The founders of Tainas Cigars, Sandy and Ron, met while serving in the Navy and married soon after. Their goal has been to enjoy life through connecting with others over the simple pleasures.
Both having roots in the Caribbean, they wanted to bring awareness to the Taino's, members of an Indigenous tribe of the Caribbean, who were among the first to smoke tobacco. Their goal is to reintroduce the history of Puerto Rican tobacco by bringing it back into the market.
We are dedicated to providing an authentic, premium experience that honors tradition while creating new memories for you and your guests.
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The history of the Puerto Rican cigar (or sik’ar) is a fascinating journey that begins long before Columbus arrived, rooted deeply in the spiritual and social lives of the Taíno people.
The word "Sik’ar" is the true origin of the modern "Cigar." While linguistically derived from the Mayan word for smoking rolled leaves, it was embraced in Caribbean oral tradition. For the Taíno, smoking was not just a habit but a ceremony. "Cohiba" was actually the name of the plant itself, and "Tabaco" was the Y-shaped pipe used to inhale it—a distinction the Spanish explorers confused, giving the world the word tobacco.
Tobacco was considered the "Queen's Herb," a sacred bridge to the divine. The Chieftains (Caciques) and Shamans (Behiques) used the primitive "Mosquete"—dried leaves rolled into a rough tube—to communicate with ancestral spirits during the Cohoba Ceremony. This primitive roll is the direct ancestor of the modern premium cigar.
This legacy passed from the Shaman to the Jíbaro, the mountain farmers of the Puerto Rican interior. Despite strict Spanish monopolies in the 17th and 18th centuries, a culture of contraband thrived in hidden coves. By the mid-19th century, Puerto Rican tobacco was world-renowned, often considered superior to Cuban tobacco for its sweet, aromatic qualities.
Today, the tradition lives on. Farmers in towns like Caguas and Cayey still use ancestral techniques to harvest "El Bermejo," a distinct variety of wild, native tobacco believed to be the direct descendant of the plants cultivated by the Taíno centuries ago.