Fall 1996 Volume I Issue 4

Guillermo Leon Herbert's family has been cultivating tobacco for six generations. His grandfather, Don Edwardo Leon Jimenes, founded La Aurora Cigars, located on the outskirts of Santiago, Dominican Republic with little more than a dream. The Leon family began farming tobacco in the late 1880s, and in 1903 Don Edwardo began producing a traditional Dominican cigar -- smooth, sweet, and mild -- for public consumption. Over ninety years later, La Aurora is a giant in the Dominican Republic, producing both the La Aurora and Leon Jimenes lines of cigars, their brew, Presidente (which commands 98% of the Dominican beer market and may be found in select U.S. markets), and their line of machine-made petite cigars. Fernando Leon, Guillermo's father and the master tabacqueriros who developed the Leon Jimenes line in the 1970s, came out of retirement to help his son with their two, new exotic cigars, the Leon Jimenes Torpedo and the Leon Jimenes Cristal, (a perfecto lonsdale in a glass tube). SMOKE caught up with the cigar magnate on his home turf to conduct this exclusive interview....

See the remainder of this article in SMOKE magazine - available at a tobacconist or newsstand near you!