Page 31 - TOB Magazine Jan/Feb 2013

68
TOBACCO OUTLET BUSINESS
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013
The year was 1993, and Maya
Selva was looking to start a
business, preferably one that
would link two worlds—Honduras,
where she was from, and Paris, where
she hoped to live. She chose cigars
because they were part of her home
country’s tradition and culture and
were also a part of her heritage—
her grandfather had owned a
tobacco farm. But Selva, who has
since become widely respected
for her perfectionism and work
ethic, brought far more than these
legacy advantages to her venture.
This was apparent from the very start,
when she devoted two years to developing
her first cigar and setting up distribution
for the French market. “In the beginning,
we bought tobacco belts and started
blending in a small atelier, but we soon
found it was really complicated to be in
Europe and Honduras,” she explains. “So
we looked for a partner who could roll our
blend, our recipe.”As a result, the flagship
brand Maya Selva launched in 1995—
Flor de Selva—and was rolled by Nestor
Plasencia Sr., one of the best-known
Flor de Selva:
The Maya Selva Story
A once-elusive Honduran-French blend will soon
be available in the U.S.
By Jennifer Gelfand