning, 50 to 54 ring gauges. The Arturo Fuente Chateau series is praised as an excellent value in every wrapper variety, including Natural, Maduro and Sungrown. Arturo Fuente Don Carlos enjoys a monumental audience by offering a slightly stronger version of the Hemingway line in several classic shapes. The finest Cameroon wrappers in the world have made Arturo Fuente Don Carlos a top-selling blend for decades with a sophisticated, medium-bodied profile of sweet spices, chestnuts, coffee and cedar.
Although produced in extremely limited quantities, Fuente Fuente Opus X is coveted by scores of cigar loves for its richness and rarity. Utilizing only the finest premium aged Dominican binder and filler tobaccos, Arturo Fuente Opus X is cloaked in a marvelous Dominican wrapper leaf. Supreme notes of cedar, figs, raisins and spice dominate the cigar’s full-bodied profile with an unmistakable signature. Cigar connoisseurs devour the smallest quantities available in both traditional and exotic shapes and sizes, often collecting and saving them for special occasions. In the wake of a damaging hurricane season years ago, several tobacco aging barns were destroyed and the Fuente family lost much of its prized store of Opus X wrapper leaves. Facing a temporary shortage of Opus X cigars, Carlito Fuente released the Arturo Fuente Anejo series in a creative strategy to satisfy the growing audience of Opus X fans. Arturo Fuente Anejo features a stunning and succulent Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, aged extensively in a cognac barrel, over the classic Opus X binder and filler tobaccos. Although production of Opus X rebounded in subsequent seasons, Fuente Anejo continues to harbor a significant demand in its own right, particularly the prized Arturo Fuente Anejo Shark, a rare box-pressed torpedo shape. The blend is noted for its medium-bodied, decadent profile of dark chocolate, caramels and sweet spices with a distinct cognac note as a result of the wrapper’s proprietary fermentation process.
Whether you count yourself as a novice cigar smoker or a veteran connoisseur, the Arturo Fuente brand produces numerous world-renowned blends well worth experiencing. Scores of 90+ ratings, a ‘#1 Cigar of the Year’ title, and a several ‘Top 10 Cigars of the Year’ selections from Cigar Aficionado highlight the brand’s popularity and success. An undeniable reputation for quality, consistency and satisfaction has made the Fuente name an icon among cigar lovers through generations of the Fuente family’s hard work, dedication and passion. Taste the ample and legendary talents behind the legacy of Arturo Fuente today.
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