Brazil

Brazilian tobacco is recognisable by its sweetness — not contrived, but grown. Tobacco was already one of the country’s great export commodities in the colonial era; today Brazil is known in the premium world above all for two names: Mata Fina and Arapiraca.

Terroir and Regions

The classic growing area lies in the north-east, in the state of Bahia. In the Recôncavo, the fertile hinterland of the Bay of All Saints, the Mata Fina ripens — a sun-cured tobacco that during fermentation develops a deep, dark colour and aromas of cocoa, earth and dried fruit, underpinned by that characteristic natural sweetness. Further north, around the town of Arapiraca in the state of Alagoas, the country’s second great tobacco grows on sandy clay soils under intense sun: thicker-leafed and oilier than the Mata Fina, with a pronounced chocolate note. Both are traditionally air-cured and belong to the few tobaccos that ferment to near-black almost entirely of their own accord.

The Maduro Specialist

These qualities have made Brazil the preferred supplier of dark wrappers. Wherever a Maduro wrapper is required to bring natural sweetness and depth, blenders around the world reach for Brazilian leaf — as an alternative to Mexican San Andrés or Connecticut Broadleaf, often with a softer, more dessert-like profile. Brazilian tobacco is also prized as filler: it rounds out powerful blends and gives them a dark, sweetish base. The country also maintains its own cigar tradition; manufactories in Bahia have produced puros from purely Brazilian tobacco for generations, though they are rarely found outside South America.

A cigar with a Brazilian wrapper announces its character before the first draw: dark in tone, gentle in spice, sweet on the finish.