As he became an open secret, people beat a path to his door to make new blends.

Ask the top cigar manufacturers and retailers to name the hottest cigar maker in the world right now, and the name you'll likely hear is José "Pepin" Garcia.

Garcia's story is a wild one. Part of the Cuban cigar industry for many years, he had an opportunity to go to Nicaragua in 2001 and leave Havana behind. By 2002 he was in the U.S., and it wasn't long before he caught the attention of long-time Tropical Tobacco sales representative Ben Gehrman, who told Pete Johnson -- then running the cigar shop section of the Grand Havana Room in Beverly Hills, California -- that he might have found the right guy to help Johnson with his dream of making his own brand.

Johnson and Garcia met and, after a lot of discussion and trial, found a blend that Johnson liked. This was the first of what became the red-hot Tatuaje brand, and thanks to Johnson’s wide circle of industry friends, he was able to get the cigars onto the shelves of some important retailers around the country.

People instantly started asking two questions: First, can we get more of these cigars? Second, who makes them?

Soon Garcia had set up a small factory in Miami called El Rey de Los Habanos. As he became an open secret, people beat a path to his door to make new blends. Today, five years later, his facilities in Miami and Nicaragua (the latter called Tabacalera Cubana) produce hit brands such as Johnson's Tatuaje and Cabaiguan, United Tobacco's 601 Serie (blue and green labels), Ashton's San Cristobal and Troya Clasico -- in addition to his own lines, which include Don Pepin Garcia Black Label, Don Pepin Garcia Blue Label, Don Pepin Garcia Serie JJ and Vegas Cubana.

But that's as far as he is going to go.

Asked by connoisseur Gary Arzt in an interview in the February issue of trade journal Smokeshop about introducing new brands, Garcia said:

"No! Only the clients I have up to now. I want these brands to develop: the 601, the blue label, the green label. San Cristobal may expand. And we will develop the Don Pepin Garcia brands: the blue label, the black label, the JJ, as well the Vegas Cubanas and other brands we make in Miami."

That doesn't mean Garcia has rejected growth. In Estelí, he's hard at work building a new, larger Tabacalera Cubana, to handle not just cigar production, but also sorting, curing and fermentation -- while always making sure to maintain overall quality...no matter how big he gets.

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