Christian Eiroa featured in Ocean Drive Magazine
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Christian Eiroa
Rebel with a cause
Ocean Drive Magazine (Español)
Decemeber 2008
Written by: Camilo Dumaine
We are now 11 years past the boom that made cigars famous in the United States. Today, the figures speak of a rebirth and Christian Eiroa, president of the Honduran based company Camacho Cigars, is one of those figures. “Cigars unite people”, he says. “I’ve smoked with Al Sharpton and even with Ethel Kennedy – what a wonderful woman!”
Christian – now 36, was born in Honduras and is now situated in Miami – he inherited from his father, Julio, an intense passion for cigars and aviation. He also inherited a stubbornness that constantly leads to disagreements with who he calls “el viejo” or “the old man.”
He is the youngest of three children, and the only one that decided to enter into the family business. “In 1995, my father invited me to Honduras to get my start in the business”, he recalls. “I was only 23 at the time. When I arrived on the farm, me and the old man began to have problems because by the second week I was giving orders to everyone, including him.”
Of all the brands manufactured by Camacho, it was the Corojo, one of Christian’s creations launched in 2000, that really put the company on the map. “I learned the different tobaccos and how to blend them, this is what made our company really begin to grow. I arrived with a different taste and I made full body cigars famous in the US.”
His company having 96 months of consistent growth, aroused the senses of the prestigious Swiss firm, the Oettinger Davidoff Group, which acquired Camacho Cigars this last October with plans to grow the brand internationally. “In this industry there is a lot of family pride,” he says. “When we distribute our brand worldwide, I imagine myself going to Prague and seeing someone in a restaurant smoking a Camacho… this to me would be like a rock lover getting to play with the Rolling Stones!”
Tags: camacho, christian, cigars, drive, eiroa, magazine, ocean, print
