“Your competition always wants to kill you. That bugs the shit out of me.”
That's Nick Perdomo Jr. after his competitors accused him of painting his cigars black because the wrappers were too dark and oily back in the early '00s. Which should tell you just about everything you need to know about Perdomo and his cigars.
Nick Perdomo has had a target on his back for almost 30 years now. He's gone from a young upstart blender to cigar-boom trendsetter to industry staple. And he's done it all while being just about the most outspoken man in the industry.
While he's been something of a newcomer and industry disrupter, Nick comes from a long lineage of cigar makers. His father and grandfather both worked in the upper echelon of the Cuban cigar industry before Fidel came to power and locked grandpa Silvio up for 15 years. Dad Nick Sr. fled to DC, where Nick Jr. was born, and started a major contractor business. They were later joined by a recently-freed Silvio.
Nick Jr. dreamed of reviving his family's cigar business and making Perdomo a household name. After a stint in the Navy, he started what would become Tabacalera Perdomo in his garage while working full-time as an air traffic controller. That was in 1992, a slow time for cigar makers, and Nick had to do double-duty running the factory and directing airplanes until he started turning a profit. “I did that for 19 months.” Nick told Cigar Aficionado, “I thought I was going to die. I was killing myself.”
Friends in the industry told Nick that he was making things too hard for himself by refusing to use Connecticut shade wrappers or make mild cigars. He chose to use Ecuadorian Sumatra wrappers and long-fillers from Nicaragua and Honduras instead of the popular Dominicans. But as tastes changed towards full-bodied blends as the cigar boom got started, it turned out Nick was perfectly positioned to take off in a big way.
Over the mid-90s, Perdomo pioneered so many staples of the modern cigar industry. His ever-popular Perdomo2 was one of the first box-pressed cigars of the cigar boom. He also championed ligero long-fillers, full-bodied blends, and maduro wrappers. Basically everything that we now hold dear.
Perdomo hit the mainstream when Nick's full-bodied La Tradición Perdomo Reserve earned top-marks from Cigar Aficionado in 1998 and won over thousands of loyal smokers for its potent palate and rich, oily wrapper. It also spawned those paint rumors from jealous rivals.
Nick hasn't looked back since. He opened a huge factory in Nicaragua and bought several farms, brought his father out of retirement to manage the Nicaraguan operations, and started making over 10 million cigars a year. Today, Perdomo is one of the top 10 best-selling brands in the world, ranking above the likes of Oliva and My Father. He might not be grabbing as many headlines these days, but Nick Perdomo is still leading his industry in new and exciting directions while delivering hit after hit. From the Perdomo 2 to the Double Aged, we can't get enough of this guy's sticks.
Please browse our selection of Perdomo cigars at your leisure.
