Welcome to the official site of La Garita Cigar Co & Cigarros Falto, Tabacalera Falto Inc. Here you will find information about our cigar selection and unique history. In our photo gallery you can experience the detailed process required to produce an ultra boutique premium cigar, among other interesting subjects. La Garita Cigar’s products are handcrafted, blended by its owner, and given the craftsmanship and attention to detail that ultra boutique premium cigars require. Enjoy your journey and thank you for visiting our site.
History
La Garita Cigar Co & Cigarros Falto, Tabacalera Falto Inc. was founded 14 years ago, while Luis J. Falto was a student at the George Washington University in Washington, DC. It all started when he bought and sold cigars to a growing list of cigar lovers, including some restaurants and other establishments. All the while, he was and is an avid consumer of what cigar smokers call “the leaf.”
During that time, Falto decided he had experimented and tasted so many different cigars that he wanted to produce one according to his personal tastes. With the connections he had in Washington, D.C., Falto visited the Embassy of the Dominican Republic and got a list of all major manufacturers of cigars established there (most cigars available in the US, at the time, came from the Dominican Republic). Also, with the help of some friends in the tobacco industry, he arranged meetings with some of the key manufacturers in the mecca of Dominican cigars: Santiago de los Caballeros in the Cibao Valley.
After a journey that took him to innumerable visits to many cigar factories, he finally met Manuel J. Inoa, the Production Coordinator for La Aurora, S.A. When he eventually met with the group from La Aurora, they endorsed his ideas and views of what a cigar bearing the Falto name should be.
First, Falto wanted to choose the different tobacco blends for his cigars and decided that the productions should be small and exclusive. Such small quantities would insure a strict quality control, for which La Aurora was already recognized for. Falto met his torcedores, the artisans that handcraft his cigars, at a personal level. To this date, all Falto cigars are hand made in La Aurora S.A., the oldest cigar maker in the Dominican Republic, founded in 1903.
Falto entered the business at a very competitive time in the industry. The famous “cigar boom” was in full blast and there was a shortage of tobacco and rollers, who were recruited by firms that wanted to earn quick money from the cigar boom. Even Don Guillermo León, the owner and President of La Aurora, was concerned with the situation, but with great passion and dedication Falto went on with his project.
On Friday, February 24 of 2005, La Garita Cigar Co. & Falto Cigars celebrated its tenth anniversary. Ten years earlier, on July 16, 1995, the first order of these cigars had arrived to the shores of Puerto Rico. During that time, Falto only made two lines: Falto and El Josco, which was discontinued in 1999 but will be reintroduced very soon. Our friends from La Aurora predict many more years of production of a line of products that was born out of dedication, passion, and care.