Rico appearing in his newest print advertisement for his flagship Gran Habano premium cigar line.

Considering his background, such attention to detail is hardly a surprise - Rico’s family history in tobacco stretches back to 1920, when his grandfather began growing dark tobacco. His father succeeded him in 1946, and Don Guillermo recalls following him around the fields as a lad and his mother rolling cigars at home. Both his grandfather and father provided tobacco exclusively for domestic consumption through the 1950s and ’60s. And Don Guillermo, like many other tobacco men from tobacco families, took up the business too - that is, until moving from his homeland to the United States in 1995, where he worked as a cabinetmaker in New Jersey. In 1995, he began taking orders for cigar boxes, and saw the boom in sales of raw material to the cigar companies headquartered in Florida. His passion was rekindled, and he founded his own company and pursued his dream once again.

The story sounds familiar, reminiscent of the heritage of many legendary Cuban tobacco and cigar families. Except for the fact that Don Guillermo is Colombian, not Cuban.

Born and raised in Bucaranga, Colombia’s seventh-largest city located in its eastern region, Don Guillermo recalls that tobacco was a part of everyday life there. “In Bucaranga, you see tobacco growing everywhere, mainly in people’s back yards,” he explains. “Tobacco leaves were used as currency in Colombia. People would pay for their meats, vegetables, and other household needs with them. The style of cigars they made for Colombian consumption were ‘Criollos’ (translation: Creoles, a reference to their rustic style), and were sold to farmers, fishermen, and other working-class people.”

As a cigar writer, I must confess - Colombian tobacco is a total mystery to me. I don’t recall ever smoking a cigar that included that country’s leaf, though I’ve read references to it. According to Rico, back in the 1960s, Colombia exported roughly 40 million pounds of dark tobacco to Europe, Japan, and elsewhere and the Bucaranga area alone supplied three to four million Criollos per month to the Colombian and Venezuelan markets. “Smokers in all these countries favor strong tobacco in their cigarettes. Colombian tobacco is somewhat like Mexican tobacco - spicy, peppery, and strong,” says Rico. “Ten years ago, Mexican tobacco was not very popular in cigars, but it has come into its own in the recent past. The tobacco I began selling in 1995 was Colombian ‘Garnica,’ a Cuban-derived local tobacco.”

Under the company name of GR Tabaqueras Unidas, Rico sold his leaf not only to Miami-headquartered cigar makers, but also to the Oliva family, noted leaf brokers in Tampa’s Ybor City. He operated this successful business until 1998, when he went into the cigar manufacturing business himself.

Rico farms tobacco in four different countries - Panama, Nicaragua, Colombia, and Costa Rica - and uses these tobaccos in his own blends.

In 1998, Don Guillermo opened a factory in Danlí, Honduras - STC Cigar Manufacturers - where he developed his new STC line of premium cigars in bundles and sold them to America’s horde of new cigar devotees. He also landed private label cigar customers, and in the 10 years following, the factory’s work force has expanded to 250 - 300 workers and output grown to 15,000 cigars daily. Don Guillermo continued to purchase his own farms, one each in Panama, Nicaragua’s Jalapa Valley, Colombia, and Costa Rica, an emerging hotbed of tobacco, with major holdings by Nestor Plasencia and others. With four farms and a factory in place, he now had control of growing, leaf processing, manufacturing, and marketing - from seed to finished product. Marketing, the last element, was handled by a force of ten independent manufacturers’ representatives, who have built the current retailer base to 1,600 shops.

In 2003, Don Guillermo introduced his Gran Habano family of long-filler, handmade cigars. The brand consists of five blends: Blend #1, a mild but rich cigar with a Connecticut shade wrapper; Blend #3, a medium-bodied cigar in Habano wrapper; Blend #5, a peppery, full-bodied cigar in Corojo wrapper; and 3 Habanos (formerly 3 Siglos), another full-bodied cigar with a shade-grown Nicaraguan wrapper. The latest line is the new Gran Habano Cabinet Selection, also full-bodied, with a Nicaraguan Corojo wrapper. A broad selection of classic shapes is available. All lines retail for $4.00 to $5.50 except for the Cabinet Selection, which retails for $7.50 to $8.00. Don Guillermo uses tobacco from all four countries where he farms, and talks about a special leaf he favors for inclusion in most of his blends. “Cubito leaf is much like Mexican-seed tobacco,” he says. “I find it has great taste, aroma, and power. Although they use it some in the Dominican Republic, most people don’t know how to process it correctly, and this makes blending it difficult. Our method is to press the leaves in barrels, knowing the process is complete when all the moisture has disappeared.”

Don Guillermo insists on consistency in the finished cigars. “Hard-drawing cigars and plugs result from overfilling the bunch,” he explains. “We eliminate the draw problems - a top complaint by smokers - by testing every cigar that comes off our bunchers’ benches with Drawmaster machines.”

First launched in 2003, Gran Habanero is now available in five different blends including the newest Cabinet Selection.

His 29-year-old son, George A. Rico, worked alongside Don Guillermo for nine years, following his university graduation. He learned the intricacies of tobacco properties and of cigar blending until last year, when he started his own company, G.A.R Cigars. Don Guillermo has continued to help George learn the business, and the Danlí factory makes all of G.A.R Cigars’ products. Far from any jealousy or disappointment with his son’s departure from his side, he says, “I am proud that my son has developed the same passion for tobacco and cigars that I have, and see his success as a tabaquero. (For more about George Rico and G.A.R cigars, see Smokeshop, December 2008, pg. 46).

Looking ahead to the annual summertime IPCPR Trade Show, typically a launching pad for manufacturer’s new releases for the year, Don Guillermo is hoping to expand the taste pallet of his next blend.

“I am working on a totally new tobacco, an alternative to the tobacco varieties currently on the market,” says Rico. “I see a sameness in the flavor and aroma of almost all cigars. At present, the tobacco generally available to the makers is grown from only about a half-dozen seed varieties - Habano, corojo, criollo, Connecticut, and others. The only difference between cigars results from planting the seeds in different soils, choice of fertilizers, sun and weather, fermentation techniques, and blending.” In an effort to introduce smokers to an exciting new flavor and aroma in his newest cigars, Rico has been looking at varieties of tobaccos from other countries that are “virtually unknown” in the cigar world. “One source is a Turkish tobacco, much like Latakia, which is commonly used in English-style pipe tobaccos,” explains Rico. “It is possible that our new cigar will contain this leaf for the cigar’s ligero - it is very strong, and has a unique taste, compared to the usual ligero choices that cigar makers use.”

Every bunch is draw-tested before wrapping. Finished cigars are inspected carefully at multiple stages of the production process.

STC Cigar Manufacturers, like many cigar companies, is headquartered in Miami, with office staff and a warehouse from which they ship product to their retailers. His long-standing cadre of ten independent manufacturers’ representatives has served him well over the years, as they have his son’s company (both Ricos use the same group of reps). Don Guillermo is currently promoting his cigars throughout Florida, calling on retailers’ shops, and “pressing the flesh” at cigar events and tastings of his Gran Habano cigars. “This Spring,” he says, “I will travel the country with our reps, meeting the tobacconists that have supported our company. I would like to take this opportunity to express my deep gratitude to the many store owners who were willing to try my cigars. My representatives also deserve my appreciation for their dedicated efforts on our behalf. Together, they had faith in me, and have helped me to stay in the business I love. Every day, I go to work in anticipation of another day. When I close the door at night, I am still refreshed, never tired, although my staff and I work very hard. I do not see myself ever retiring. I believe I would soon die if I could not create my cigars.”

Don Guillermo also supports his retailers with an ambitious campaign for his Gran Habano cigars, including advertisements in Smoke magazine throughout the year. “I will also rely on letting my cigars do the selling,” he says, “by putting samples into the hands of retailers and smokers, so they can experience their quality, performance, and consistency for themselves. They are my best salesmen.”

Rico’s concern over smoking bans, heavy taxation, and regulation - particularly new S-CHIP tax and the looming prospect of the FDA as industry watchdog - is guarded. “Certainly, these are burdens,” he says, “but they do not worry me. It’s like Prohibition in the early Twentieth Century: it will last a while, then it will be gone. In the meantime, cigars over $10.00 will have problems, but their smokers will just move down into the price range of our Gran Habano cigars, from $5.00 to $7.00. Smokers may also drop from four or five cigars a week to one or two. But, historically, those who love fine cigars will always find affordable, quality cigars.”

Like the industry at large, Rico found the first three months of 2009 unusually busy. “Thanks to the approaching S-CHIP tax, we have had the best first quarter in the ten years we’ve been in business,” says Guillermo. “Smokers of Gran Habano cigars need not worry, either - we have not compromised our quality and consistency to rush product to retailers’ shelves. You have my guarantee of this.” With any luck, America’s anti-smoking and rapacious taxation movement will run its course as Rico predicts - sooner rather than later.