Premium Cigars | Cuban Creations Cigar Lounge | New Orleans

There are cigar brands that are celebrated. And then there is Padron, a brand that has earned more 90-plus ratings from Cigar Aficionado than any other manufacturer in history and has been named Cigar of the Year a record three times. It is, quite simply, the benchmark by which all other premium cigars are judged.

The Padron story began not in a factory, but in a struggle for survival. Jose Orlando Padron was born in Cuba in 1926, the son of a tobacco-farming family whose roots traced to the rich Pinar del Rio region, the same volcanic soil that produced tobacco favored by Winston Churchill and John F. Kennedy. When the Castro regime nationalized the family farm in 1961, Jose fled Cuba with nothing. He arrived in Miami, mowed lawns, did carpentry with a small hammer given to him by a friend, and saved every cent. In September 1964, with $600 in his pocket, he opened his first cigar operation. His first smokes sold for 25 cents each. Today, Padron cigars are among the most sought-after premiums on the planet.

In 1912, a 24-year-old Cuban immigrant named Arturo Fuente opened a small cigar factory in West Tampa, Florida. In the 113 years since, the Fuente family has survived no fewer than eight fires, two hurricanes, political upheaval, and every challenge the cigar world could throw at them. Today, Tabacalera A. Fuente produces more than 30 million cigars a year, all by hand, in three factories in the Dominican Republic. It is one of the most extraordinary stories in the history of American business.

The cigar that defines the Fuente legacy is the Fuente Fuente Opus X, introduced in 1995. When Carlos Fuente Jr. announced he was going to grow quality wrapper tobacco in the Dominican Republic, the rest of the industry laughed. No one believed Dominican soil could produce a wrapper leaf worthy of a world-class cigar. Carlito planted Cuban-seed Corojo tobacco under shade at Chateau de la Fuente, the family farm, and proved every skeptic wrong. The Opus X became the world's first Dominican puro and is now considered by many to be one of the greatest cigars ever made, rivaled only by Cuban Cohiba.

In 1848, two cousins named Jose and Eusebio Alfonso opened a small cigar factory in Santiago de Las Vegas, a province of Havana, Cuba. They named their new brand after the most celebrated Romantic poet of the age, Lord Byron, whose passion, brilliance, and larger-than-life character made him a legend across two continents. Some cigar historians believe that Byron became the first cigar brand in history to adorn a lithographed cigar band and label with a name on it.

The brand survived for decades, fell on hard times during the Great Depression, and disappeared entirely in the 1930s. Nearly 170 years after those first cigars were rolled in Havana, Nelson Alfonso, the great-great-great-grandson of the original founders, recovered the Byron name and reintroduced it to the world in 1998. Today, Byron is handcrafted in limited quantities at the Tabacos de Costa Rica factory, where every cigar is aged for a minimum of five years after rolling in cedar and French oak chambers. The aging process uses five distinct types of cedar: Cuban, Spanish, Lebanese, Brazilian, and Mexican, creating a depth of aromatic complexity that few cigars in the world can match.

If there is one cigar in our humidor that inspires genuine reverence among those who know premium tobacco, it is Atabey. Created in 2012 by Nelson Alfonso of Selected Tobacco, produced in small quantities at the Tabacos de Costa Rica factory, and aged for a minimum of five years before a single one reaches the market, Atabey is not merely a cigar. It is a meditation on patience, craftsmanship, and the pursuit of perfection.

The name Atabey comes from the Taino people, the indigenous inhabitants of the Caribbean islands before European contact. Atabey was their supreme deity, the mother goddess who represented the moon, the sea, fertility, and birth. It was the Taino people who first smoked a primitive form of what we know today as a cigar, offering prayers to Atabey through sacred ceremony. Each vitola in the Atabey line carries the name of a Taino spiritual ceremony: Idolos, Divinos, Brujos, Sabios, Delirios, Ritos. Smoking an Atabey is, in every sense of the word, a ceremony.

What makes Atabey technically extraordinary is its unique aging protocol. After rolling, every cigar is placed in a climate-controlled cedar room lined with five distinct cedar varieties: Cuban, Spanish, Lebanese, Brazilian, and Mexican. The humidity is deliberately cycled, dropping to 40 percent before being restored to 70 percent, allowing the tobacco to swell, contract, and absorb the aromatic qualities of all five woods. The result is a flavor profile of extraordinary complexity: creamy cedar, sweet almond, honey, white pepper, maple, vanilla, and dried fruit. The Cigar Authority has awarded multiple Atabey vitolas a perfect 100-point rating.

There is a story in the cigar world that every true aficionado knows. It is the story of Jose Pepin Garcia, a boy from Baez, Cuba, who rolled his first cigar at the age of eleven and spent the next four decades mastering his craft at some of Cuba's most legendary factories, including Montecristo, Cohiba, and Romeo y Julieta. He trained hundreds of rollers in the classic Cuban style. And then, at the age of 52, he left Cuba with his family and started over.

In 2003, Pepin and his son Jaime opened a small factory in Miami's Little Havana. What followed was nothing short of meteoric. The Garcias brought a Cuban-style construction and Cubanesque blending philosophy that the American premium cigar market had not seen since before the embargo. Cigar Aficionado named Pepin Garcia America's Hottest Cigar Maker. Their factory in Esteli, Nicaragua, now sprawls across seven acres and produces approximately 24 million handmade cigars annually. My Father The Judge Grand Robusto was named Cigar of the Year with a score of 98 points. The Flor de Las Antillas was also named Cigar of the Year. The Garcia family has achieved what almost no one else in the industry has: sustained excellence at massive scale, without ever sacrificing quality.

Nick Perdomo Jr. was working as an air traffic controller at Miami International Airport in 1992. He had no cigar industry experience. What he had was a family legacy that ran deeper than almost anyone in the business. His grandfather, Silvio Perdomo, had apprenticed at Cuba's legendary Cuesta y Cia and later rose to executive positions at Partagas and H. Upmann, two of the most celebrated cigar factories in Cuban history. His father, Nick Perdomo Sr., followed the same path, rising to the top of Cuba's cigar establishment before the revolution tore everything apart. Silvio was arrested and imprisoned for fourteen years. Nick Sr. survived gunshot wounds from the revolution, shielded by Uruguayan embassy officials who covered him with their country's flag. These were not ordinary cigar people. These were survivors.

In August 1992, Nick Jr. started Nick's Cigar Co. in his garage with three rollers and his wife Janine as packer. He rejected the prevailing trend toward mild cigars and instead built bold, full-bodied smokes with Central American tobacco and Ecuadorian wrappers. When the cigar boom arrived, his timing was perfect. Today, Tabacalera Perdomo in Esteli, Nicaragua, is the second largest cigar factory in the country, employing over 4,800 people and producing more than 10 million cigars annually. Each cigar undergoes 17 rigorous quality checks. Every leaf is fermented for a minimum of three years. It is the American dream, realized through three generations of passion, sacrifice, and extraordinary tobacco.