Vegas de Santiago Puros (Red Label)

Behind Tabacalera Vegas de Santiago stands the Swiss Marc Niehaus. After a 20-year career as a teacher, he abandoned his learned profession and emigrated to Costa Rica in 2009 to assist his father in the factory, despite being a non-smoker at the time. His father had already moved there as a retiree in 2003 and had fallen in love with the cigar business, eventually joining this Tabacalera through a circuitous route.

Cigar production in Costa Rica is small and dominated by only two internationally distributed brands: the cigars presented here from Vegas de Santiago, and interestingly, the Brun del Ré brand of the Corazza family, which is also of Swiss origin.

The Vegas de Santiago factory was shaped by the Cuban exile Don Luis Santana Lamas. He had previously worked for 30 years in the Cuban factory H. Upmann, and until his death in 2006, he passed on all his knowledge of cultivation, processing, and rolling. He elevated the Tabacalera to a significantly higher level than before. Previously, they exclusively produced simple cigars for the domestic market, but with Don Luis, they ventured into the production of high-quality premium cigars and their international distribution.

For us, the Vegas de Santiago Puros Red Label with its striking red cigar band are among the best cigars from Costa Rica. They are highly complex, intriguing, and continually surprise with new flavor nuances. Chocolate and cocoa flavors are characteristic of this series. Interestingly, all the tobaccos used are from Costa Rica, hence the name "Puros"!