Plasencia Cigars

Plasencia Cigars is a five-generation grower-manufacturer that started in 1865, when Don Eduardo Plasencia began growing tobacco in Cuba's Vuelta Abajo. After the family farms were taken in the 1960s, the Plasencias rebuilt in Nicaragua, were forced out again in 1978, and restarted in Honduras before returning to Nicaragua in 1990. They now farm and process leaf in Estelí, Jalapa, Condega, Ometepe, and Honduran valleys, and they rank among the largest independent tobacco growers and cigar manufacturers in Central America. Nestor Plasencia Sr. remains the family patriarch. His son Nestor Andrés Plasencia leads the consumer brand, with brothers Gustavo and José Luis on the commercial side.

For most of that history the family grew tobacco and rolled cigars for other companies. The house marca arrived in the mid-2010s, when they launched Plasencia (also called Plasencia 1865) with Alma Fuerte, Alma del Campo, Alma del Fuego, Reserva Original, and harvest-dated Cosecha cigars such as Cosecha 146, named for the family's 146th crop since 1865. Alma Fuerte and related Nicaraguan puros are closely tied to Plasencia Estelí ("The Cathedral"). Cosecha blends typically mix Honduras and Nicaragua and sit with the Honduran flagship El Paraíso. Who makes Plasencia cigars? The family does: they grow the leaf and roll the Alma, Cosecha, and 1865 lines in their own factories.

Plasencia is still a major contract factory. The longest partnership on this map is with Rocky Patel / Rocky Patel Premium Cigars in Honduras. El Paraíso also produces cigars for Tatuaje, Southern Draw, and Padilla. Altadis U.S.A. has used Plasencia capacity for Nicaraguan Montecristo (NC) and Romeo y Julieta (NC) programs. Estelí rooms have taken contract or overflow work for Espinosa lines such as Murciélago and Knuckle Sandwich. Scandinavian Tobacco Group / General Cigar holds a minority stake. That does not make Plasencia an STG house brand. The farms, factories, and Alma catalog remain family-run.