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.
Colorado maduro wrapper is milk chocolate brown.

The wrapper is the last tobacco leaf to be rolled on the cigar, so it is the one the smoker will see.
Mexican tobacco is very dark and the best leaves can be used as maduro wrappers. In San Andres de Tuxtla (Vera Cruz), there is a very interesting production of Sumatra seed wrappers. San Andres Maduro is a thick, medium bodied dark leaf, also called San Andres Morron.

The binder is a full tobacco leaf that is used to roll the cigar, binding the filler tobaccos together.

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.

Ernesto Perez-Carrillo, a legend in the industry since the success in the 90s of his La Gloria Cubana brand, has now created E.P. Carrillo which he runs with his family. In 2009, he began making the cigars that bear his name in his own factory called Tabacalera La Alianza located in Santiago, Dominican Republic.