Cigar aficionados have been getting their first taste of cigars containing tobacco grown at a farm in North Side and hand-rolled in Bodden Town.
The cigars by the Cayman Cigar Company contain a blend that includes tobacco grown at Beacon Farms, a non-profit agricultural enterprise which helps recovering addicts turn their lives around.
“This cigar is so new, it doesn’t even have a name yet, and the response to it has exceeded all our expectations,” said Scott Haugh, co-founder of the non-profit Cayman Cigar Company. “We are testing and tasting additional blends using this tobacco, and while it is not yet available, we hope to introduce our new cigar to the public very soon.”
But some cigar enthusiasts did get to sample the new product earlier this month, when Haugh hosted a cigar dinner at Abacus restaurant on 9 Feb.
“We are immensely proud of the Beacon Farms team who worked so hard to produce such a high-quality tobacco leaf,” Haugh said.
Last year, the Cayman Cigar Company, which is an extension of Beacon Farms, began exporting its cigars to the United States.
Beacon Farms, where the tobacco for the cigar’s binder, which holds the cigar together, was grown, was created by Granger Haugh and Frank ‘Bud’ Volinsky, founder of The Bridge Foundation.
The 34-acre farm, which previously belonged to the family of the late Speaker of the House Edna Moyle, came into existence to align with Volinksy’s vision to provide agricultural jobs to Caymanians in sustained recovery from drug and alcohol addiction issues.
“It now provides a safe, secure, supervised working environment for approximately 12 staff members with a wide range of responsibilities from operating heavy duty farming equipment to propagating seed beds and harvesting the farm’s many crops,” a statement from Beacon Farms said.
Along with tobacco, the farm grows coconut, mango and banana trees, as well as callaloo, tomatoes, peppers and mangel beets.
Beacon Farms’ science officer Sasha Appleby said in the statement, “Learning how to grow tobacco on a commercial level has required constant experimentation with pH levels in the soil, fertiliser, pest control and irrigation. We are preparing for our third tobacco harvest and this time we have hit the jackpot – the leaves are perfect for use as filler tobacco for cigars. It’s the next step in our journey towards cigars made with tobaccos grown exclusively in the Cayman Islands.”
Haugh said, “We call them cigars with a purpose. It’s a great example of social entrepreneurship in action. The crops are grown by people learning new skills to help them regain confidence, self-worth, and independence. Tobaccos grown at Beacon Farms will soon find their way into Cayman Cigars, which donates 100% of all net profits to charity. As far as we know, Cayman Cigar Company is the only premium cigar company in the world to donate all net profits to charity.”
While the tobaccos grown at Beacon Farms are further researched and evaluated, Cayman Cigar Company is sourcing its tobaccos from throughout the Caribbean to make its current portfolio of premium hand-rolled cigars. Torcedoras (master rollers) Barbara Garcia Anselmo Petrie and Maria Delvis-Hernandez roll all Cayman cigars by hand in their small shop in Bodden Town.
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