Thanks for the information. I also found information in this article in Smoke Magazine, Spring 2003 issue:
"Costa Rica was poised to join the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and its northern neighbor Nicaragua as a font of quality cigars, largely on the success of one high-profile brand: Tony Borhani’s Bahia, made in the factory of the legendary Don Douglas Pueringer.
A few years ago, the high cost of living in that nation drove Borhani, who once described his adopted home as “absolutely beautiful... life at a slower, better pace,” to a difficult decision. He recalls, “Douglas is a perfectionist, and when you are perfectionist in this business, you run into a lot of costs labor-wise. Costa Rica is very expensive to live and to do business in now.” Pueringer agreed to open a new factory in less-developed Nicaragua, where Bahia is now produced. Borhani’s connection to Costa Rica remains, however; the Bahia Millenium line used Costa Rican binder, and Borhani plans on using what he believes to be the country’s “greatly improved” tobacco in his blends in the near future.
Another Donald Douglas Pueringer client, the boutique brand Bucanero, has also migrated its production from Costa Rica to Nicaragua, but has discovered a heretofore well-kept secret: the viability of Costa Rican wrapper tobacco. Bob Spoden, who co-founded Bucanero in 1996, sings the praises of both Pueringer and the country’s tobacco quality: “Costa Rica is known for its ‘micro-environmental’ conditions,” he says. “There are about 250 distinct climate conditions, and some of them support some fantastic tobaccos. What we tried to accomplish was developing a range of mild to fuller-bodied cigars that would incorporate the same wrapper with different fillers. We found that the wrapper grown in Costa Rica was very flexible; you could roll a medium-bodied cigar or a strong cigar with it and it always complemented the filler tobacco.” The experiment came to fruition with Bucanero’s trio of new pirate-themed maduro cigars launched last year, with profiles ranging from milder (El Capitan maduro), to medium-bodied (Peg Leg), to fuller-bodied (Full Sail). The exact filler blends are a closely guarded secret, but Spoden is happy to trumpet the line’s consistent element, the Costa Rican wrapper.
While Costa Rica’s future as a wrapper producer and backpacker destination seems secure, its chances of returning to a position of significance in the cigar making arena remain hazy. It is largely the influence of Nicaraguan refugees, who streamed into the country during the Sandinista conflicts of the 1980s, who have brought cigar rolling expertise to the nation - and employing the skills of these rollers carries with it a price for cigar companies. “Costa Ricans saw themselves losing jobs to the refugees,” Spoden explains. “Eventually, [the government] had to look at companies’ percentages of Costa Rican vs. Nicaraguan employees. They mandated tax penalties on companies that employed over a certain number of Nicaraguans. Costa Rica is still a wonderful country, but the taxation would have driven us out of business.”
