In 1989, Mariana and Nestor Miranda entered the cigar business. At the time, the latter was a liquor distributor, while the former ran the company’s cigar operations out of the back of her car. Today, 25 years later, the company has a growing portfolio ranging from traditional premium cigars to accessories, and everything in between. Earlier this year, Nestor Miranda announced he would be moving into a different role as his son-in-law, Jason Wood, takes over more aspects of running the family company. Publicly, Miranda is as present ever, visiting retail accounts, usually with a cigar in his hand and maybe a drink nearby.

Nestor Miranda

This photograph was taken using a Canon 5D Mark III and a Canon 24mm f/1.4 lens at f/2.8. The shutter speed was 1/60 second at ISO 1600. There was one main source of light: ambient incandescent light from an existing spotlight. The photograph was color corrected in Adobe Lightroom and further fixed in Adobe Photoshop CS6. The photograph was shot at Serious Cigars’ Texas Cigar Festival.

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Brooks Whittington

I have been smoking cigars for over eight years. A documentary wedding photographer by trade, I spent seven years as a photojournalist for the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star Telegram. I started the cigar blog SmokingStogie in 2008 after realizing that there was a need for a cigar blog with better photographs and more in-depth information about each release. SmokingStogie quickly became one of the more influential cigar blogs on the internet, known for reviewing preproduction, prerelease, rare, extremely hard-to-find and expensive cigars. I am a co-founder of halfwheel and now serve as an editor for halfwheel.