Plasencia Cigars
The Plasencia family has been growing and blending premium tobacco for five generations and are considered one of the largest growers of tobacco in Central America. Father-and-son cigar-makers Nestor Plasencia Sr. and Nestor Plasencia Jr. own and operate farms throughout Nicaragua and Honduras. The Plasencias are best known for producing dozens of top-rated cigars for famous brands like Rocky Patel, Romeo y Julieta, and Alec Bradley. They show off their full potential in their eponymous Plasencia Cigars portfolio, where a collection of spicy and complex blends continues to earn high marks from critics and consumers. The brand is distributed nationally by the family’s Plasencia 1865 company, which is headquartered in Miami.
CIGARS
Plasencia 1865 Alma Fuerte
Price Per Cigar:$18.59 - $24.458 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Nicaraguan2 Reviewsread more
Plasencia Alma del Campo
Price Per Cigar:$14.79 - $20.926 options availableStrength: MediumCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Nicaraguanread more
Plasencia Alma del Fuego
Price Per Cigar:$14.79 - $17.624 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Nicaraguanread more
Plasencia Reserva Original
Price Per Cigar:$7.79 - $10.476 options availableStrength: Mild-MediumCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Nicaraguan2 Reviewsread more
SAMPLERS
PLASENCIA BRAND HISTORY
The Plasencias’ roots in the world of premium cigars are deep. Don Eduardo Plasencia began growing tobacco in 1865 in the Vuelta Abajo Valley in the Cuban province of Pinar del Rio, regarded for producing the finest tobacco in the world. His nephew, Sixto Plasencia, expanded the family’s farming operation in 1898. By 1920, Sixto and his sons were exporting and selling their tobacco to big companies. In 1963, Castro confiscated the Plasencias’ farms, and the family fled to Mexico, and then to Nicaragua.
In 1965, Don Sixto began planting tobacco crops in Nicaragua. The operation prospered until 1978 when the Plasencia family’s Nicaraguan farms were burned down as a result of political unrest. The family moved their operations across the border to Honduras. In 1986, modern family patriarch Nestor Plasencia entered the cigar business, eventually producing one million cigars per year for other brands. The Plasencias returned to Nicaragua in 1990 to revive their tobacco farms. Eventually, their production grew to 33 million cigars per year.
Today, the Plasencias employ over 6,000 workers, including 700 cigar rollers, across four cigar factories and eight plantations in Nicaragua and Honduras. The family makes 40 million handmade cigars annually. Some of the widely distributed brands the Plasencias produce include Rocky Patel, Romeo y Julieta, Alec Bradley, Gurkha, and 5 Vegas. Cigar Aficionado’s ‘#1 Cigar of the Year’ in 2008, the Casa Magna Robusto, was made by the Plasencias.
The family farms roughly 1,400 acres of tobacco in Nicaragua and another 1,600 in Honduras, and it’s estimated that seventy percent of today’s cigar-makers rely on tobacco from the Plasencias’ operations in one way or another.
In 2016, Nestor Plasencia Sr. and his sons, Nestor Jr., Gustavo, and José Luis Plasencia debuted their eponymous Plasencia Cigars brand. Nestor Jr. is the face of the brand, and he utilizes his background as an agronomist to innovate the family’s tobacco-growing and cigar-making interests.
PLASENCIA BRAND OVERVIEW
In the fall of 2016, Plasencia 1865 Alma Fuerte debuted and represented the first push the Plasencia family made to come out with their own brand. After years of growing tobacco and making cigars for other brands, the Plasencias wanted to connect directly with cigar lovers.
1865 Alma Fuerte set a high benchmark with its elaborate blend of Nicaraguan tobaccos from Estelí, Condega, Jalapa, and Ometepe, draped in an oily Nicaraguan wrapper. By the end of 2017, Plasencia 1865 Alma Fuerte earned a 93-point rating and a ‘Top 10’ ranking from the critics in Cigar Aficionado. Savor a Plasencia classic in a series of traditional and unusual sizes, like the Generacion V Salomon, a rare box-pressed Perfecto, and Sixto II, a 6 by 60 pressed hexagon.
On the heels of 1865 Alma Fuerte, the Plasencias released Alma del Campo in the summer of 2017. Alma del Campo is drawn entirely from Criollo ’98 tobaccos grown on the Plasencias’ Nicaraguan farms, and each component is aged for varying periods of time. The 90-rated blend reveals a medium-bodied profile of white pepper and wood with a touch of sweetness.
If you’ve ever been curious about organic tobacco, Plasencia Reserva Original is blended from Nicaraguan crops certified organic according to Organic Crop Improvement Association (OCIA) standards. Reserva Original is a revival of a Plasencia cigar released in 2003 called Organica. The tobaccos are grown without the aid of herbicides and pesticides, and every leaf of tobacco is aged for a minimum of five years.
In 2019, the Plasencias released Alma del Fuego, a cigar the family considers its tribute to the tobacco of Ometepe, an island, in the middle of Lake Nicaragua, known for its volcanic soil. Alma del Fuego translates to “soul of fire” in Spanish. Because Ometepe tobacco is naturally potent, it must be aged for long periods of time, and the Plasencias allow it to mature for seven years. Ometepe tobacco is reserved for the binder and part of the cigar’s filler, while the remaining filler tobacco and wrapper come from the Plasencias’ farms in Jalapa. The 93-rated blend pulses with zesty notes of coffee bean, clove, and wood.
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