PDR Cigars
- Founded in
- 2008 — Tamboril
- Factories
- PDR Cigars, Tamboril — 30 000 pieds carrés exploités, soixante rouleurs, 4,5 à 5 millions de cigares par an (2015)
- Countries
- Rép. Dominicaine
PDR is Pinar del Río — the name of Cuba's tobacco province, taken by a Dominican factory in Tamboril. Abe Flores was born in 1975 in Queens, grew up in the Dominican Republic from the age of three, and spent the late 1990s in tech before coming back to tobacco. The brand came out at the 2008 trade show: twelve accounts opened the first day, fifty six months later. PDR 1878 followed in 2009 — a hundred thousand cigars sold in a few months — and in 2011 the factory moved into a forty-thousand-square-foot building of which it first occupied only a quarter.
By 2015 it was using thirty thousand, with sixty rollers, and turning out four and a half to five million cigars a year. Half under its own brands: PDR 1878, the Small Batch Reserve, A. Flores 1975 — the founder's birth year — and Flores y Rodríguez, in partnership with a partner named Luis.
The other half is rolled for others, and the list crosses three entries in this atlas: La Palina, for its Black and Classic lines; Gurkha, for the 125th; Viaje, for TNT and C4; and Kristoff. Hiram & Solomon moved all its production there in June 2022. A factory that rolls for La Palina and Gurkha is not a neighbourhood workshop, and that is what brings it in here before the brands it makes.
Range Depth
PDR 1878
The core brand, in 2009 — four variants, a hundred thousand cigars sold in a few months.
A. Flores 1975
The founder's birth year, on the line signed with his name — Serie Privada and Gran Reserve.
Flores y Rodríguez
In partnership with a partner named Luis. The name retailer directories know best.
🥃 Pairings
Amber Dominican rum
The burnt sugar of the capa oscura finds its exact echo there.
Milk chocolate
An easy and apt pairing with heavily fermented blends.
Source : cigaraficionado.com « The Formidable Factory » (juillet-août 2015 : Abe Flores né en 1975 dans le Queens, en République dominicaine à trois ans, diplômé de Merrimack en 1999, informatique avant le cigare ; marque Pinar del Río lancée au salon de 2008, PDR 1878 en 2009, nouvelle usine en 2011 ; A. Flores 1975 Serie Privada n° 10 du Top 25 de 2014 ; 60 rouleurs, 4,5 à 5 millions par an, moitié en propre, moitié à façon — La Palina Black et Classic, Gurkha 125th, Kristoff, Viaje TNT et C4) ; pdrcigars.com ; halfwheel.com et cigar-coop.com (Hiram & Solomon y est roulée depuis juin 2022)