For many cigar companies in the Dominican Republic, each year’s Procigar Festival offers an opportunity to debut a new cigar release. For those at E.P. Carrillo, there was a newsworthy headline, but it was regarding something perhaps even more important than a premium cigar: a factory. Since the company’s launch in 2009, E.P. Carrillo’s award-winning blends have been produced in the Dominican Republic at the company’s cigar factory, Tabacalera La Alianza. In February 2024, Ernesto Pérez-Carrillo announced the new name for Tabacalera La Alianza—Casa Carrillo.
Ernesto Pérez-Carrillo knows a thing or two about running a cigar factory. Before opening Tabacalera La Alianza in 2009, Ernesto rose to fame for his work with La Gloria Cubana and the small cigar factory he worked out of in Miami’s Little Havana. It was at this factory on Eighth Street where Ernesto not only learned the art of cigar making but also what was required to build a brand—a strong factory where employees come first.
Over the years, the Pérez-Carrillo family has kept and maintained this perspective, knowing that the happier the employees, the better the product that would come out of the factory.
From Tabacalera La Alianza to Casa Carrillo
After the sale of La Gloria Cubana, the Pérez-Carrillo family decided to open their cigar factory in a 40,000 square-foot standalone building in the Dominican Republic within Santiago’s Zona Franca. The factory was originally named Tabacalera La Alianza, a name that translates to “alliance of the family,” signifying the collaboration between Ernesto and his children Ernesto III and Lissette. Since its opening, Tabacalera La Alianza has made a name for itself by producing a number of award-winning blends including La Historia E-III, which was named No. 2 Cigar of the Year by Cigar Aficionado; Encore Majestic, named Cigar of the Year by Cigar Aficionado in 2018; and the Pledge Prequel, another Cigar Aficionado No. 1 Cigar of the Year. Even after a number of achievements and successful blends produced within the factory, there was one persistent issue with the factory: its name.
“Primarily, we found that Tabacalera La Alianza was kind of hard to pronounce or stay in people’s mind,” explains Lissette Pérez-Carrillo, co-founder of E.P.C. Cigar Co. “Our idea was to make it easy. People know Carrillo. People know our brand E.P. Carrillo. But they weren’t that familiar with the factory. We thought of putting everything under one umbrella so that everything has Carrillo in it: Casa Carrillo, or ‘House of Carrillo.’”
The idea to change the factory’s name to Casa Carrillo came directly from an interaction with a customer. During his first Procigar Festival, Casa Carrillo’s general manager Jorge Fernández Maique was told by a festival attendee that they would have toured the factory if it was an option for the festival. Maique was confused because the factory was part of Procigar’s program, but he soon realized the factory’s name was the source of the problem.
“‘I didn’t see Carrillo in the program,’ they told me. I said, ‘Oh, it’s because it said Tabacalera La Alianza.’ What better communication from your customer who says, ‘I want Carrillo to appear. If it doesn’t say Carrillo, I get confused, and others get confused, too.’ We said, ‘Let’s remove that mistake but above all, let’s create that legacy for when Enresto is not here that his son, his daughter, and his grandson still remain,” Maique explained.
The new name, Casa Carrillo, clarifies the connection between the factory, the family behind it and the brands. “It helps us with building the brand and the factory so that all of our customers see us as one organization, versus disjointed parts,” says Lissette.
The rebranding of Tabacalera La Alianza to Casa Carrillo was completed on February 20, 2024. The new name was chosen to reflect the family and the home-like feeling the Pérez-Carrillo family strives for within the factory. The space that the factory occupies began much like a new home that a family moves into. In 2009, Ernesto Pérez-Carrillo looked for a big space for his factory because, as his daughter explains, he had very big dreams.
The then-new company occupied the space and renovated it over the years, adding offices, a V.I.P. smoking room, and other changes that personalized the space to make it more enjoyable for those who worked in the factory and also for those who would visit it.
Focus on People
The Pérez-Carrillo family manages Casa Carrillo more like a familial home than your typical cigar factory. There’s a sense of openness running throughout the factory and it is not uncommon to see your share of smiling, happy individuals rolling cigars, sorting tobacco, and completing other tasks necessary to make cigars. Fridays are one day in particular when the factory feels and vibes more like a hacienda with people allowed to play music (of their choosing) and plenty of dancing throughout the factory. It’s the embrace of openness and focus on people that help make Casa Carrillo and its cigars so special.
“At the end of the day, it’s the people in the factory that make it happen. We’ve always strived to make them feel like family. We know everyone’s name, we know their kids. It’s basically a family. If they have something to say, they’re not scared to just walk up to management and say, ‘Hey, look, this is what’s happening,’” says Lissette. “Here you hear people talking, laughing, sharing and smoking cigars. It’s a very lively place and I think that’s very important. When people come to work at Casa Carrillo in the morning, they feel happy. They want to make the beautiful cigars that will end up in the consumers’ hands.”
It is the Pérez-Carrillo family’s hope that retailers and cigar enthusiasts will become just as familiar with its factory as the cigars it produces. Every person working in the factory plays a key role in the cigar-making process. “Not only does our cigar factory family matter,” says Lissette, “but everyone involved in the cigar industry, from retailers down to the end consumer, matters to the Pérez-Carrillo family. When retailers buy cigars from us, I believe they can tell by the quality that they matter and that the consumer matters. It starts with our organization mattering to us. This is something you can see in the smiling faces on social media or on a video but also along the whole process that takes place in Casa Carrillo, from start to finish.”
New Blends
As the Pérez-Carrillo family celebrates the 15th anniversary of its factory, it is celebrating all of its successes so far while also working toward the future. A visit to Casa Carrillo reveals all in regard to E.P. Carrillo’s future. Innovation and creation continue to be the two driving forces or motivations for the company. Collaborations and Casa Carrillo’s private label work have allowed Ernesto to flex his creativity muscle when it comes to blending. Among some of the factory’s latest private label work are cigars for Crowned Heads, Escobar, Gurkha, Quality Importers and West Tampa Tobacco Company, just to name a few.
“My dad has a fun time working on blends with our private label partners,” Lissette shares. “There’s a lot of people here at the factory and everything that we do, even with the private labels, we’re all involved—me, my brother David [Spirt]. It’s fun to share ideas and to get ideas from others.”
In addition to the private label work, Casa Carrillo remains focused on pushing the envelope with new E.P. Carrillo blends. In March, E.P. Carrillo began shipping Encore Black, a distinctive blend of tobaccos from five different terroirs. The highlight of this cigar is its Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper which is complemented by the San Andrés Mexican viso binder and fillers from Estelí, Jalapa and Condega.
“People go nuts over that cigar,” Lissette excitedly exclaims. “They just love it. When I market the Encore Black, it’s so much fun. Two thousand boxes have gone out already and we have another 3,000 coming. We get constant questions about it like, ‘When is the next one? Who has it?’ I love to see that kind of excitement.”
Another big release coming out of Casa Carrillo is E.P. Carrillo’s new Essence Series, comprising six cigars that will each have a different wrapper from a different country. This new line launched at PCA24 with the release of the Sumatra line. This blend was designed for everyday smokers who prefer E.P. Carrillo’s pristine quality and complexity but in a new format. Available in three sizes, this new line will serve as a way for cigar enthusiasts to learn more about each wrapper that will be featured within the series. E.P. Carrillo plans to launch six blends within the next two to three years, each having its own unique wrapper. In the second half of 2024, E.P. Carrillo will release a Honduras and Maduro varietal. The release of Connecticut, Nicaragua and Cameroon blends is planned for the coming years.
Whether making a new Carrillo blend or working on a cigar for a private label client, the formula for a winning blend coming out of Casa Carrillo remains the same: quality tobacco and the right packaging, released at the right time. There’s also a secret ingredient that’s hard to replicate: a good story.
“You want to add the messaging,” Lissete explains. “What is the cigar about? Tell the story.”
For the Pérez-Carrillo family, that storytelling begins in the factory. The cigars are all important and each blend fills in another gap within the company’s portfolio, but it’s the story of Ernesto Pérez-Carrillo, his family and those working within the factory that make any Carrillo-made cigar so special. The next time you light up a Carrillo-made cigar, know that you’re not smoking just any cigar. You’re smoking a cigar directly from the house of Carrillo.
– Photos courtesy of Casa Carrillo/E.P. Carrillo. Story by Antoine Reid, content director at Premium Cigar Association (PCA). You can reach him at antoine@premiumcigars.org.
This story first appeared in PCA The Magazine, Volume 2, 2024. To receive a copy of this magazine you must be a current member of PCA. Join or renew today at premiumcigars.org/membership.