The Manila cigar
returns
Hand-rolled in the Philippines · in the tradition of the royal tobacco order of 1782
Before Cuba, Manila
Cuban seed reaches Luzon on the Manila galleon.
By royal order, Governor Basco y Vargas founds the Estanco. The Manila cigar becomes the wealth of the islands.
The monopoly ends; the Tabacalera is born. Manila cigars are smoked from Canton to London.
Air-cured leaf from the Cagayan valley, picked in March.
Pilones turned by hand, then the leaf rests.
Bunching, wrapper, triple cap. Twenty-two years at the bench.
Three cigars. One valley.
Rolled by hand in Laguna, aged eighteen months. A fourth origin for those who thought there were three.
Cedar for twenty-five,
molave for ten
Inside the lid, a lithograph of a Cagayan village from the 1847 album. The box of twenty-five is Spanish cedar branded with the seal. The gift box of ten is reclaimed molave from Paete with a capiz lid, and ships with a Boveda 69 %.
See the boxesBring the Manila cigar
to your market
Importers and distributors who know their market, and the lounges, hotels and boutiques that want a cigar their guests have not tasted before.
Illustration
Find a lounge or a boutique
Addresses, hours and the cigars each one carries
Find a boutique or lounge near you
