Arturo Fuente
Founded in West Tampa in 1912 and rebuilt three times after fire and revolution, now the largest family-owned premium cigar maker in the Dominican Republic.
Arturo Fuente Sr., a Cuban emigrant, started the business in West Tampa, Florida, in 1912. A fire in 1924 closed it for more than twenty years; his son Carlos Fuente Sr. reopened the operation in Ybor City in 1946 and took ownership in 1958. Production later moved to Nicaragua, where the factory was destroyed during the revolution in 1979, and the family relocated to Santiago in the Dominican Republic in 1980.
The Dominican operation, Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia, grew into one of the largest handmade cigar factories in the country. The catalogue spans everyday Chateau Fuente sizes, the Hemingway figurados introduced in the mid-1980s, the Don Carlos line named for Carlos Fuente Sr., the Anejo, released with Connecticut broadleaf wrapper, and the separate Fuente Fuente OpusX programme built on the family's own Dominican wrapper.
The company remains privately held and is led by Carlos Fuente Jr. and his sister Cynthia Fuente Suarez. Carlos Fuente Sr. died on 5 August 2016 at the age of 81. Fuente also makes cigars under contract for Ashton and produces the Diamond Crown brand for J.C. Newman, a relationship that has run for decades. The company also farms in the Dominican Republic and operates the Cigar Family Charitable Foundation, which runs a school and medical clinic near its land.
Arturo Fuente Chateau Fuente
The original robusto-format Chateau vitola, sold in Natural, Maduro and Sun Grown wrapper options; the base blend recipe is not published by Fuente.
Arturo Fuente Don Carlos Eye of the Shark
A demi-press belicoso - box-pressed at the foot, tapering to a round-capped head - part of Fuente's Shark shape family, and a genuine Cameroon wrapper, an increasingly rare leaf. Released in 2015 and again around 2016 as a tribute marking what would have been Carlos 'Don Carlos' Fuente Sr.'s legacy; filler tobaccos reportedly aged at least ten years. Named Cigar of the Year for 2017 at 97 points; largely allocated and hard to find at retail since.
Arturo Fuente Don Carlos No. 3
The corona-format entry in Fuente's flagship premium line, first blended in 1976 to honor Carlos Fuente Sr.; the Cameroon wrapper is well documented, but Fuente keeps the binder and filler recipe proprietary.
Arturo Fuente Hemingway Short Story
A stubby perfecto and the smallest vitola in the Hemingway line, popular as an after-lunch smoke; the Cameroon wrapper is confirmed, though Fuente does not publish binder or filler origins.