Quesada Cigars

The Quesada family tobacco tradition goes back many generations. Their introduction to the business came in the late 19th century when a debt owed to the family was paid off in tobacco. This led to brothers Antero and Constantino Gonzales entering the tobacco brokerage profession and eventually starting their own leaf purchasing company. 

The Quesada family were dedicated to finding opportunities to offer manufacturers something different, always seeking out new leaf to widen the possibilities for clients’ blends. This brought them to the Dominican Republic in 1929. With the company still situated in Havana, they added different Dominican tobaccos to their range which were sold to cigar and cigarette manufacturers in Europe. 

With the Cuban Revolution and nationalization of the Tobacco Industry, the family was exiled in 1960 and landed in Santiago in the Dominican Republic where the following year Manuel Quesada established Manipuladora de Tabaco, a new brokerage. 

When Manuel’s son, Manolo, began working for the family business, he was tasked with smoking their clients’ cigars to intimately understand the properties of their tobaccos and effectively communicate them to prospective buyers. It was in this role that he found a passion for exploring the palate, and with that a fascination with the blending side of cigar manufacturing. 

The brokerage would partner with one of their smaller customers, Antillian Cigars, and set up a new company for their manufacturing, Manufactura de Tabacos, S.A. (MATASA), which would come to be Quesada Cigars. 

The MATASA factory opened in 1974 in Santiago. Manolo runs the company to this day in partnership with his two daughters, Patricia and Raquel, and his niece Esther. Quesada cigars maintain a reputation for dynamic, balanced profiles. With tobaccos sourced from Ecuador, Nicaragua, and even Dominican tobacco grown by the Quesada family, these premium cigars are beautifully crafted for the perfect smoke.