CLASS OF 2024

CIGAR'S HIGHEST HONOR

2024 Cigar Hall of Fame Inductees

“The Cigar Hall of Fame” was formed to honor cigar's that have paved the way and influenced the cigar industry.

Perdomo Cigars - The Cigar Hall of Fame 2024 Inductee
Perdomo Cigars

Perdomo traces its roots to the town of San Jose de las Lachas Cuba, about 17 miles

southeast of Havana, where company founder Silvio Perdomo was raised. Perdomo went into the cigar industry as a young man, serving his apprenticeship for Questa Isia in the early 1930's. Silvio Perdomo's son, Nicolas Perdomo Sr., soon followed his father into the cigar-making trade, beginning his apprenticeship in 1948 and later joined his father as an executive at Partagas. He later began work as a top executive at the H. Upman factory, the largest cigar manufacturing facility in Cuba.

Nick Sr. emigrated to the United States with the help of a sponsorship from the Catholic Church. His connection with the cigar manufacturing industry severed, Nick Sr. settled near Washington DC and resumed his life as an immigrant. In 1976, Nick Perdomo Sr. and his family, including son Nicholas Perdomo Jr., moved from Baltimore Maryland, to Miami Florida, to be closer to relatives. Nick Jr. joined the U.S. Navy in which he served as an air traffic controller. Following completion of his military stint, Nick Jr. gained employment in the same field at Miami International Airport.

Nick Jr. felt the urge to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather as a cigar maker, despite his industry inexperience. In August 1992, he started a business based out of his garage, marking the beginning of today's Perdomo cigars. In its initial phase, the company employed three rollers with Nick Jr. and his wife Janine, working as Packers. Nick Jr. sought to reject the prevailing trend in the cigar industry, which was skewing towards mild cigars. He instead focused on making a product using wrappers from Ecuador and fillers from Central America, thus changing the flavor of the cigars. This decision proved to be a wise choice as the flood of new cigar smokers in the 1990s developed tastes for spicier products.

By 1997, Perdomo cigars had reached the limits of production at his small Miami facility, and a move was necessitated to eyeball city near Tampa, a historic area for American cigar making. This facility proved unsatisfactory, however, due to the prohibitively high cost of production in the United States. Perdomo also expanded production abroad to Nicaragua during the cigar boom of the 1990s, with Nick Sr. coming out of retirement in 1997 to help open a production facility in Esteli, Nicaragua.

Today, Perdomo cigars is still a family-owned and operated business with agricultural and manufacturing facilities in Nicaragua. The company invests millions of dollars in its cultivation, production, and sales processes and is constantly looking for ways to improve its cigars. Some of the best-selling brands in the world today include Perdomo Habano Bourbon Barrel Aged, Lot 23, Perdomo 30th Anniversary, Perdomo 20th Anniversary and Perdomo 10th Anniversary Champagne.

Today, please join me in welcoming Perdomo cigars into the cigar hall of fame.

Rocky Patel Cigars - 2024 The Cigar Hall of Fame Inductee
Rocky Patel Cigars

Rakeesh Patel, also known as Rocky, was born in India, went to college in the United States and became an attorney in Hollywood, California. It was the early 1990s and Rocky, like many at that time during the cigar boom, Rocky became interested in cigars. As Rocky's fascination with cigars continued, Rocky was approached with a business plan to invest in the manufacture of cigars. The investment was made and the inaugu-ral Indian Tobac cigars rolled in to the United States from Honduras.

People flocked to purchase these new, brightly packaged cigars. Rocky felt that it was up to his young company to come into the marketplace with fresh ideas, bold packag-ing, and fuller-bodied cigars. With his eye-popping packaging, Patel had gone against the grain and the strategy paid off. The India, from Indian Tobac, was not to describe Rocky Patel, but in reference to Indian Motorcycle. The company later moved to Florida and was renamed Rocky Patel Premium cigars, and the Indian Tobac brand was dis-continued. The Rocky Patel Vintage Line was created not honoring Cuba or the old-fashioned historical past, but vintage tobacco. A survivor of the cigar boom, Patel has outlasted his competition with unrivaled persistence on his quest for perfection.

With a grueling travel schedule, office responsibilities and production, Rocky still main-tains the enthusiasm that he has had since day one. As he travels the world, putting his cigars in the mouths of his consumers, his passion extends beyond the retailer, al-lowing his customers the experience of meeting the man behind their favorite smokes. Rocky Patel has created a company that outshines even those created by multi-million dollar corporations, and he's doing it. In an industry built on name recognition and rep-utation.

Rocky Patel's passion has brought his luxury brand to heights unseen by most cigar manufacturers. His hard work and long hours have been paying off in big ways. Today, we recognize the Rocky Patel brand as we inducted Rocky Patel cigars into the Cigar Hall of Fame.

LFD Cigars - The Cigar Hall of Fame 2024 Inductee
LFD Cigars

La Flor Dominicana is a family-owned company founded by Litto Gomez and Ines Lorenzo Gomez in 1994. It all began at a tiny cigar factory and brand-named Los Liber-tadores, but that was soon changed to La Flor Dominicana. La Flor Dominicana cigars began as mild smokes, what the Dominican Republic was known for.

Today, the company owns a modern and impressive cigar factory in Tamboril, Domini-can Republic, and the company's La Flor Dominicana are considered some of the most bold and powerful cigars today. Without ever having had any previous experience in the cigar business, additional challenges arose during the cigar boom of the 1990s. People with pockets full of cash would suddenly turn up and pay big money for abso-lutely any tobacco quality. Tobacco was hard to acquire in the Dominican Republic, especially for new companies.

In his search for full-flavored stronger blends, Litto Gomez traveled to other cigar coun-tries in Central America and concluded that their specific ideas could not be achieved with the tobaccos that were available on the open market in the Dominican Republic at the time. The soils in the Dominican Republic are top-class, however, it became clear that they would have to cultivate and process their own tobacco differently in order to achieve the results that they had in mind.

With sixteen leaves on the plant, La Flor Dominicana would require the removal of six prematurely, the remaining leaves get more nutrients. They would get less tobacco, but the best tobacco. This would change everything. Over the years, Ines and Lito have re-fused to make any compromises concerning the integrity of the La Flor Dominicana brand. This applies to both the production and the distribution of their brand. It has al-ways been important for them to work together with the best brick and mortar retailers. La Flor Dominicana wanted to build up a brand name and not just the bank account. Today, we recognize the brand La Flor Dominicana and welcome them into the Cigar Hall of Fame.

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