La Flor De la Isabela Cigar Factory Tour
Josette Knapp
AWCP - Tours Chairman

The Men of AWCP and some of the ladies of AWCP set out on a short tour to La Flor De La Isabela Cigar Factory in Paranaque City Monday, November 19. 

The day started early at 8 AM at the Makati office.  Once there, eleven of us carpooled in heavy traffic to the factory and were met by a very lively Lenor Occena, Administrative Manager and Assistant to the Chairman.  Lenor invited us into the Conference room and outlined the day’s events.  She then introduced us tour guide, Florencio Ricafrente, Production Manager and away we went! 

Our first stop was the wrapping section.  In this area we witnessed the imported Indonesian cigar wrappers being conditioned and packaged for drying.  We learned that the tobacco comes from the north part of Luzon Island and that much of the drying of the tobacco is done at the tobacco plantation before it gets shipped to the plant. 

Next, we saw the cigar rolling stations.  There were rows and rows- each row of workers rolled a different size, shape, and type or cigar- most completely by hand!  We found out that the cigar rollers have a daily quota to make.  In this quota, the cigars have to meet the quality control standards or their pay gets docked.  Now that’s incentive to roll a big fatty! 

 After the rolling stations, the cigars go to quality control.  In Quality Control (QC) they measure size, diameter, and packing- meaning the tobacco is fully packed in the wrapper and firm.  Then the cigars move onto the next QC station- color.  Color matching seemed to be the hardest thing to do.  The color control people actually pull out the cigars that are the same color and put them in bundles of 25.

Once the color is selected, the cigars move to storage and then to packaging.  Customers can choose a humidor or personalize their cigars.  If you order a humidor they can personalize the humidor and the cigars in just two days.  They can also ship the cigars to the US for an additional fee.

I think the highlight for those that enjoy the taste of cigars is they got to choose and smoke one while on the tour.  It was good fun to see some girls and most of the guys puffing away as the tour moved along!

The end of our tour took us to back to the conference room where we were treated to refreshments and we could order and purchase cigars and cigar paraphernalia.   Lenor and Mr. Ricafrente thanked us and invited us and our friend to return!  A good time was had by all! 

Thanks to Marisa Alcocer for setting up the tour and for taking such great photos!