When we think about premium hand-rolled cigars we think about tobacco grown in the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua and Cuba.  But we seldom hear about The United States when it comes to premium cigars.  When it comes to tobacco in America, we tend to hear about Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina and their cigarette and pipe tobaccos—but what about quality cigar tobacco?

The United States is not a stranger or an outsider to the world of premium cigars.  While tobacco can basically be grown anywhere within a temperate to tropical climate zone, it does have many specific needs to be a quality, flavorful and attractive crop.  And in America you will find tobacco grown not only in the mid-Atlantic states, but as far north as New England and as far south as Florida. But is this tobacco good enough to find itself in a premium cigar?

Let’s start in the north and work our way south.  The best example by far of premium cigar tobacco in the USA is Connecticut.  Tobacco Valley, siting along the Connecticut River north of Hartford, is world renown for both Connecticut shade tobacco (which produces the most expensive wrapper leaf and can be found on many of the best non-Cuban cigars) and Connecticut broadleaf, used both as a binder leaf and a top quality wrapper for maduro cigars.  Having lived in this area for 10 years I can tell you that this is some serious farming and serious business.  This is some of the best tobacco in the world for wrapper leaf, which tends to be by far the most expensive component of a cigar.  And with a little searching you can even find a Connecticut puro…Tatauje La Casita Criolla is an example of an all Connecticut broadleaf cigar which unfortunately is a cigar we do not carry as of yet! 

Heading down I-95, we run into Pennsylvania where some broadleaf tobacco is grown.  While the soil in the Lancaster County area of Pennsylvania is not as rich and fertile as Connecticut, a very high quality tobacco is still grown there.  This is a tobacco that has been grown there for many years, but was not widely recognized.  However, major players like Rocky Patel and AJ Fernandez have taken a keen interest in the area and are now using this leaf in some of their blends as a wrapper—and to rave reviews.  Sam Leccia White, which can be found in your local ABC, uses a leaf as filler also!

We’ll stop briefly in Kentucky where we can find some Kentucky fire cured or dark fire tobacco.  A new addition to the world of cigars, this tobacco is dried over hardwood fires to impart a smoky flavor and one can find this tobacco as filler in Drew Estates KFC and Sam Leccia Black.  Definitely a tobacco worth trying!

A brief jaunt over to Louisiana finds perique…not very common in premium cigars as of yet but slowly making its powerful and very strong flavor known!

Our final stop brings us back home to Florida.  Florida was once a thriving area for tobacco farming, but over the past few years has dwindled away to being basically non-existent.  Like much of the USA, labor costs here compared to Central America have killed the market—except where a truly exceptional leaf such as Connecticut shade or broadleaf can be grown.  Soil quality, rainfall and temperature, along with labor cost, dictate where premium tobacco is grown.  However, I hear reports of some tobacco growing out in Clermont with Florida Sun Grown…half the fields are corojo and the other half are criollo.  So maybe we will see Florida return to its past tobacco growing glory!

The best cigar is the one you enjoy,

Steve Mungeer

ABC Fine Wine & Spirits cigar & gourmet products planner and certified retail tobacconist

Follow me on Twitter @abccigarmungo.