The Cigar King: Francisco Almonte of DBL Cigars

Francisco Almonte was born into the tobacco world. His passion for tobacco/cigars is unmatched.

One cannot speak about the Dominican Republic without mentioning the nation’s two greatest passions – Baseball and Cigars. Dominican Big Leaguer cigars (DBL) is the brainchild of Francisco Almonte. Francisco started working with tobacco at the age of 7, deveining leaves for his father, and by the time he was 12 years old, he was rolling cigars. Tobacco quickly became his passion and creating fine premium cigars became his mission. Francisco had the unique opportunity to work under the tutelage of two of the world’s most famous cigars makers, Mr. Carlos Fuente (A. Fuente Cigars) and Mr. Litto Gomez (La Flor Dominicana Cigars). Both legendary cigars makers have passed down an abundance of knowledge to Francisco, who, in turn, has incorporated the knowledge, experience and craftsmanship into his own brand, DBL by Francisco Almonte. Having worked alongside two of the cigars industry’s biggest names has given Francisco the ability to create incredible cigars that are extremely satisfying, full of flavor and perfectly constructed.

I recently had the opportunity to catch up with, Francisco. His passion for cigars literally seeps through the phone and he takes us on a journey from beginning to present.

How is everything going, my man?

Francisco Almonte: Real busy! It’s unbelievable. I wasn’t expecting this and what is happening. The first month… April when the virus came in very hard, I only sold about 50% of what we used to sell. Then in May, we got the best May ever. Can you believe that? And now June, we got the best month ever. We got the best May in 7-years and in June we got the best month ever. Everybody wants cigars, Percy.

Do you think that’s because everyone is kind of hanging around, this virus is unpredictable, so the cigar smokers are relaxing right now with their favorite cigars because so much is shut down?

Francisco Almonte: Listen Percy, you’re right. These are stressful times right now. It hit very hard in the United States. We are the most distraught country. You see what’s going on, what do you do during times like this, you eat more, you drink more, and you smoke more. That is what’s happening right now. It’s the same with me, I’ve been smoking more than ever now.

What do you feel separates your cigars from the rest?

Francisco Almonte: Let me tell you, DBL Cigars are the best right now. Imagine third generation with my family, 58^th member in my family that has been in the cigar industry. If you ask me how many jobs I have worked in my life, or how many businesses I have worked in my life, the answer is only one, cigars. This is part of our generation, part of our life, our culture and our family. We love cigars. We focus on flavor. We don’t believe in strand. When somebody says, I like a strong cigar or medium or mild. The difference with us is, we focus on flavor that makes a good contraction. We put the love that we have in this business, into our blend. To get these blends are so difficult. Everything we do, we think about, what are other people going to say with this cigar. The difference between a DBL and any other cigar on the market is flavor. You won’t find a cigar from DBL that focuses on the strand. We focus on the balance of the complexity of the flavor of the cigar and the contraction. I’m coming from a good teacher, Carlos Sr. So, that is the difference, we focus on flavor more than anything.

Dominican Big League, did you just combine two of the biggest Dominican passions, cigars and baseball to come up it that name?

Francisco Almonte: There are a lot of people comparing, Dominican Big League with baseball and I say, “No-no-no!” That’s not the purpose. The purpose is, if you are in a country that don’t know Dominican, immediately you start talking about baseball. That put our country on the map. You talk about it because it’s one of the bigger things that we do. The same as cigars, you talk about cigars, this is our passion, this is our lives. The town that I come from, 80%… 80% of the population is related to the cigar industry. Can you believe that? One hundred and sixty-seven cigar factories. In a small town… it’s not even a state, it’s a town. Most of the cigar rollers in New York are Dominican. If you go to Florida, most of the cigar rollers are Cuban. I was in Germany… this is unbelievable. We were at a trade show and I was outside the day before the trade show in Germany. And I found a friend of mine that is a cigar roller from my town. Everywhere I go, Mississippi, Tennessee… everywhere I go, I run into cigar rollers from my town. Nicaragua is becoming a big importer, but let me tell you, we got over 20-years trade back in the day. We were the number one importer into the United States. That doesn’t mean we’re not number one. We are the number one country production cigar worldwide. Just to let you know, we made more than 25-million cigars just to sell in the Dominican, my man. We get a million tourist every year.

What is your favorite cigar that you produce at DBL?

Francisco Almonte: My “35^th Anniversary” is my favorite cigar in and out of the Dominican Big League. “35^th Anniversary” cigars were made for my 35^th anniversary and that was 2-years ago. I was supposed to stop the production of that cigar. And the people called me saying, “Don’t stop the production. Keep making that cigar.” The flavor that cigar has… let me tell you, the Cameroon wrapper for me is the best wrapper. That’s why it’s the more expensive wrappers in the world. We did an experiment a few years ago in Ecuador. Everything that you grow outside of Ecuador, when you go to Ecuador, you get better quality. It’s simple. They did an experiment in Ecuador a few years ago, and we got better wrappers. Why? Sun grown. Because of the climate and the temperature, the weather, the soil is rich. When people talk about the best country for growing tobacco, and people begin to say, Cuba, Nicaragua, Dominican. That’s not true, my man. I’m not from Ecuador, but Ecuador is the best country for growing tobacco. 70% of the more expensive tobacco, comes from Ecuador. So, the “35^th Anniversary,” complexity cigars that we make, it becomes spicy, and then it becomes smoother. It’s just amazing. I can smoke that cigar for life. I have really enjoyed that cigar. Believe it or not, the first cigar that we released with the second generation is milder and more medium because it’s from the bottom to the middle of the tobacco plant’ the wrapper. The “35^th Anniversary” is more from the top of the plant. It’s limited edition. I never have inventory of those cigars. Never! They are always on back order.

You’re definitely touching on some things I never thought about when creating a great cigar like weather and soil and things of that nature. It’s a very detailed craft that you seem to have perfected.

Francisco Almonte: Let me tell you, you live in one town and let’s say I live in another town. You live in Town A and I live in Town B. Even though you grow the same product and you do the same process, listen… just because of the weather, the climate, the way that you cure the tobacco, the way that you do the fermentation, the position that you put it in your hand makes a difference, my man. The temperature of your hand and the position that you hold the tobacco matters, my man. That makes a difference and it’s extremely difficult to have that consistency. Every year is different, and every crop is different. I know baseball, it’s like when you have a baseball team from your town, and you have a baseball team that is nationwide. The nationwide baseball team has more probability to win. That doesn’t mean the local team won’t win, but you have more probability because you can get the best of the best. It’s the same thing with tobacco. When you get the best tobacco from Ecuador, Nicaragua, from Dominican, from Mexico, Brazil, Honduras, and you mix it up, you have more probability to make a better blend.

Most don’t find their calling or their niche by the time they are 7-8 years old. You did exactly that. The experience and the passion and the love that comes with the time you have put it reflects in your product. How important is that factor?

Francisco Almonte: When you love something, you don’t feel it. People say to me, “Francisco, you have a lot of passion for it,” but honestly, I don’t feel it. Because it’s part of my life. You have something that belongs to you. You are part of this. Tobacco is something that my family, my grandmother smoked five cigars every day. She was very picky. She picked the darkest ones. My dad had a cigar factory and when I was 7-years old… this is what I remember being seven. But my dad said, you were born in a cigar factory because the cigar factory was in the living room. My grandmother and grandfather… all of them smoke cigars. The only person in my family that didn’t smoke cigars and she died when she turned 46, imagine that is my mom. She never smoked cigars, or a cigarette and she got cancer. So, I said, listen, my dad 73-years old, he smoke 4 or 5 full body cigars every day. My grandmother used to smoke 4 or 5 full body cigars and she died when she was almost 80-years old. My grandfather 96, my other grandmother 93 and the other grandfather 99. All of them smoke cigars. So, what can you say? What is the best advice you can give, keep smoking cigars. My mom died at 46 of cancer and she never smoked tobacco. My dad is strong, he is with me right now and this guy smokes every day. God bless him, I’m going to keep smoking cigars. If I could sleep in a tobacco room every day, I could do that, my man. I have all the love for this that you can imagine. When I first came to the United States in 2009, I went the first two years without tobacco, and I was going crazy. I had my daughters, I had my wife, everybody happy, but I wasn’t happy.

Before I let you go, tell me about your new blend, “Lucia.”

Francisco Almonte: The “Lucia” cigars are made from mostly Dominican tobacco that we grow on our own tobacco farms. We make 3-different blends of “Lucia” for Bobby [Cervino]. A Maduro, which has the Mexican San Andreas Maduro wrapper. The second one is the Habano, made with an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper. And the Connecticut, which is the best-selling cigar. It is made with Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper. The “Lucia Connecticut” is arguably the best Connecticut on the market. It is made with carefully selected tobaccos that I select myself. We also make the cigar boxes in our own cigar box factory as well.

I appreciate you, thanks to Mr. Bobby [Cervino] as well as George Manzella for connecting us. Keep doing your thing, my man. Anything else you want to add?

Francisco Almonte: Thank you so much my man. Let me tell you, I would like for you to come by one day and sit down and talk about cigars. We can spend days talking about this. I really love this. There is a bunch of information that is difficult to find online or in any book. There is a lot of information out there that I don’t agree with. So, I would like to do something on video or on live one day to discuss.

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