Mexican cigars

Tobacco occurs naturally in certain regions of Mexico, and the history of Mexican cigars can be traced back to the Mayans on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. Could Mexico be the original home of tobacco and cigars? Nobody knows for sure, but evidence suggests that the Mayans smoked tobacco using pipe-like devices and also rolled tobacco leaves together to form a kind of cigar.

Mexico's main tobacco-growing region is in the state of Veracruz, which borders the Gulf of Mexico in the south-eastern part of Mexico. This is where you'll find the lush San Andres Valley, where many of Mexico's finest cigars are produced. This valley boasts ideal climatic conditions for tobacco that resemble those of Vuelta Abajo in Cuba, plus fertile volcanic soil. The most notable of Mexican cigar tobaccos is San Andreas Negro (also known as San Andreas Morron), which is used in the production of capes and wrappers. San Andreas Negro is a small Mexican tobacco plant which, when harvested and processed, produces a black Maduro wrapper. Other tobacco varieties such as Mexican-Sumatra and Connecticut dicot are also successfully grown in the San Andreas Valley.

In addition, Mexico has become a major supplier of tobacco to cigar manufacturers in other countries, notably the Dominican Republic. With its high-quality Maduro wrapper leaf, which many cigar brands from other countries use for their cigars. In addition to the popular maduro wrapper it exports, Mexico also produces many high-end cigars with 100% Mexican tobacco (puros), traditionally made for decades since the Mexican government enforced a law stating that cigars throughout the country had to be puros.

Then, in 1996, this law was repealed, and now there are also Mexican producers who blend tobacco from one or two different countries, creating a unique blend.

Although there has been some criticism of Mexican cigars in the past over their build quality, this is exaggerated as there are many good producers in Mexico's Andres San Valley. They produce many high-quality cigars and are beginning to give the Mexican cigar industry a higher profile.

That said, whether or not you like Mexican cigars is a matter of personal preference, but Mexico has continued to produce top-of-the-range cigars with their own unique flavors and aromas.