LAST TOBACCO MAN STANDING

With a tobacco seed thought to be extinct on La Palma, Antonio Gonzalez Garcia keeps the tradition of tobacco farming alive on this Spanish island. But he’s also the last to do so. The former factory owner wanted to go back to his roots, so when he sold his factory in 2000, he used the money to buy a farm and retrieve a lost seed called pelo de oro, hair of gold. These seeds were used when Antonio started working as a roller for his father at the age of 11.

When La Palma was hit with blue mould in 1965, the seed, which was originally brought here from Cuba, was thought to be lost, the 80 year old tobacco farmer says. “ But when the plants were eradicated to prevent the disease, some seeds got stuck in the stone walls surrounding the fields.

Five years later, Antonio launched his first premium cigar, El Sitio, using only tobacco from his own farm, from which the name is taken. “It’s the only European euro and the leaves are all taken from the same plant, “he explained. The soil on the volcanic island gives the cigar a certain taste and aroma and, since the island is so steep, there are many micro-climates that influence the quality of the soil.

The characteristics of the cigar don’t, however, vary from year to year since we let the tobacco rest”. In total, Antonio produces 300,000 cigars annually. Besides El Sitio he also makes another cigar of his own, El Lugar, and Corsario cigars for the German Group.

To find out more about Antonio Gonzalez Garcia and El Sitio, please get in touch with us today at Taylors Tobacconists.