How did you come up with the name and design for La Flor Dominicana, or Dominican Flower?
GOMEZ: From the tobacco plant; its a little flower that grows on the top of the plant that shows that its ready for reproduction. The flower blooming means the growing cycle is complete. It is really a capsule that contains a few thousand seeds. Normally tobacco farmers eliminate those flowers, so all the nutrients from the soil start going into the leaves. You dont get more leaves after that point, but the leaves that you have start really developing, growing thicker and fuller of body. In the plants you choose to use for the next generation, the ones you take the seeds from, you let the flowers bloom on those. One plant could give you a hundred thousand seeds. After the flowers dry, you cut them, destroy the cuttings, and you get all your seeds. Our farm is 120 acres, and we plant a million plants each year. So the name La Flor, refers to the flower of the very best tobacco plants, the ones used for reproduction. SMOKE: Were your first La Flor Dominicana cigars a success in 1994? GOM
