H.P.C. The Heritage

            Dear Brothers and Sisters of the leaf,

            As owner of HPC Cigars, I wish to thank you for having selected our cigars to be a regular rotation in your humidor. Furthermore, I want to tell you the story behind my journey in the cigar world and ultimately the creation of HPC Cigars.

PART I

The Heritage

            It all started a long time ago in a continent far away; these were the days when as a child I stepped into this universe through my visual, olfactory and touch senses. Despite being too young to smoke them, my relationship with cigars began as a plunge into their aromas, scents and shapes. The moments involving cigars were associated with airiness; being around my dearest ones while they were puffing and chatting loudly.

            Mediterranean summer evenings spent next to my father and uncles, sitting in the garden, watching the sunset over the sea horizon, whilst smoking some unforgettable fragrant 

 Cuban long fillers. Later, when it was dark, the cigars were omnipresent with the flashing little red dots of each stick that partake the family meeting, moving from fingers to mouths in an atmosphere filled with deep flavors. The memory is too distant now for me to remember the name of the brand, nevertheless the name of the vitolas written on their beautiful cedar boxes sticked to my head, and I still remember it: ''Panatelas and Coronas''.

            As an adult, finding out that my childhood feelings towards cigars didn’t fade away, I knew they were growing stronger into a real passion. So, I had to satisfy this passion and live fully my cigar dream.

            What you learn when you first read about the tobaccos used to craft premium cigars, is that they’re not supposed to grow anywhere, and not all the countries are equal in their ability to produce the suitable leaf. This phase of research was also the time when I decide to create premium cigars for the enjoyment of the aficionados.

            A few countries are eligible, … According to the cigar specialists, they are three or four at the most. They are the reputed cigaristic ''terroirs'', where the chances to manufacture some mind-blowing blends are at their highest. These scarce blessed territories are all situated in the Central American region; the most famous one being the Island of Cuba, considered by many as the cradle of cigar making…but is that really the case?

            My thirst for learning about what makes a great cigar, drove me all the way into my thorough research, until I understood that from the historical point of view the Cuba was not the original place where men started making cigars. This point has been proven by several archeological findings, the location was likely somewhere in the Mayan territories of Central America. Physical proof of rolled tobaccos has been unearthed in today’s western Honduras, after being buried there for more than 600 years.

            Little by little my dream of a genuine cigar, just like the Mayans used to make them, grew in me. I needed to go to the source, find the scene where it all began. I was bound to go to Honduras and create the cigar brand that would pay tribute to this land’s glorious past and the role it played in the invention of mankind’s most enjoyable activity: cigar smoking. The goal was set, so I went to Honduras; this was almost twenty years ago. 

PART II

The Legend

            Honduras is an amazing country worthing a visit, kind and friendly population, wonderful nature and a very rich history…on top of that, it’s in the top three cigar tobacco terroirs. Following the Cuban revolution, many cigar maker families from the island, fled directly to Honduras with the idea of perpetuating their art there. Honduras was their first choice to do so, mainly because of the geological and climate similarities with Cuba. It was also common knowledge even before the revolution, that Honduran tobaccos tasted as good as the Cubans, if not better.

            I am sure now that being active many years in the Honduran cigar industry was the best education I could ever get. It’s been only a couple of years now that I’ve decided that the time has come for the next step of my long-term project, the creation of the cigar brand that will rewrite the history of the Honduran handmade premium cigars.

            HPC stands for ''Honduras Premium Cigars'', which is what we are meant to produce. The theme of the brand evolves around the idea of creating mind-blowing blends that reminds of an old legend I was told when exploring the so-called sacred Mayan land in western Honduras in the region of the Copán Valley, years ago while looking for the genuine tobacco leaf used in the first cigars ever made, a strain that Spaniards later on named Criollo and used abundantly in their cigar factories in Cuba throughout the 19th century.

            According to the legend, tobacco is magical, it is the only plant able to embody a soul. However, such a miracle could only take place with a human intervention. The legend tells us that kings and shamans were the only humans allowed to accomplish such ritual. For the miracle to occur, the tobacco leaves had to be rolled in a certain way, the Mayans called the tobacco roll:

''cikar’’, hence the word ''cigar''! Then the cigar had to be manipulated, touched, rubbed and stroked for a moment by the fingers, lips and nose of the person performing the ritual. Subsequently to these preliminaries, the cigar was lit and as it started smoking, the soul embodied the tobacco.

            The lit cigar lived literally; his life would last as long as it was burning. During his relatively short life, the cigar communicated with the smoker, speaking words of wisdom and comfort in an unknown non-human language, but still understood by the smoker, translated into ideas, emotions and feelings.

            Then when the cigar went off, it gave up its soul. Despite that the conversation between the cigar and the smoker was over now, the feelings experienced lingers on, in some cases for a very long time in the smoker’s memory. Depending on the mood that the smoker was into when finishing his cigar, some important decisions for the wellbeing of the city would have been taken; whether it was a good smoke or not, the outcome could be as positive as a general tax decrease for the upcoming harvest season, or as horrible as an increase in the number of beheadings for the next religious holiday. 

            While exploring the tobacco growing valleys of Honduras stretching from Copán to Talanga and from Azacualpa to Sula, I learned that not only the Mayans but also the Spaniards were the other major influence in the cigar making history of the country.

          The latter’s contribution was undoubtedly the foundation in 1765 of the “Royal Tobacco Factory” of Santa Rosa de los Llanos, now Santa Rosa de Copán. It’s in this very same city that in the late 19th and early 20th century, local cigar manufacturers arouse reinforcing the Honduran cigar industry by creating the first Honduran famous brands. 

PART III

The Outcome

            At the end of this exciting journey, I finally found the original magical leaf of the Mayas, the Criollo tobacco variety of the Spaniards, it was there waiting for me in another valley in Southeastern Honduras, called Jamastran. Its soil gives all the nutriments the plant needs to grow into this aromatic and tasty leaf I always dreamed of.

            Finding the right material is vital for the process of creation of a great premium cigar, but not enough, it also takes a lot of time and blending sessions until you get the right mind-blowing recipe.

 

            Currently HPC manufactures the Criollo 1765 blend using exclusively 100% natural aged ''A'' grade tobaccos and we consider we’ve been successful in achieving a result that pays tribute to this amazing terroir, sharing it with our brothers and sisters of the leaf everywhere, all this under the benevolent gazing from the beyond of both its Mayan and Spanish godfathers. 

 

PART IV

The Conclusion

            My ambition as HPC Cigars owner, has always been to help those who smoke our cigars in general and the Criollo 1765 in particular, to experience the enjoyment of a pleasant, and hopefully not so easy to forget cigar.

            Enjoying a cigar is a personal and intimate experience, often enhanced when shared with others; that’s why I am going to tell you about my very own feelings when I smoke a HPC Criollo 1765.

            As soon as my Criollo is lit, I start to feel like the kings and shamans of the past and I hear the cigar’s non-human language, his voice has the inflection of the voices of the dearest ones from my childhood who have fallen silent; in its cloud of smoke rising to the heavens I behold the faces of the loved ones that life exiled;…and my journey seems to end exactly where it started, so long ago in a continent far away.

           

            Thanks again for enjoying HPC Cigars, we hope they’ll earn a favorite’s position into your humidor and to be the faithful companions of your life’s special moments.

 

I wish you all good smokes and long ashes.

 

The Owner

Réza BEY-BRAHIM