Cigars from the Philippines
It will surprise many cigar lovers to learn that the Philippines is one of the few countries in the Asian region with significant cigar production. The main tobacco growing area is on the island of Luzon, mainly in the region around the capital Manila and the Cagayan Valley. The island archipelago, which comprises several thousand islands, impresses with some special features. For example, it was Spanish missionaries who started tobacco cultivation and cigar production in this former colony, which later became an important export article, because the reputation of Philippine cigars was excellent in the Spanish homeland and they were considered the best in the world for a long time, along with Cuban cigars. In its heyday, the Spanish colonial empire was global and so Cuban tobacco seeds also came to the island archipelago on merchant ships. The oldest cigar factory in the Philippines still in existence today is Flor de la Isabela, which was founded at the end of the 19th century.