Casa Magna Colorado

Manuel Quesada has been making cigars since 1974 but the Quesada family have been part of the tobacco industry for over a century. They were bakers when they first moved from Spain to Cuba but in the late 1800s the family received a payment for a debt in tobacco.

In 1929 the Quesada family visited the Dominican Republic in the search for new and different tobaccos and they were amazed by the aromas - so much so that they moved there but kept the company based in Havana, Cuba until the 1960’s.

A new company was formed in the Dominican Republic by the Quesada family to manufacture Dominican tobacco. The company was called Manufactura de Tabacos, S.A. or MATASA for short. It was established in a new free trade zone in Santiago in June 1974, which is when Manuel started getting involved in the family business. The company began small with only three rollers but not long after there were 35 and growing.

Today Manuel works with his two daughters, who are now the fifth generation of the Quesada family, together they run the manufacturing facility with over 300 staff keeping the traditions of making premium cigars.

Manuel's original cigars were mild bodied, most of them a blend of Dominican filler and binder tobaccos cloaked with light Connecticut-seed wrappers. His latest endeavours are bolder, more vibrant smokes. 

The Casa Magna Colorado is his greatest innovation. He joined forces with Nicaragua’s largest grower of cigar tobacco, Nestor Plasencia, and created this blend in Plasencia’s Segovia Cigar factory.

These cigars have a bold heart of Cuban-seed tobacco, all of it grown in two very different regions of Nicaragua: tobacco from Estelí tends to be strong, while that grown in Jalapa, to the north, is typically more balanced and elegant. 

The two Nicaraguan leaves used in this blend combine to create a full-flavoured cigar, full of rich coffee notes and balanced by a cedary sweetness with a hint of raisins. The word “Colorado” in the brand name refers to the dark, slightly reddish hue of the wrapper.

Click here to view the Casa Magna range

Written by Oliver Partington