The last RTDA Convention and Trade Show (heretofore called IPCPR) was in Houston, Texas. It was a hot, humid August day (are there any other kind?) and I was, mercifully, in the air-conditioned convention center frantically moving from one exhibit table to the next looking at cigars, talking about cigars, and smoking cigars, along with several thousand other people.

It was late on the second day and I figured I had hit pretty much all of the booths by this time, when I came upon J. Fuego Cigars. Standing in front of the booth was a man wearing a Panama hat and looking fully at ease and laid-back in his surroundings. I had never heard of J. Fuego Cigars, nor had I heard of Jesús Fuego, president and founder of the company. I wandered over and immediately Jesús started up a conversation with me and handed me a cigar. As we talked, I could see that Jesús was a man of complexity and passion, very much like his cigar, which, as it turned out, I was truly enjoying.

I was impressed that, in an industry where people commonly look through you, or over your shoulder, or over their shoulder, when they are talking with you, Jesús was completely different. I had his undivided attention and he had mine. Further, as we continued to enjoy our conversation, I realized that I was LOVING his cigar (Did I say that already?).

I managed to snag one more of his cigars before leaving the trade show and when I returned home I had the opportunity to smoke that cigar and ponder our conversation at length. It didn’t take me long to realize that this was a unique individual, with a unique product, and I wanted to share his story. Jesús readily agreed to an interview and, after a few emails, here is the result of the conversation we had…

In my early years growing up on the farm, tobacco was always an important part of my life. My grandfather was the first to wake up and make the morning coffee while the workers were arriving to our patio to get instructions for the day. I loved to wake up early and follow him around the house. There was always a cigar involved.

My grandfather had three sons; my father was the youngest and he lived in the old family house, while his two brothers, my uncles, also lived on the farm. They would often get together for coffee and cigars after-dinner; and talk about tobacco and fishing, the family hobby. I remember how my mind used to fly while listening to their fishing stories or the stories about the beginnings of the family in the tobacco business.

Those stories of fishing might have been the reason why there was a time when I wanted to be a marine biologist. So, when I turned 17, I went to the University of Havana to study Biology. I pursued my education for three years until I started hanging around with professors and friends who loved the cigars from the “El Corojo” farm. It was at that time when I started smoking cigars and realized my life was not complete outside of the cigar business. So, I moved to the University of Pinar del Rio to become an agricultural engineer and to pursue specialization in tobacco.

DOC: Who have been the people who have most greatly influenced you in terms of the way you approach the tobacco business and in terms of the way that you blend and manufacture cigars?

JESÚS: In that sense, I consider myself lucky. I have developed close relationships with many knowledgeable people and I have received so much help and good examples from a lot of them that it’s hard to tell in a few sentences.

First of all, I can say that my family has been the source of my passion. I can’t forget the mix of satisfaction and pride on the face of my grandfather when, at the end of his life, he contemplated the gorgeous tobacco fields that his sons were able to grow.

I must also credit Nestor Plasencia. Besides treating me like another of his sons and being one of the best tobacco growers ever; he taught me the value of humility. He also renewed my faith in “handshake deals.” I have seen Nestor doing things that are almost impossible, just to hold true to a promise.

Julio Eiroa from “Camacho”, who gave me my first job outside of Cuba and patiently corrected a lot of my bad habits, also introduced me to the use of a lot of different types of tobaccos that I never had the chance to work with before.

At “US Cigar Sales” I had the good fortune to work for Larry Palumbo, Bent Ahm and Edwin Guevara, who invited me to my first cigar trade show and also encouraged me to work more as a blender.

Rocky Patel with his marketing abilities has been, for me, a great example of self-improvement. Working for him helped me to understand that hard work can be fun.

There are many blenders whose work I really admire: Litto Gomez, Oliva, Padrón, Manuel Quezada, Hendrik Kelner, Fuente, Pepin. Like I told you, it’s a long list. 

DOC: Can you tell us a bit about each of your cigar lines?

JESÚS: There are two "J.Fuego" cigars on the market now: "Natural" and "Gran Reserva Corojo No.1". The Natural is a three-country blend of 100% Criollo Cuban seed tobaccos. The Natural is composed of 50% Ligero, 25% Viso, and 25% Seco in the filler, which come from Honduras and Nicaragua. It has a secret Binder and a shade grown Criollo wrapper from Nicaragua.

The Natural is one of my father's favorites blends. In my opinion it's a medium bodied cigar, with a very good balance between sweetness and spiciness. He says he can smoke cigars of that blend, one after the other.

The Gran Reserva Corojo No.1 is a four-country blend of 100% Corojo Cuban seed. It has a filler composed of 66% Ligero from Honduras and Nicaragua and 33% Viso from a secret origin. It has a Costa Rican binder and a Honduran sun grown Corojo wrapper. This is a very complex, medium to full bodied cigar. We worked a lot with this particular blend, especially on the aging part because I wanted a cigar with no harshness, but with a lot of flavor.

DOC: How many cigars do you plan to manufacture this year and how is your distribution coming along?

JESÚS: Second answer first: Our distribution for 2007 exceeded my expectations by far, considering that our advertisement has been mostly word of mouth. We are already selling our cigars in 34 states in the US and getting new customers every day. The feedback has been really good. Thank God, nothing but excellent reviews.

But we are going to stick to the original plan. We are going to keep a close eye on our inventories of raw materials and our capacity for production with well-trained rollers and well-aged tobaccos. Taking a wild guess, I would say that we are not going to produce more than one million cigars in 2008. That figure includes the two cigars lines we are selling already and the new line we are about to release.

Below: Doc and Jesús share a conversation

DOC: I am glad to hear you mention the importance of using well-aged tobaccos because the importance of aging is one of the things we promote at Stogie Fresh. How important is it to age tobacco prior to using it to make cigars? On the average, how long do you age your tobacco/cigars before they hit the marketplace?

JESÚS: In my opinion it is extremely important. The aging process improves the quality of most of the tobaccos that are used today. A well-conducted aging dramatically reduces the aggressive qualities of the tobaccos and enhances the array of subtle flavors that are almost impossible to enjoy in a young tobacco, because of the harshness.

In many cases people talk about the aging referring to the oldest leaf in the blend, not considering that it takes only one young leaf to bring some "aggression" to the smoke. In our case I like to talk about the youngest leaf in the blend.

For example, in our "Natural" the youngest tobacco in the blend is the wrapper and it is 4 years old now. On the "Gran Reserva Corojo No.1" the youngest leaf is the wrapper and it’s already 6 years old. After we roll the cigars, both blends are aged for another 3 months in cedar cases to allow the marriage between the different tobaccos and the cedar.

DOC: Being a small cigar company must have its advantages. What can your company offer the consumer that the bigger companies cannot?

JESÚS: Due to our small production we can do a closer quality control; we can work with smaller crops and for that reason we are able to work with materials that the companies with a large distribution cannot use. In addition, in our case, all the materials used in the "J. Fuego" blends are being grown exclusively for us. With that combination we can offer a product that, if is not the best, at least is unique.

DOC: What can the public expect to see from Jesús Fuego and J. Fuego Cigars in 2008?

JESÚS: We are about to release a new line of "J. Fuego". It's a blend I have been working on for years now. Without getting into details I can tell you that we are very proud of it and I think the serious smokers will enjoy it a lot. Besides that, I hope to keep consistency in the quality of our cigars.