Most cigars are manufactured in the Caribbean and Central America.
The Dominican Republic is the world's first producer of cigars. Most factories are located in Santiago, in the center of the island, and in close proximity to the tobacco fields grown in the fertile Cibao Valley. While tobacco and cigars have always traditionally been produced in the Dominican Republic, many Cuban cigar makers established in the Dominican Republic after the Cuban communist revolution, elevating the quality of Dominican cigars.

Cigar wrapper color varies from green (Double Claro or Candela) to black (Maduro or Oscuro) with a full range of browns in between.
Maduro wrapper can go from dark coffee brown with a reddish tint to blackish brown (the latter also called Oscuro).

The wrapper is the last tobacco leaf to be rolled on the cigar, so it is the one the smoker will see.
The Connecticut Valley, in the Northeast of the USA, is well known for its bright golden wrapper. Because of a very hot and sunny summer, the tobacco is shade grown to make the leaf more delicate with few veins and even surface. Connecticut Shade wrapper grown in the United States has a mild to medium flavor and a silky quality, making it one of the most expensive and sought-after cigar wrappers in the cigar industry.

The binder is a full tobacco leaf that is used to roll the cigar, binding the filler tobaccos together.
Dominican Republic is a traditional tobacco-growing country. In the 60's, a Cuban seed was introduced and the resulting tobacco, called Piloto Cubano, became famous as a good substitute of the Cuban tobacco that was no longer allowed to enter the USA. Piloto Cubano is full bodied while the Dominican Olor tobacco is milder but more aromatic.

Filler is the term used to describe the tobacco inside a cigar or the "guts" of the cigar.

Handmade cigars are completely made by hand from start to finish.

Arturo Fuente is a family owned company located in Santiago, Dominican Republic. Established in 1912 by the family patriarch Don Arturo Fuente, the company came from humble beginnings but is now a global benchmark for the cigar industry.