Whether you are a smoker or not, chances are at some point in your life you might have had cigar envy.
For some, there’s just something eye-catching and inherently trendy about firing up a stogie.
When it comes to cigars, it’s no secret that Cubans are top of the line, but of course ever since the 1962 embargo, everything with a “Made in Cuba” sticker became illegal here. But there’s another coveted option: Nicaraguans.
They come highly recommended by true cigar aficionados and are arguably just as good. Other countries like the Dominican Republic and Honduras make their own cigars, but since Cuba was the first officially recognized nation to cultivate, they’ve become the gold standard to which all others are judged.
Tres Lindas Cubanas Cigars, a black-owned cigar line is carving out a name for itself in the industry. BlackEnterprise.com caught up with twins Yvonne and Yvette Rodriguez, two of the four partners in the company, to talk about how they got into the industry and the family legacy that led them to a lucrative enterprise.
They recall memories of growing up on South Florida, where their grandmother would smoke cigars. The partners began working on starting the business last year after a trip out to Costa Rica.
“We were sitting by the pool and we met a gentleman who owns a cigar factory in Nicaragua. We frequent cigar shops on the regular and we partnered up to receive cigars from him regularly and before we knew it we were hashing out blends,” the sisters recall.
Tobacco flavor comes off the soil and climate of a location before it is harvested. By January they had a team in place here and in Nicaragua to grow, blend and roll the leaves and since then they haven’t looked back.
They created and market their cigar line in the spirit and reflection of today’s cigar aficionado; Urban sophistication and yet traditional.
Check out more on how the business began on the next page …
The sisters add that they wanted to maintain the legacy of their parents and other people who have been involved in their lives that had their hands in the cigar industry.
That resolve to honor the past is rooted in the core of the industry.
The story behind the the cigar line, the families that blend them and where the tobacco leaves come from are just as important to the brand as the cigar itself.
Tres Lindas Cubanas Cigars is named after a Cuban song and celebrates the beauty of the Cuban woman. Each blend is named and categorized by their different skin tones, such as La Negrita, their strongest blend.
Although they say their business is becoming increasingly lucrative, they do agree that it is a male-dominated industry. Their clientele is also mostly male, but they have several large groups of women as consumers.
Their advice to up and comers who want to engage this space?
“Marketing works great. You need to make sure you have a good product because cigar smokers are very critical and competitive. It’s a sample before sale business. You only have one chance to impress the smoker.”
Tres Lindas is also paying it forward. They took the local route to support small businesses. The team says they manufacture their boxes done in Miami and the cigar band was designed by a local artist in Little Havana, a woman who used to work in a cigar factory in Cuba.
“Consumers are drawn to that. Grab whatever edge or niche you can carve out for your brand. Research and try to think outside the box.”