The year 1881 saw the founding of Gran Fabrica de Tabacos Darier & Cleef, Panama’s first cigar manufacturer. Led by its founders, the French emigrant Alfons Darier and the Belgian nobleman Jean van Cleef, it took the business just a few years to become one of the leading luxury goods firms of its era.

Even at that time it was a stroke of outstanding genius by the two European exiles to recognize the unique potential of the soil and climate particular to this small country and begin cultivating Panamanian tobaccos of exceptional quality.

For as long as they lived, Alfons Darier and Jean van Cleef stayed true to the principle of creating an outstanding product using high-quality tobacco aged over a period of years.

As a result of political instability in Panama a number of breaks in production occurred between 1903 and 1999, with some breaks lasting a number of years and even seeing cigar manufacturing stop altogether. Today, Darier & Cleef S.A. are once again producing premium cigars in Panama according to original recipes.