Arturo Fuente is a family-owned premium cigar company founded in 1912 by Arturo Fuente Sr. in West Tampa, Florida. The company has been operated by four generations of the Fuente family, with Carlos Fuente Jr. serving as president and leading the brand to international prominence since the 1980s. After multiple factory fires in Tampa and Nicaragua, the family relocated cigar production to the Dominican Republic in 1980, where they established the Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia factory in Santiago.
The company's most celebrated line is the Fuente Fuente OpusX, introduced in 1995. OpusX was groundbreaking because it was the first premium cigar made entirely with Dominican-grown wrapper, binder, and filler tobacco. The OpusX wrapper is grown at Chateau de la Fuente, the Fuente family's private estate in the Bonao region of the Dominican Republic, where Carlos Fuente Jr. spent over a decade developing proprietary Dominican wrapper leaf. OpusX cigars are produced in limited quantities and are among the most sought-after and collectible cigars in the world.
Beyond OpusX, Arturo Fuente produces a wide range of well-regarded lines including the Hemingway series (featuring figurado shapes), the Don Carlos line, the Gran Reserva, and the Fuente Fuente Forbidden X. The company also produces the affordable Curly Head and Brevas lines. Their cigars consistently rank among the top-rated in industry publications, with multiple Cigar Aficionado #1 Cigar of the Year awards.
Arturo Fuente remains one of the few major cigar companies that is entirely family-owned and operated. The Fuente family also runs the Cigar Family Charitable Foundation, which has built schools, medical facilities, and community centers in the Dominican Republic. Annual production is estimated at over 30 million cigars, making Fuente one of the largest premium cigar producers in the Dominican Republic.