Box Press

How do you judge a cigar? Focus on a cigar’s flavor, balance, construction and clean finish suggests HVC founder Reinier Lorenzo. A cigar with a clean finish won’t leave you with a weird taste in your mouth afterward—what smokers call ashtray mouth.  Native Cuban Reiner founded the small-batch cigar house HVC in 2011, as a homage to hand-made cigars in Havana. “To me, Cubans, when they are right, when you have a really good Cuban cigar, there’s nothing that you can compare with. So now in Nicaragua, we at HVC, we want to replicate that.”  Filmed on location at HVC headquarters in Doral, Florida with Boveda’s Rob Gagner.  Snow, cows and how to start your own boutique cigar company:  00:00 Cold open 03:05 Blending cigar tobacco is like creating a recipe 03:19 Look for flavor over strength when choosing a cigar 03:48 What cigars does HVC make? 05:56 A Cuban moves to Wisconsin 10:33 From Wisconsin to Nicaragua and AGANORSA  12:55 Why rolling a cigar at home is never as good as the premium