When asked about the new tobacco, Willy stated that, “it was a unique challenge working with the Florida Sun Grown tobacco. The Florida Sun Grown line was blended by Drew Estate Master Blender Willy Herrera over the course of the past two years, during which Drew Estate has been fermenting and processing the new Sun Grown tobaccos. They take take pride in growing the finest tobacco leaves and they know, years later, their tobacco will bear the Florida Sun Grown name on world class cigars.įSG by Drew Estate cigars are hand crafted in small batches at Drew Estate's Gran Fabrica in Esteli, Nicaragua. Our hard working, all-American farm team understand what it takes to make a premium cigar. Each year we continue to improve as we make adjustments to adapt to our unique growing environment. Since that first test crop we have grown six successful crops to date. With proper funding, research, modern agriscience combined with time honored, proven methods of cultivation, and a lot of hard work and a dedicated team, we could grow GREAT tobacco.
History as well as science told us that we could successfully grow cigar tobacco in Florida and fortunately, our test crop proved that with nature alone, we could grow good tobacco.
In 2013 we planted our first test crop of Cuban seed Corojo tobacco not knowing what the results would be. We began clearing the land, prepping the the soil, constructing our unique tobacco curing barn, installing irrigation and purchasing equipment. So in 2012, Corona Cigar Company purchased a 20 acre plot of farm land 30 miles west of Orlando, in the town of Clermont, Florida. Fortunately, our Florida Sun Grown tobacco has all those qualities and more. As a cigar retailer, I believed consumers would be willing to pay a little more for a cigars that contained genuine Florida grown cigar tobacco, as long as the tobacco was unique, distinctive, flavorful and of the highest quality. For the next 70 years, the cigar industry continued to get smaller each year and as a result, the last crop of Florida cigar tobacco was grown in 1977 on a farm in Gadsen County, Florida.Īs a proud American, I believed it was possible to bring cigar tobacco farming back to Florida, on a small-scale, limited production way. Unfortunately, due to the invention of the cigarette and the gradual decline in cigar consumption, the resulting closure of thousands of American cigar factories, the invention of homogenized tobacco wrappers, the high cost of American labor and the low cost of foreign labor, it was no longer economically feasible for Florida's farmers to grown cigar tobacco. With Florida having a very similar climate, altitude and close proximity to Cuba, their tobacco farms thrived. To escape the war and the blockade on Havana harbor, some Cuban tobacco growers established large tobacco farms in Fort Mead, Florida so they could continue to supply American cigar factories with tobacco.
In the 1890's, Cuba was fighting for their independence from Spain. In fact, the reason they named the town Havana, was so that unscrupulous tobacco brokers could label Florida grown tobacco bales as being grown in Havana and sell it at a premium to unsuspecting cigar factories all across America as the more expensive, imported tobacco from Havana, Cuba. There were thousands of acres grown just north of Tallahassee in the towns of Quincy and Havana, Florida. Florida was once the second largest producer of premium cigar tobacco in America. After five years of planning, trials, successes and setbacks, hard work and dedication, we are humbled and blessed to able to share with you Florida Sun Grown cigars.įor nearly 175 years, Florida had a rich and storied history of growing some of the world's finest cigar tobacco.
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