Casa 1910: The Mexican Leaf, Taken Seriously

When it comes to companies making cigars in Mexico, the list of names is fairly short. Mexico grows some of the most respected wrapper leaf in the world, the dark San Andres leaf that clothes countless premium cigars, but the country rarely gets to sign the finished work. In 2021, a new company called Casa 1910 entered the premium cigar industry with the goal of changing the way smokers think about Mexico, and of building a lifestyle brand that celebrates the country's heritage and culture.

The typical Mexican-tobacco cigar pairs a San Andres wrapper with Nicaraguan binder and filler. Casa 1910 left Nicaragua out entirely.

Casa 1910 is a cigar and lifestyle brand based out of Mexico, founded by Manolo Santiago, Jamie Baer, and Serge Bolling. The name honors the year of the Mexican Revolution, and the brand wraps itself in the history and pride of 1910 the way a Scottish distillery wraps itself in its glen. This is not a company that happens to be Mexican. Mexico is the point.

The San Andres wrapper is everywhere in premium cigars. The Mexican cigar is almost nowhere. That asymmetry is the opening Casa 1910 walked through: a country that clothes the world's cigars, finally rolling its own.

Cuchillo Parado

The company made its industry debut at the 2021 PCA trade show with a single cigar: the Cuchillo Parado. The name references the town in the state of Chihuahua where the revolution began, and the cigar is a statement of intent in tobacco form, a Mexican puro. The wrapper is a Sumatra-seed leaf grown in Mexico and aged for three years. The binder comes from the San Andres region and has been aged for five years. The filler is San Andres grown. Once rolled, the finished cigars rest for another six to eight months, a step the company says keeps the smoke smooth, and all of it happens at an undisclosed factory in San Andres Tuxtla, in the state of Veracruz.

The unusual thing about the Cuchillo Parado is what it is not. The typical Mexican-tobacco cigar pairs a San Andres wrapper with Nicaraguan binder and filler. Casa 1910 left Nicaragua out entirely. Every leaf in the cigar is Mexican, which makes the debut less a product launch than a thesis: the country's leaf can carry a whole cigar on its own.

The trade press noticed the difference. Halfwheel's review found a lighter profile than the typical Mexican-tobacco experience, surprisingly peppery through the nose, with less of the earthiness smokers expect from San Andres leaf: another side of Mexican tobacco, in the reviewer's phrase, given a unique spin by the Mexican soil. A debut that tasted like an argument.

The blender

The blend was created by Juan Manuel Santiago Casillas, better known as Manolo Santiago, one of the three founders. Santiago had worked as a marketing manager for Importadora y Exportadora de Puros y Tabacos, the Mexican distributor of Cuban cigars, and he holds the highest designation given to graduates of Habanos S.A.'s Habanos Academy: Master in Habanos. A Mexican blender, trained by the Cuban cigar conglomerate, rolling a Mexican puro. The resume reads like the brand plan.

Santiago is listed by the company as its master blender, and the title fits the resume. He came up marketing Cuban cigars in Mexico, studied at the Habanos Academy, and then bet his own brand on the proposition that Mexican leaf needed no Cuban or Nicaraguan help. The debut cigar was the diploma and the thesis at once.

Three editions

Since the debut, the company has expanded to eight offerings, and the portfolio has a discipline to it. Casa 1910 follows a one-blend, one-size philosophy: every blend is different from the others, and each gets its own unique shape. The cigars are organized into three collections, each paying homage to a different theme of the Mexican Revolution, and each produced in a different country.

The Revolutionary Edition, in orange packaging, is the Mexican line, honoring the battles of the revolution: the Cuchillo Parado in a robusto and the Tierra Blanca in a toro. The Calvary Edition, in green, is made in Nicaragua and honors the horses of the revolution: the As de Oro toro, the Lucero torpedo, and the Jilguero gordo. The Soldadera Edition, in white, is made in the Dominican Republic and honors the women who fought: the Sampetrina robusto, the Teniente Angela toro, and La Coronela in a majestuosos shape. Three colors, three countries, three chapters of the same history.

The history is doing double duty. It gives each edition a story, and it gives the brand a way to talk about Mexico that has nothing to do with wrapper shade. Battles, horses, soldaderas: the packaging teaches the revolution while the cigar makes the case for the leaf.

Patience as policy

The company has also shown it understands the value of patience. For its first limited edition, the Cuchillo Parado Reserva 2020, Santiago set aside cigars rolled in 2020 and extra-aged them, testing periodically until he judged them ready. Only 2,500 were released, in 50-count cabinets. A debut cigar, given three more years to become itself.

The portfolio keeps the same logic at every level. One blend, one size: no line extensions blurring the idea. Three editions, three countries, three chapters of a revolution. The history gives the brand its language, and the leaf has to finish the sentence. So far the leaf is holding up its end.

Mexico's leaf has dressed other countries' cigars for generations. Casa 1910's bet is that it can headline. The revolution on the band is history. The one in the blend is the news.