The Cuban Cigar King Sets His Sights on America

Source from:  Bloomberg 03/02/2015

Two hours west of Havana, down a rutted dirt road and beyond the rusting gate, lies the humble secret to the mystique of Cuban cigars.

This is Finca El Pinar Robaina, where the scion of the country's most renowned tobacco family grows the delicate leaves wrapping smokes so prized that a group of Chinese millionaires once offered $800 apiece for them.

These are hopeful times in the land of Cuban cigars. With relations between the U.S. and the island nation thawing, the industry is looking wistfully northward, to the $13 billion U.S. cigar market.

In fact, on a January afternoon, the master of Finca El Pinar isn't at home. Hirochi Robaina, son of socialist Cuba, is touring New York, world capital of capitalism. He's there to praise a new line of Cuban-inspired cigars made from, of all things, Nicaraguan tobacco. Enditem