One & Only Magazine
Current Edition- 2005
Read the story of the Makens' journey to bring the perfect cigar to the world...
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Robb Report
September - 2005
Smokers who shun small-caliber cigars will overlook the best product from Flor de Jardin. The company's blend of Honduran and Nicaraguan tobaccos reaches its flavor zenith in the long slim Lancero ... click to read the article. (*.pdf format) »
SMOKE Magazine
Fall - 2005
...9.6 Superior..."Bring more of these on!"...
Read all the reviews from SMOKE. (*.pdf format) »
Summer - 2005
... An even younger Honduran cigar brand had its genesis in 2002, when Texas-based landscape designer Bill Makens toured the country, checking out colonial gardens and architecture around the capital, and in his words, "trying to buy a cigar." Informed by a local that the true heart of cigar manufacturing was in Danlí, he made a special side trip - a mission, to track down someone who could make him a good cigar. "You can call it fate or destiny," he says now, "but I came across a man who happened to be running a small cigar factory." The man was Juan Benigno Valdes, who quickly developed a bond with the inquisitive American, and eventually a cigar brand, Flor de Jardín ("Garden Flower," a reference to Makens's other business, designing English gardens). To create the brand, a Honduran/Nicaraguan filler blend, available in Ecuadorian natural or Nicaraguan maduro wrappers, Valdes employs less than 20 people at the factory, developing about 5,000 cigars a month, sold mostly in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and slowly expanding northward into other markets. The slow pace agrees with Makens, who is thrilled to be in the business. "In any business it's hard to find people that you really have such a level of trust," he says of his partner, Valdes. "Juan and his family are such genuine people. We're a small company, and we need to do everything right - and that means a commitment to quality over quantity." A Rose Among the Ruins.
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Tobacco Retailer Magazine
June - 2005
Texas entrepreneur Michael Makens became familiar with the term walkabout while attending university in Australia. With the ability to speak four languages, including Chinese and Spanish, he took the term to heart and has traveled or lived in over 30 different countries...more »
N.A.T.O. Exposition 2005
Las Vegas, March 29-31, 2005
Photo: Smoke Magazine's Ted Hoyt (left) stops by the Flor de Jardin booth at the 2005 NATO Conference in Las Vegas.
