The Dominican Republic is the world?s largest producer of premium cigars, largely thanks to its perfect environment for growing tobacco. This is one of the reasons Custom Tobacco has partnered with a factory in this Caribbean country to make some of our own house blends.

The start of this plant?s history in the Dominican Republic dates back to when Christopher Columbus wrote that he received tobacco leaves as a gift from the native peoples who had for years used the leaves as part of their customs and ceremonies.

Colonists in Santo Domingo first commercialized the sale of this commodity in 1531. It soon spread to other major cities in the country with independent tobacco farmers enjoying much prosperity.

Germany monopolized tobacco in the Dominican Republic in the middle of the 19th century, buying over 90% of the tobacco in the country. Unfortunately, such a monopoly caused a decline in quality, and the country?s tobacco lost value. But?in the beginning of the 1960s, advances in farming and production were made in. This, coupled with the U.S. blockade on Cuba, gave the Dominican Republic a prime opportunity to become a lead exporter of cigar fillers and binders and numerous cigar companies began establishing themselves in the country, helping to further strengthen its cigar export industry. In the early 1990s during the "cigar boom,"?U.S. consumer demand for Dominican cigars experienced five-fold growth.

Known to this day as ?Cigar Country?, the Dominican Republic holds its place as one of the top cigar and cigar product exporters in the world.