Welcome to El Artista cigars, the latest brand to be added to our Boutique Smokes lineup. El Artista is a family-owned company based in the Dominican Republic that specialises in the manufacture of premium cigars and sale of raw materials. Osvaldo R. Rodriguez is the president of the company, and the third generation of this tobacco business.
We met El Artista at the Intertabac show in 2019 and have been excited to work with them ever since.
HISTORY OF EL ARTISTA
Tamboril, Dominican Republic (1955). A cigar craftsman named Ramon A. Rodriguez (aka Don Pulita) decided to create a new business in the tobacco industry with his friend Don Jose J. Dominguez. The Tabacalera was born in 1956 with the name of Puros Cibao and producing the brand with the same name. The business began in a warehouse with a small staff of 9 craftsmen and a monthly production of 10 thousand to 12 thousand cigars that were sold in the local market.
In the early 70’s, the distribution began through the country with a monthly production of 500 thousand cigars. Because of the acceptance of our good quality brand, other cigar factories followed our steps; this was seen as a business opportunity to become a raw material supplier.
In the same period Mr. Dominguez decided to transfer it shares to Don Pulita, leaving him as the absolute owner of the company. By 1976, Osvaldo R. Rodiguez (Don Pulita's youngest son) passed to be the president of the company, a meritorious student of business administration with the experience, the wisdom and the vision of take the company to a higher level. The goal was achieved by making radical changes in the company but maintaining the traditions and techniques that his father and mentor taught him.
By 1995 the company made huge changes on its products and techniques. Also, the name changed to Tabacalera el Artista S.A. a name chosen to reflect that their members are artist in the production of premium cigars.
In 1996 there was the famous BOOM of the Dominican cigars and the company took advantage to commercialise worldwide the renowned Don Augusto brand, breaking expectation of sales and production of cigars.
Today Tabacalera El Artista S.R.L. is a combination of tradition and decades of experience, with an adequate infrastructure of 60,000 sq ft for the production and packing of any kind of tobacco product. It specialises in the manufacturing of premium cigars and supplying raw material to many large and highly known companies all over the world. Now you can experience these fine smokes for yourself in the UK here: El Artista