Arturo Fuente A passion for cigars

All cigar aficionados are familiar with the name Fuente.

Arturo Fuente is one of the most sought-after cigar brands in the world, and certainly the most famous Dominican cigar brand among aficionados. Since 1912, this family-run business has gone from strength to strength, despite the many obstacles that have stood in its way, and is now one of the biggest names in the premium cigar industry. Passion, quality, tradition and resilience are the watchwords of this brand of excellence, which we invite you to discover in this article.

The origins of the brand: the birth ofArturo Fuente & Cie

The brand's history began in 1902, when a young Cuban immigrant namedArturo Fuente arrived in Tampa, Florida, at the age of 14. He and his family settled in Ybor City, a Tampa neighborhood populated by Cuban, Italian and Spanish immigrants known for its many cigar factories. In 1912, at the age of 24, Arturo Fuente founded Arturo Fuente & Company at 813 Francis Street in West Tampa. For more than 10 years, the company enjoyed success with its cigars rolled entirely with Cuban tobacco, and by 1922 had no fewer than 500 employees.

But in 1924, the first of many hardships befell the Fuente company. While Arturo was in Cuba buying tobacco, the Tampa factory burned to the ground. He would spend the next 22 years of his life working as a manager to pay off the debts left by his ruined company.

Like a phoenix...

Nevertheless, Arturo Fuente was not resigned and continued to make cigars from his family home. In 1946, more than 20 years after the fire at his Tampa factory, he repeated the experience and opened a new company, Arturo Fuente Cigar Factory, which he set up in the backyard of his family home. Every evening after school, Arturo's sons Arturo Junior and Carlos recount how their father would ask each of them to roll 50 cigars before letting them go about their business. All the cigars made by the Fuente family were produced from tobacco leaves grown in Cuba and sold directly from the family home.

In 1954, Carlos Fuente and his wife Anna Lopez gave birth to Carlos Fuente Junior (Carlito). Two years later, Arturo Fuente, then aged 68, retired and bequeathed the reins of the family business to his son Carlos. Driven by the same passion as his father, Carlos planned to expand the family business. He began selling cigars on credit and worked to expand the Fuente brand outside Tampa. In the early 60s, he opened his first distribution plant in Miami.

But it was in 1962, just before the American embargo, that Carlos Fuente pulled off his first masterstroke, purchasing the equivalent of 3 years' stock of Cuban tobacco. While many cigar factories in Tampa had no choice but to close their doors after the embargo, the Arturo Fuente Cigar Factory managed to survive thanks to this visionary investment . These stocks also gave Carlos the time he needed to imagine the brand's future without Cuban tobacco. He began experimenting with different blends and, in 1966, launched the Flor de Orlando cigar. Produced without Cuban tobacco, this first blend was a success and enabled Carlos Fuente to look forward to a bright future.

Resilience through thick and thin

With inflation on the rise in the United States in the early 70s, and a lack of experienced workers to renew his teams, Carlos Fuente decided to open manufacturing plants in Puerto Rico and Mexico. These years were also marked by the death ofArturo Fuente, founder of the Fuente brand and patriarch of the family. With the help of his son Carlito, Carlos continues to develop the family business. 

Disappointed by the quality of the blends produced in his Mexican and Puerto Rican factories, he finally decided to open a factory in the Esteli region of Nicaragua. During the 3 years of this Nicaraguan adventure, the brand grew and produced up to 18,000 cigars a day. But in 1978, the Sandinista Revolution forced the Fuente family to reconsider their plans. The Esteli factory was burnt down by Sandinista forces, and Carlos was forced to leave the country in a hurry. After these events, Carlos once again opened a new factory, this time in Honduras. But once again, the adventure was short-lived, and the factory was destroyed by fire. During this period, only the Ybor City plant kept Fuente afloat.

The consecration of the brand Arturo Fuente

After a meeting with the Oliva family, Carlos Fuente decided to leave the United States and set up his new production plant, Tabacalera A. Fuente & Cie, in Santiago, Dominican Republic. In 1981, the Hemingway series was introduced to the public and quickly became a classic among aficionados. In March 1984, Cigar Connoisseur magazine published a glowing article on this prestigious series, helping the brand to acquire an international reputation. But it was in 1988 that the seeds of an extraordinary project were sown in Carlito Fuente's mind, marking the history of Arturo Fuente cigars forever. 

During a visit to Château de la Fuente by the owner of the famous Paris-based Boutique 22, the latter complimented Carlos Jr on the quality of production, telling him that he had never seen a factory of such quality. But after this well-deserved compliment, he adds that the Fuente brand will never be considered one of the world's greatest brands, because the Fuente family simply assembles cigars rather than produces them. This statement left a deep impression on Carlito, and from then on he set about designing cigars from scratch. At the time, no one had ever succeeded in growing quality wrapper leaves on Dominican soil. Many voices in the industry told Carlito that his project would never come to fruition.

But this was to underestimate the resilience and abysmal knowledge of this child of the cigar, brought up in the tobacco tradition. Carlito planted over 37 hectares of Corojo plants at Château de la Fuente and worked with patience and determination to develop what would become the 1st high-quality Dominican Wrapper . He called this project "Project X from Planet 9", and by 1995, Fuente Fuente Opus X was ready. 

Over the next 20 years, this exceptional cigar was rated more than 150 times by Cigar Aficionado and Cigar Insider magazines. Most of these magazines gave it scores of between 92 and 95 points, and in 2005, the Fuente Fuente Opus X Double Corona was voted "best cigar of the year". Today, the Fuente family produces over 30 million cigars a year, and only 700,000 Fuente Fuente Opus X. Even today, it remains one of the most eagerly awaited and sought-after cigars by aficionados the world over.

Tobacco in your veins

In 1998, the family suffered another blow when Hurricane Georges swept through the Château de la Fuente plantations. More than 19 tobacco barns and numerous crops were destroyed. After this umpteenth ordeal, Carlos Fuente's morale began to falter and, for the first time in his life, he thought it might be time to give up his dream. But his son Carlito reminded him of all the sacrifices he had made to get where he was, and gave him the strength to start again, only better. Together, they rebuilt the factory and made many improvements. 

In 2012, the Arturo Fuente brand celebrated its 100th anniversary. This was an opportunity for the Fuente family to look back at the journey taken by three generations of tobacco enthusiasts. From the family home in Tampa, USA, to Château de la Fuente in the Dominican Republic, Arturo, Carlos and Carlos Junior have succeeded in turning their shared passion into a family empire celebrated the world over. Today, the 4th generation of the Fuente family continues to work with the same passion for tobacco and the same attention to detail. For Carlos, it's all about "doing things the way they should be done", without haste or carelessness. With their rich, full-bodied aromas and impeccable construction, Arturo Fuente cigars continue to make us dream.