Fate and fortune are notoriously capricious. None of us can truly know how much grander (or bleaker) our lives might have turned out if we had not encountered some unpredictable turn of luck along the way. That’s part of what keeps life interesting, for those who can make the best of whatever may befall.
Founder and CEO of HVC Cigars, Reinier Lorenzo, was by no means fated to live the life of a cigar man. When he left Cuba in 2008 as a 23-year-old first-year medical student, Lorenzo knew almost nothing about cigars. He settled in Madison, Wisconsin where he found work for a genetics company, and the man from Havana began the hard journey of acclimating to Midwestern winters. Still, he was not in the United States entirely alone. One twist of fate guiding his course was that some of his family members had preceded him to the States and found work at Aganorsa Leaf in Doral, Florida. So it wasn’t long until, on one of his visits with relatives, Lorenzo had a chance to meet Aganorsa’s owner Eduardo Fernández, who invited him to visit the Aganorsa facilities in Nicaragua.
For Lorenzo—up to that point never much of smoker—the Nicaragua pilgrimage shone a light on certain aspects of the working life that had previously eluded him. Lorenzo perceived for the first time the depth of heart and soul that is invested in a first-class cigar operation, from fields to aging room. Lorenzo recalls, “When you see something that you really love for the first time…it was, like, wow!” He kept his job with the genetics firm for the time being…but the Aganorsa tour had given him something new to think about. In fact, he found himself starting, almost involuntarily, to nurture a dream. Reinier Lorenzo—not from any cigar dynasty, nor even an experienced smoker—for the first time began to picture himself as a cigarmaker. “If you had told me 20 years ago that cigars were going to be my future, I wouldn’t have known what to make of it,” he says. But what he witnessed through his new friends at Aganorsa Leaf was a glimpse of the kind of working life that could mean more than a pay check, more than a career. Cigars could be a lifetime pursuit that truly sprang from the heart: a profession driven by purpose and passion—indeed, by love.
In 2011 Lorenzo had legal papers drawn up to formalize the creation of HVC Cigars, the name an abbreviation of his beloved home of Havana City; and with help from his connections at Aganorsa, he brought to market his first cigar, which he called First Selection. Even though it is still in HVC’s regular line-up, Lorenzo says his first cigar never really took off with big numbers. Still, it was moving well enough to keep HVC viable, to keep the company growing. More cigar lines followed, and things kept looking better. By 2015 Lorenzo was in a position to leave the genetics field, move his household to Miami, and apply himself full-time to making cigars. His first taste of greater success came with the introduction of HVC’s Cerro line in 2018. During the years since, the Cerro line has garnered ratings from Cigar Insider and Cigar Aficionado of 88 and 90, which helped boost HVC’s credibility.
Today the HVC portfolio continues to grow, and now includes (if you count limited editions) more than 20 lines and 70 SKUs, with prices ranging from under $6 for the HVC Hot Cake Half Corona to nearly $16 for the HVC 10th Anniversary Toro. (Lorenzo says the Hotcake is his biggest seller.) In general, HVC’s MSRPs average around the $11 mark—entirely reasonable for a well-regarded line-up of premium smokes imbued with the spirit of Cuba. Price has never stood in the way of HVC’s continued growth in popularity. The year 2021 saw HVC open its own Nicaragua factory, Fábrica De Tabacos HVC S.A. in Estelí; and Lorenzo spends about one week out of every month in Estelí, keeping operations on the straight-and-narrow, and keeping eight pairs of rollers busy. (A working “pair” consists of a buncher and a finished roller—a division of labor that has been found to increase efficiency and productivity.)
Distinctly, HVC Cigars uses cigar brokers rather than conventional field reps to cement relationships with most of its retail accounts. It is a formula that has produced results: Today, HVC is on the shelves of more than 700 merchants in the U.S.—not bad for a brand that produces only about 800,000 cigars annually. In terms of how many human feet are pounding the pavement for HVC, brokers constitute a relatively small but influential part of the cigar sales ecosystem. Clermont, Florida-based broker Adrian Acosta represents HVC in a territory that amounts to most of the northeastern U.S plus Florida. Acosta believes, “At any given time there are somewhere between 10 and 15 independent brokers actively working the U.S. premium cigar market, and 10 to 15 is being generous.” But Acosta unmistakably has a hand in HVC’s success. He says, “Approximately 100 to 125 retail accounts currently carry HVC across my territories, and that number keeps growing.” Acosta adds, “HVC is not the easiest brand to walk in with cold, and I think that’s actually one of its greatest strengths. It doesn’t have a massive corporate machine behind it. What HVC has is the authenticity, consistency and craftsmanship that serious smokers respect deeply once they find it.”
Yet another way to connect with HVC is by speaking directly with Lorenzo himself. Ammar Tabbaa, who owns Maxamar Ultimate Cigars in Orange, California, has been dealing with Lorenzo for years. “We have been selling HVC cigars since the beginning with great success,” says Tabbaa. “Our customers buy them almost on a daily basis.” Tabbaa says he first met Lorenzo even before COVID, and he describes him as a memorable and engaging man. “I sensed a deep commitment to making excellent cigars,” Tabbaa says. “He is an ambitious young man with a lot of energy and passion for blending tobacco to achieve great cigars. I would mention his 10th Anniversary and the 500 Years Anniversary lines as excellent exemplars of Reinier’s character and zeal.” Tabbaa adds finally, “He is also very responsive to suggestions. So I can say that it has been a great experience doing business with HVC and with Mr. Lorenzo.”
The year 2026 finds Reinier Lorenzo, now age 41, comfortably ensconced in the warm climes of south Florida, enjoying home life (when he isn’t traveling) with his wife and young son. Things are good. But they could always be better. An annual output of 800,000 cigars is nice, but Lorenzo says five million has a really nice ring to it—something to strive for. Even so, he is happy to be where he is at the moment. “Mainly,” he says, “I want my cigars to be known for their consistency.” He is just now rolling out HVC’s latest release, the box-pressed HVC La Decoracion, through which Lorenzo is reviving an old Cuban brand name forgotten except in the pages of history. “Already,” Lorenzo says, “3,000 boxes have sold and we are having to make more.”
The man doesn’t chase trends. He blends cigars according to his own aesthetics, in hope the buying public will agree with his tastes. So far, this has not presented a problem. Those native Cuban instincts appear to be guiding Reinier Lorenzo like a veritable beacon.
Retailers wishing to explore HVC as a possible addition to their offerings can call the company at 786-534-8727 to get hooked up.
– Photos courtesy of HVC Cigars. Story by William C. Nelson.
This story first appeared in PCA The Magazine, Volume 2, 2026. To receive a copy of this magazine, you must be a current PCA member. Join or renew today.