A CONVERSATION WITH Litto Gomez

The maker of La Flor Dominicana cigars reflects on 30 years of business

- BY DAVID SAVONA

More than 30 years ago, in 1994, Litto Gomez began making cigars in the Dominican Republic. He was an outsider in a tight-knit world, the first of his family to enter the cigar business and a person who started with little knowledge about the industry. His start was modest—for years, restrained by limits on how much tobacco he could buy, he employed only a dozen cigar rollers. He would eventually expand his operation by adding a farm to grow his own tobacco. Gomez's cigars have received high scores from CIGAR AFICIONADO magazine, and his La Flor Dominicana Andalusian Bull was named Cigar of the Year for 2016.

Today, he makes millions of cigars each year and his La Flor Dominicana brand is recognized not only around the United States, but all over the world.

La Flor Dominicana is a family business. His wife, company coowner and cofounder Ines Lorenzo-Gomez, runs the sales operations from headquarters in Coral Gables, Florida. His sons, Tony and Litto Jr., are now helping him make cigars. And today, the man who started as an outsider now is president of ProCigar, the Dominican organization that promotes and protects the Dominican cigar industry.

Recently, Gomez sat down with CIGAR AFICIONADO executive editor David Savona for a smoky conversation.

SAVONA: Litto you’ve been making cigars for just over 30 years now. Tell us about your journey as a cigarmaker and how things have changed for you since those early days.

GOMEZ: I was a cigar smoker who didn’t know anything about cigars—or cigar-making. When I made the decision to go to the Dominican Republic and start making cigars, I actually cut a cigar open to see what was inside. I had no idea—I didn’t know if it was chopped filler, paper, I had no idea. And with that total lack of knowledge about it, it was an adventure, it was a crazy adventure.