Last year at the 2014 IPCPR Convention & Trade Show, La Flor Dominicana showed off the 1994, a line that incorporates a Mexican San Andrés wrapper over Dominican binder and fillers to commemorate Litto and Ines Lorenzo-Gomez’s 20 years in the cigar business. Patrick Lagreid did a phenomenal job detailing the Gomez’s history in his review of the 1994 Mambo: In 1993, Litto Gomez owned a jewelry store in Miami’s North Beach neighborhood called Pekin’s. As the store was getting ready to close for the day, two men came into the shop and proceeded to gag and bind the hands of Gomez and his jeweler and make off with some $400,000 in jewelry. The pair were never caught, and while Gomez rarely speaks of that day, when he does it is with gratitude as it was what turned him to the cigar business. It was that life-changing moment that inspired Gomez to enter the cigar business, and in 1994, he and his wife Ines, along with some investors, launched a Dominican-made line of cigars called Los Libertadores. It was a quick growth for the brand, making 150,000 cigars in 1994 before ramping up to nearly three million in 1996. But the business partners didn’t share ...
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