Santa Clara 1830

The San Andrés valley, in Veracruz, produces a tobacco the whole world uses without always knowing where it comes from: the Mexican San Andrés wrapper, dark and sweet, has become in twenty years one of the most sought-after coverings in the trade, right into Nicaraguan blends.

Santa Clara claims 1830 as its founding date, which would make it the oldest factory in the country and one of the oldest on the continent. The house belongs to the Turrent family, which has farmed the valley for several generations and is today the main supplier of San Andrés wrapper outside Mexico.

It is that double role that makes the house interesting: it sells its leaf to its competitors and rolls its own cigars with it. The Mexico page counted only two entries until now, one of which is not even a Mexican brand — this one corrects a glaring imbalance.

Range Depth

• Santa Clara 1830

  Wrapper San Andrés Maduro · Strength Medium

  The valley's dark wrapper over Mexican filler: cocoa, earth, a sweetness that comes from the leaf and not from any treatment. San Andrés at its source.

  Robusto · Toro

• Santa Clara Premier

  Wrapper San Andrés · Strength Medium

  A short format and a drier register, for those who find the maduro too candied. The same terroir, less roundness.

  Corona

🥃 Pairings

• Mezcal

  Spirits

  The smoke of the mezcal and the earth of San Andrés come from the same volcanic landscape.

• Mexican chocolate with cinnamon

  Other

  The cocoa of the wrapper finds its most direct extension there.