View the Jesus Fuego interview

CP - When did you first become involved with cigar
tobacco?
JF - I was involved with it at one point or the other basically my entire life. I was born in Pinar del Rio (Cuba) and
raised in the family house on the farm. In that area it was
very common to live on a farm. My grandfather, his three
sons and I all lived inside the farm. When I was about
seventeen years old I thought I wanted to be a marine
biologist so I went to Havana University. I studied there
for three years before I realized that I was missing the
tobacco fields so I switched to a different university and
studied agriculture. I eventually graduated but stayed at
the university as an assistant professor. During my last
year at the university I taught classes about post harvest
tobacco. Back then not many people were spending
much time researching that area. I asked the university
for permission to study fermentation and they granted it
to me, and that is what I did my thesis on.
CP - Where is your family originally from?
JF - The first J. Fuego came from Spain to Cuba in 1876.
They established themselves in the Pinar del Rio region.
For three generations they grew tobacco in the “El
Corojo” region. They only grew the tobacco then. They
would grow it and sell it to other companies. The companies that bought the tobacco would sort it, ferment it, and
sell it to the factories. My grandfather was the one who
decided to take it to the next level. He bought a piece of
the original “El Corojo” farm and began sorting and fermenting his own tobacco. He called that farm “Corojo
No.1”. Like other families in the vicinity, he saw the
advantage in getting vertically integrated. This allowed
him to sell the sorted and fermented tobacco directly to
the factories. The area that my family came from was big
on the growing and farming aspects of tobacco production. That tobacco would usually be sold to warehouses
directly in Havana, or directly to places outside of Cuba
such as the Canary Islands in Spain, Tampa in the U.S.
It was inside the warehouses where they did most of the
tobacco aging.
CP - Why, and when did you make the move from
Cuba to Honduras?
JF - Ten years ago I was offered a contract in Honduras
to work for a cigar company. So I moved there and
stayed. I worked for a couple different cigar companies in
Honduras mostly on the sorting and fermentation end. I
was doing the same thing I did in Cuba, post harvest
tobacco. Out of those ten years, I spent about five of
them doing everything (as a pre-industry technician) from
farming tobacco to cigar production - fermentation, sorting, aging, inventory, you name it.
CP - Did you just find that you enjoyed post harvest
aspects of the business more than the farming?
JF - I found it to be a little bit more interesting. I was more
into the final product. I like the mystique of blending,
using different tobaccos from different farms, and everything about it. There was a strong tradition of farming
where I come from, but it was limited to that. It was a
great place to learn how to grow premium tobacco. Pinar
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del Rio is basically a tobacco growing area.
So many people are involved with the growing, sorting, and fermenting of the tobacco.
There was never a need for a factory there.
Factories were mostly in the areas where a lot
of workers were available such as Havana or
the central part of the country where they
grew sugar cane. The farm areas didn’t
employ many people, and so the factories
were established in heavily populated areas.
CP - Do you miss teaching the agriculture
courses?
JF - No. I was doing more research than actually teaching. The courses I did teach were
mostly post-grad. It’s very common in agriculture to start with the basics. Eventually you
want to become more specialized so you take
postgraduate classes for more emphasis in a
certain area. The major university that had
more emphasis in tobacco was in Pinar del
Rio. There weren’t other universities in Cuba
that offered agriculture degrees. The other
universities did not have as intensive training
in tobacco as Pinar del Rio did. I also taught
soil chemistry related to tobacco before I left
Cuba. Teaching is fun - it’s a lot of fun. I really like the human interaction. That is why I like
cigar stores. There is a lot of camaraderie.
The environment in a cigar store is really
unique. It’s a place where I feel really good.
It’s a relaxed place, with relaxed people.
CP - Where did you work in Cuba after
school?
JF - After college I worked full-time Monday
through Friday with a government tobacco
company called Tabacalera San Luis. On the
weekends I would also help out at the university.
CP - Where did you learn to roll cigars?
JF - I learned how to roll cigars in the countryside. Those were the kind of cigars that you
rolled to smoke at that moment. I found
myself a fairly experienced guy in that area
since I was around it my whole life. When I
moved to Central America I got more involved
in the factory side of the business. I liked it a
little bit better. I learned a lot there. I brought
what I knew from Cuba and learned more
while I was in Honduras.
CP - So you started out in Pinar del Rio,
then moved to Honduras, and now you’re
in Miami?
JF - I moved to the U.S. in December of 2006.
CP - You are very close with the Plasencia
family. How long have you had that relationship?
JF - My family and the Plasencia family have
a very long history. It goes back to 1876. They
came to Pinar del Rio first. My family came a
little bit later. Both families have been in
Cuba for five generations with only a dirt road
separating the two farms. My father and
Nestor Plasencia Sr. were born only a couple
of months apart. They were raised together,
went to school together, and were best
friends. Nestor Plasencia Jr. and I were the
same way. Nestor Plasencia’s father and my
grandfather were also raised together, and
their parents were raised together. So it is a
very old relationship. When I came to Central
America the Plasencias were, in my opinion,
the top grower in the area. I was always doing
business with them.
CP - You guys must have had a lot of fun
together in Honduras experimenting.
JF - I was always talking with Nestor Jr. about
new things. Their family is really interested in
experimenting with new seeds and new
regions. They are really into optimizing tobacco production. At the end of the boom there
was a lot of buying and selling farms. So the
Plasencia family acquired some farms in different places in Central America. Tobacco
had never before been grown on some of
those farms. I remember back then Nestor Jr.
was always talking about growing true corojo
with Cuban seeds. Those seeds are very
good but they have big problems. They are
weak in regard to being very susceptible to
diseases – blue mold, black shank, etc. So
the ideal place to grow those seeds is a place
that hasn’t had a previous infestation of any
particular disease. So we made the first
experiments there on small plots.
CP - What made you take the leap to
launch two cigar brands after being in one
aspect or another of the business your
whole life?
JF - I decided to finalize the project in 2006. I
always wanted to make a cigar with the J.
Fuego name. Before this it was always a
brand and name used for raw materials. It
was a family of growers who supplied factories with tobacco. I felt like I was missing
something, and became interested in the
cigar part of it. Nestor came to me and
showed me the tobacco that came from the
experiments on those small plots. My father
and I made some blends with the tobacco that
had at that point been aging for a year. We
loved the blend. It was similar to my J. Fuego
Corojo No. 1., but at that point it wasn’t
named J. Fuego. It was just an idea between
friends. So I actually went to Nestor Jr. and
told him, “One day if you want to do something nice, I mean wow, keep this tobacco for
yourself, don’t sell it, you have plenty of other
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tobacco to sell.” So he went to his father,
Nestor Sr., and told him that these farms
could yield some really good tobacco. Sr.
already knew that these farms were good, but
they were small producing farms. The
Plasencias usually sell to large companies
with large inventories. So the tobacco from
the farms that I made a couple of blends with
couldn’t be offered to a lot of their big customers because it was small production.
When I finally decided in 2006 that I wanted to
go on my own, I went to Nestor because I saw
what he could do with some of the other companies he was working with. So I naturally
wanted to make it with him.
CP - Did you already have this small batch
tobacco and that blend in your head?
JF - I had that tobacco in my head somehow,
but I wasn’t thinking that I could be fortunate
enough to use it for myself. I didn’t perceive
myself as important enough to have the
opportunity to make blends with that tobacco.
It was more like she is too beautiful and too
rich and I am too ugly, too fat, and too poor.
We had a really good relationship and I
always knew that I would have cooperation
with the Plasencia family. I was basically
interested in two tobaccos: sun grown Cuban
seed corojo from the small batch farms, and
the criollo seed. I am always interested in
criollo seed. I think it’s a very good seed.
Criollo has mostly been sun grown for binder
and filler. We thought that it would be nice to
have that same rich flavor with the criollo
seed, but not as sharp. To make it true criollo.
CP - What is true criollo?
JF - Criollo means native. It is the native seed
that has been in Cuba forever. The other
seeds are true as well, but they have been
genetically modified. They have gone through
some sort of modification to make them more
resistant to disease.
CP - So when cigar manufacturers refer to
criollo – are they referring to the native
Cuban seed?
JF - Some people use criollo to refer to
“native” seed from another place. It’s not
wrong to say that you are using Honduran
criollo tobacco. In that case you aren’t talking
about Cuban seed tobacco, you are talking
about Honduran seed that has been grown in
Honduras for a very long time.
CP – After you decided to make a cigar
line, how did you get the ball rolling?
JF - I went to Nestor and told him I want to
make a cigar. Nestor Jr. is a very enthusiastic
person. He loves the factory aspect. He’s
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really into that environment. I talked to both
Nestor Sr. and Jr., and told them that I wanted to make a project together. I had this idea
and I wanted to make cigars in the Cuban tradition that I learned, and also something that
I can be proud of because I want to put my
family name on it. So Nestor Sr. listened to
me and wanted to know my plan. I wanted to
start small and make something to grow with.
I didn’t want to make something crazy. Mainly,
I wanted to make something that we liked, a
cigar for us. In talking with Nestor Sr. and Jr. I
learned that they had been expanding and
growing more tobacco in those small batch
farms little by little every year. Talking with
them that day was one of the happiest days of
my life – well, aside from the days that my
daughters were born. I wanted something
really unique. I wasn’t saying that I wanted to
make the best cigar in the world, but I wanted
to make something that I could really enjoy.
So Nestor Sr. and Jr. listened to my plan. It
was pretty funny actually the way I found out
I could use that tobacco. During a conversation Nestor asked me “What are you doing on
Monday?” I told him not much, this and
that…so he drove me around some farms in
Nicaragua, and at the end of the day he took
me to a warehouse in Nicaragua, and later in
Honduras. Nestor Sr. asked if I knew what it
was that we were looking at – I said sure,
more tobacco. Sr. told me “This is the tobacco you and my son were running your mouths
about. It’s still here. It hasn’t been used.”
CP - I personally think that is how some of
the best cigars are made. Those who follow their own taste tend to have a lot more
enthusiasm to produce the best cigar they
can, and something truly unique can come
out of it.
JF - In my opinion there is always a very personal part to a cigar. It is true that I cannot
make a cigar that is going to please everybody. But at least I can start by pleasing
somebody. That is how I wanted to approach
this.
CP - So all that small batch tobacco has
just been sitting there?
JF - That crop was six years old by the time
they started storing the tobacco there. But
that crop was a little small because the leaves
weren’t very broad and we didn’t get enough
wrapper tobacco out of them. So mainly I
realized that we had enough tobacco to make
a consistent boutique cigar with tobacco that
was five years old or older. That was the case
for wrappers. Filler was a little different since
they were able to start accumulating it since
day one. We tried the tobacco again and it
was in a lot better condition. Nestor said that
he wasn’t offering it to anyone because he
was only selling to big companies and there wasn’t
enough of it. If I wanted it then I could use it. Now we
have 50 people rolling J. Fuego cigars and we are training more to roll. I train all of the rollers myself. I don’t
teach them because I think it’s the best way, but because
it is the way I know and feel comfortable with. Nestor was
kind enough to let me have those rollers work only on my
cigars.
CP - Is it hard to control quality now that you are in
Miami?
JF - I have a guy overseeing the production. I think a
more appropriate term would be helping as opposed to
overseeing. The reason I have that guy there is not
because we are afraid to receive the wrong product. I
can trust the Plasencias enough to know that it will get
done right. It is because I know I want something that is
fairly complicated. I see it as a way of saying thank you.
We have someone there to collaborate with the
Plasencias. The Plasencias have a really big operation
and are very busy.
CP - Why did you choose to do the Gran Corojo No.
1? What made you choose that blend?
JF - I always had that blend in the back of my mind. I
think the term full-flavored better describes my ideal
cigar than full-bodied. I like to smoke a cigar that has
complexity. I want to smoke a cigar that is not the same
all the way. I want a cigar that changes and gives me different waves as it burns down. We blended four different
farm’s tobaccos. Everything is corojo and everything is
sun grown. The Corojo No. 1 is on the full-bodied side.
Outside of that there are two crops that were grown in the
same season, and the other two were from other seasons. A cigar is basically flavor and strength. You get flavor and complexity by blending tobacco from different
places, different soils, and different origins. The soil and
weather creates different flavor profiles also. Strength
comes from playing with the balance of different thicknesses and textures of the leaves. We made a cigar as
complex as we could counting on the fact that we’ll
always have materials to meet the demand that we are
having. That is the case of the corojo. The natural is
100% criollo Cuban seed. We blended three different
farms. We were looking for the flavor of the criollo, but
not as sharp. I wanted a cigar that would appeal to a lot
of people. I want a cigar that was not too strong. One
that a mild cigar smoker could smoke after dinner, and at
the same time one that a strong cigar smoker could
smoke it in the morning.
CP - What is real corojo?
JF - Corojo is a seed that was mainly obtained from the
criollo seed in the El Corojo area in Cuba. In the old days
almost 100% of the wrapper that was being used in factory came out from the criollo seed. Everybody pretty
much realized that they needed a seed with that same
great flavor, but one that can produce more cigars with
more wrapper tobacco per pound. Basically this is the
origin of sorting – separating the different flavors and
strengths to get a tobacco that is thinner, more evenly
colored, more pliable, and that can make the cigar look
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better. That was also the origin of shade-grown tobacco.
The amount of light and wind that the tobacco receives
plays into the outcome of how the leaves will appear and
smoke. You raise the leaves in a more controlled environment that way. They don’t suffer that much and have
to protect themselves by growing thick. You can pretty
much control everything. Some people started selecting
the seed that they planted in their fields. They found that
certain seeds grew better in a particular soil. So they
wanted to keep the seed. Corojo originally, or at least the
direct translation, is a kind of a palm tree. There was a
farm in our area of Pinar del Rio that had a tree in front
of the farm. And that is why they call it “El Corojo”. So
everybody in that specialized area of Cuba had a high
demand for tobacco. Most of the factories wanted to buy
tobacco from that area of Cuba. “El Corojo” was the
name of one of the farms in that area, and pretty soon
the farms in the vicinity started using the name Corojo.
The Rodriguez family was in the area with the corojo
farms. They brought in a technician from Holland. He had
a lot of theoretical training in genetics, and he took it to a
scientific level. He tried to refine a seed mainly from the
criollo seed. He finally came out with a seed that was a
little bit more resilient to the worst enemy of tobacco –
the viruses. It produced similar flavor to the criollo and it
was nicer looking with wider leaves. The flavor was a little bit subtler, more refined. Basically corojo is a seed
that was developed from the criollo seed that they had in
Cuba. The biggest part of the process is selection. It is
not cross breeding, but selection. You choose the plants
that have the same characteristics that you want, and
improve that selection every year. So people who use
corojo today still use that selection of picking out the best
plants of the crop. The seed is not that stable.
CP - How would you describe the Natural and the
Corojo No. 1 according to your taste?
JF - I would describe the Natural as a medium-bodied
cigar. Flavor is very subjective. It is a tough question
because what is full-bodied to me may not be to someone else. I would describe the Criollo (Natural), as a
medium-bodied cigar with complexity, and sweetness. I
would describe it as an easygoing cigar. There is a good
balance between sweetness and spice. It’s my father’s
favorite blend. I wanted to come out with two different
cigars. I didn’t want people to think that I came out with
two of the same cigars with two different wrappers. I
wanted to come out with two completely different cigars.
My father always likes the Natural blend. He says that it
is a cigar that he can smoke one after the other. He
smokes a lot. On the other hand you have the Corojo No.
1. I would describe that as a cigar that is a little bit more
intense in flavor. It is smoother because it has been aged
for a longer time. The youngest tobacco in the Natural
blend is the wrapper and it’s three years old. The
youngest tobacco in the Corojo No. 1 blend is also the
wrapper but that is five years old. The Corojo No. 1 is a
cigar that has all the power without the harshness. A lot
of people tend to confuse strength and harshness. To me
a full-bodied cigar is one that hits you in the chest and
stomach. That is the sensation I was looking for in the
Corojo No. 1. I wanted to offer something where you can
notice the difference in the two brands. If you enjoy the
J. Fuego line, you should be able to enjoy either one
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depending on the time of day or mood you’re in. For the
Corojo No. 1 I was aiming mostly for complexity and
smoothness. I don’t want a cigar that dries my mouth or
that gives me a scratchy throat. I wanted a cigar that
gives me a lot of flavors. That is also why we made the
different sizes that we made. The same blend doesn’t
behave the same with different sizes.
CP - Do you blend each size differently?
JF - Not precisely. I came out with one blend. In my
cigars I try the blend in one size. Then when I decide
which sizes I want to put on the market, I may have to reblend a little bit. You’ll find that some sizes taste similar
and that’s a great way to determine which sizes you may
want to use. You want to make the smallest difference
between sizes. When I blended these cigars I blended
the same way. I blended one size. I rolled one and
smoked it. If I liked it I’d try other sizes with the idea that
I would use the same proportions of different tobaccos in
each size in order to see what was different in order to
change it or correct it so I can balance all the different
sizes. I smoked all the sizes I currently have in the market, and I started to enjoy the variations of strength and
the different concentration of smoke throughout the different sizes. I thought it could be interesting to leave
them like that. I smoked them with my father and with
friends and we all kind of liked the idea of having a corona, for example, that was a little powerhouse 4 1⁄2 x 46.
Then you have the grande on the other side, which is a
6 1⁄2 x 58. The grande is a cool smoke that is not that
concentrated. It is almost fresh. I enjoyed the variation
and left it like that. That is the way I left it for both lines.
If you smoke the Natural and you want the mildest cigar,
then you have to go for the biggest ring gauge. The same
applies with the Corojo No. 1.
The following recipe is one of our favorite dishes that Jesus prepared during our stay: Garlic Lime Shrimp. The recipe is so simple,
and the flavors explode in your mouth. Jesus prepared them for us
by deep-frying them in olive oil, but they are also excellent pan-fried,
and especially delicious skewered on the grill.
Garlic Lime Shrimp
Ingredients:
1 pound shell on shrimp
1/2 cup lime juice (about 4 limes)
10 cloves of garlic chopped
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
Preparation:
Combine all ingredients in a plastic container
and marinate in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. Deep fry in olive oil and cook shrimp
until thoroughly pink. Do not overcook or
they will be rubbery. Peel and enjoy hot.
CP - What are the regions and countries of the tobacco used in your cigars?
JF - On the Natural the wrapper is a shade grown criollo
from Jalapa, Nicaragua. The binder is a secret and the
fillers are from Honduras and Nicaragua - all criollo seed.
For the Gran Reserva Corojo No.1 the wrapper is from
Honduras, the binder from Costa Rica and the fillers are
from Honduras, Nicaragua and the same secret region of
the binder in the Natural.
CP - Are the cigars in the market now the ones with
the first batch from those particular tobacco fields?
JF - The wrapper of what is in the market now is mostly
from that first and second (now six years old) crop, the
fillers and binder are all from the first one.
CP – Cigars aside, I heard that you owned a Cuban
restaurant in Honduras. Have you always liked to
cook?
JF- That restaurant was born from necessity. We were
restarting our lives in Honduras and there wasn’t any
other Cuban restaurant in town. So I opened it with a lot
of help from my sisters. It was a lot of work and a lot of
fun at the same time. It was because of the restaurant
that cooking became one of my hobbies.
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