Jaime Garcia
Master blender at My Father Cigars and creator of the 2008 blend that gave the company its name and flagship line.
Jaime Garcia learned the trade alongside his father in Cuba and then in Miami, where the family opened El Rey de los Habanos in 2003. He moved from rolling into blending, and in 2008 created the cigar released as My Father, a Nicaraguan blend with a Habano oscuro wrapper that became the company's flagship and gave the business its name.
His subsequent work includes Le Bijou 1922, Flor de las Antillas and the line released under his own name, Jaime Garcia Reserva Especial. He also blends much of the contract production the factory handles for other companies, which means his work reaches the market under labels that do not carry his name. Blending for clients means matching a brief set by someone else rather than following his own preference.
Within the family structure he leads blending and tobacco selection while his sister Janny runs operations and their father remains involved technically. The family's Nicaraguan farms give him direct control over much of the leaf he works with, an advantage most blenders do not have. Working with leaf grown by the same company that rolls it allows blends to be adjusted at the field stage rather than only at the bench.