I recently had the unique opportunity to visit Henderson Ventura on location at the Aromático farms in the Dominican Republic and learned some of the facets of growing this special tobacco and how it is used in Ventura's blends, such as in ADVentura cigars.

[Shane Ireland]: Tell us a little bit about this farm and why it's special, when you got started, and all that good stuff.

[Henderson Ventura]: So we started this project in 2021. We develop a lot of the Aromático seeds that we use for our company here. This farm is more experimental farming where we try and test all the new hybrid seeds that we develop. We also grow 40% of the tobacco that we use for our factory on this farm.

We are always looking for unique tobacco and flavor profiles to make improvements on anything that we have done, not just for us as a factory, but also in the cigar industry so we can offer new flavor profiles to the consumers. For us, it's not just about making a cigar that is good; We strive to create a whole different experience, which is why it's special.

Aromático Tobacco Characteristics

[SI]: What about this farm is different? What makes the processes here different? How do you even get to a point where you're growing something like Aromático that hasn't been grown in so long? What is the different approach compared to something less experimental, tobacco-wise?

[HV]: Everything is in the details, in the way that we treat tobacco. Normally, 98 percent of the filler that we grow here in this country is more like an old style of growing tobacco in the Dominican Republic. We are applying new technologies, in terms of fertilizers, but also we are trying to be as organic as possible.

This is not a farm that we use for business to be a tobacco dealer to produce a high volume. We are creating the highest quality tobacco possible. That's what makes the difference. It's a passion project.

[SI]: Tell us a little bit about the varietal Aromático, what makes it special, and what the characteristics are when you're growing it.

[HV]: Aromático is a tobacco that is one of the regional seeds from the lower Dominican that pretty much doesn't seize that much of the pure seed. We conserve that and are making a hybrid with that seed to get a better yield and also to make it different in terms of flavor, but keeping the essence of the region intact.

It's a tobacco that is pretty strong, and very bright on the palate. The name Aromático is because of how much aroma you can get from the smoke of that tobacco. They taste different than the original seed from the Dominican Republic. That's why generally they call Dominican seed A Lo Dominicano, or Olor Dominicano. Back in the day, they used to have a couple of different variations of Olor Dominicano. But this is the real deal here.

[SI]: What about the plant itself? Is it a tall plant? Are the leaves wide? How does it compare to other tobacco plants that are grown in the Caribbean and Central America?

[HV]: The plant can be about one to one and a half meters wide. When you get into the highest point of the plant, the leaf is more narrow and longer. You can tell the difference between a Cuban seed plant and the Aromático just by looking at it. A Cuban seed plant's leaves are all pointing to the sky while the Aromático leaves fall down.

I will say the most similar shape of leaf that you can get beside the Olor Dominicano and the Aromático is Connecticut Broadleaf. They're more narrow, thicker, and longer.

Aromático Crop Growth Process

[SI]: How many crops can you plant in a year?

[HV]: We just do one.

[SI]: What is the time period for that?

[HV]: We are starting normally around late September or mid-October, depending on the variety, but we switch pretty much everything mid-to-late October. Normally we would start grinding and planting the tobacco in the month of September, but we figured out that in October, the soil calmed down a little bit and because of rain, there's less thickness from the hot soil coming out of the summer. This is from late October until March.

[SI]: Until March. Okay. At what point do you start trimming the lower primings and when are they ready to harvest?

[HV]: We start to do the harvesting after 55 days. At 55 days you do the first priming, and every four days you do around four leaves.

[SI]: Oh, okay. So starting from the bottom.

[HV]: We start from the bottom and work our way to the top.

[SI]: When do you take off the last primings?

[HV]: I will say at around 108 days.

[SI]: So nearly double from when you started. That's crazy. What happens after that? Tell us a little bit about the curing process. We're standing right here in front of one of the barns. Basically you're going to have tobacco in the barn ranging from 50 days to 100 — 100-plus days in terms of when you harvested it. How do you keep everything consistent the whole way through the curing process? You want to be able to use the crop up more or less all at the same time, right?

[HV]: Yeah. We do a rotation. We don't plant the tobacco all at the same time because sometimes the capacity of the curing house is not enough. So we do 40-to-45-day support. We do half of the farm first and then another half 50 days after.

[SI]: That makes sense.

[HV]: The curing process lasts between 45 days to 55 days. By the time the curing process is completely done, I can bring the other tobacco in.

[SI]: So from start to finish, from seed in the ground to the tobacco being cured in the barn, you're talking about four to five months, and that's before it gets processed in any way.

[HV]: Yes. Then it's another year of processing that tobacco, on average. We do a longer and more slow fermentation of our tobacco. For filler, we like a deep vein, so it's processed for more than a year. All the nutrients from the tobacco are in the main vein in the center of the stem. The longer you leave that vein inside the leaf the more nicotine, strength, and flavor you get.

[SI]: It's like letting the tomatoes ripen on the vine.

[HV]: Yeah, exactly.

Aromático in ADVentura Cigars & Future Goals

[SI]: You said that approximately 40% of the tobaccos you're using in the ADVentura production are coming from this farm. If I wanted to get an idea of maybe which one of your cigars I could taste the tobacco from this farm the best, where would you suggest that I start? Or is it a little bit of everything?

[HV]: The Queen's Pearls, the Explorer, and the Barbarroja. Actually, the first cigar that we made using tobacco from this farm was Barbarroja. We're using our Aromático Habano binder on that blend from here.

Besides this farm, we have five smaller farms where we grow the rest of that tobacco. My goal is to grow 100% of the tobacco that we use here in the Dominican Republic. We develop everything here. If there is any seed that we think is good enough or something super amazing that we can reproduce and grow, that's what we do.

That's why this farm is more experimental farming than anything else. Forty percent of the tobacco comes from this farm, but right now we are at a point where we are growing 80% of the tobacco that we use from the Dominican Republic. I would say in the next two years, we're going to be up to 100%.

[SI]: Oh wow. That's incredible.

Meticulous Cultivation Process

Is it safe to assume that when you're doing a smaller operation like this with hybrid tobacco that is very experimental that it costs more?

[HV]: Yeah, it's double the price on this farm versus other farms.

[SI]: Is that because you're striving for a more organic, or natural, approach?

[HV]: A more organic approach, yes. Because of that, we need more laborers taking care of the plants and taking off the little leaves around the side and the top. We lose at least 15% of the crop every year with the organic approach and having high standards for quality.

[SI]: It's meticulous. So the yield of the tobacco, the weight after its curing, is another 25-to-30% lost as well, right?

[HV]: Not just that. By the time you cure the tobacco until you finish the processing of fermentation and all that, you lose another 30%.

[SI]: Yeah. Sounds like a headache.

Henderson, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me, man. Always a pleasure. This is my favorite part of the process. This is where the magic happens: here in the fields. I appreciate you showing this to me. Everybody out there, make sure that you grab ADVentura cigars to get a taste of what this little farm has to offer.

[HV]: Thank you, man. I appreciate it.