The 1990s were the best of times—and the worst of times—for the premium cigar industry On the one hand, the previously near-moribund pastime suddenly experienced huge growth in profits, garnered new publicity, and racked up all sorts of hipness points as a stressed-out workforce turned to cigars for that little touch of luxury that makes a day complete

To cigar smokers, Nicaragua is already legendary Through regime change, social upheaval, and revolution, this Latin American nation has produced some of the world's finest tobacco

Those who know their cigars well also, by that same token, know Brazil—albeit as a source of great tobacco rather than as a top cigar-producing nation Brazilian tobacco, mainly produced in the country's temperate northeastern and southern regions, turns up in such world-class cigars as Carlos Torano's Toro, but the country's cigar producers themselves haven't always gotten the same respect