Page 32 - TOB Magazine Jan/Feb 2013

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TOBACCO OUTLET BUSINESS
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013
tobacco growers and cigar-makers in
the world. Selva, however, remained
very hands-on with every aspect of her
business, from creating and producing
blends to introducing them to cigar
smokers in France.
Subtle Strength
“For me it is about the balance,”Selva
says of her goal in blending cigars. “I
try to avoid any aggression in the flavor,
striving for a smooth, tasty cigar that
almost surprises you with its [subtle]
strength.”
One of her ongoing challenges is
delivering consistency with Flor de
Selva’s strong fan base in Europe,
for which the company produces
approximately 1.8 million cigars
annually. “Smokers who buy our
robusto regularly do not want a
surprise; they want their favorite cigar,”
she explains. “They don’t care if this
year’s crop is different. But tobacco
from Honduras can be spicy, woody,
and in some years you may have more
of one characteristic highlighted than
another. Last year, for example, lower
temperatures and higher humidity gave
us more of the woody facet, so we had
to adjust the blend using crop inventory
to flatten that effect. So we manage the
issue of being consistent, and when the
tobacco is dramatically different we
create a limited edition that highlights
that difference.”
Today, in addition to continuing to
work with Plasencia, Maya Selva also
has her own factory in Danlí,Honduras,
opened in 1999, where she makes only
one cigar line: Villa Zamorano, named
for the village in Jamastrán’s valley
where the farm is located. It is a value-
oriented cigar geared toward customers
seeking a quality, affordable hand-rolled
cigar. Later, when Nestor Plasencia
returned to Nicaragua, Maya came up
with the idea of creating a 100 percent
cigar composed with only tobacco
from Nicaragua. The resulting cigar,
CUMPAY, was launched in 1998.
Entering New Markets
Over the years, Selva also expanded
into other European markets, where
Flor de Selva was quickly embraced,
particularly by German, Swiss and
Austrian cigar lovers. “Seventeen years
after starting in France, we have 10
percent of market share there,” she says.
“And Germany, where we launched in
1995 and 1996, has really adopted the
cigar. We are a strong high-end blend
there. We are in all of the European
countries except the UK, but we have
found that the northern part of Europe
is really sensitive to the taste profile we
have.”
As with other products made from
ingredients grown in the land, such as
wine and coffee, the flavor of a cigar
is largely shaped by location. Because
Honduran tobacco is grown at a higher
altitude, explains Selva, it has a stronger
aroma that many European smokers
find alluring—one she is hoping U.S.
cigar lovers will also enjoy.
“We have discovered that cigar
aficionados travel a lot,” she explains.
“As they go around the world they
discover our cigars and ask why they