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Learning to Fly: Blackbird Cigar Co.
Blackbird Cigar Co.’s Jonas Santana has been a brand owner for a short while, but in that time he’s learned how to make his company stand out and take flight.By Tobacco Business -November 16, 2020
Everyone knows the arc of a bird’s life—birds are born into the world not knowing much at all, but several weeks into their life, they become curious about life. That curiosity leads them to leave the nest and learn to fly. For some, learning to fly is easy. Others fail repeatedly before they finally take flight. Birds are not born to remain in the nest or to rely on their parents, much like humans. The story of a bird is a lot like that of Jonas Santana, owner of Blackbird Cigar Co. Santana doesn’t come from a family with deep roots in tobacco or cigarmaking. He’s a first-generation cigar brand owner that had to learn how to “fly” in the cigar industry pretty quickly in order to launch his business successfully.
Santana and his brother wanted to make a cigar brand that not only felt new and exciting but one that would appeal to a new generation of cigar smokers. Santana’s own background is different from those of many cigar brand owners. He has a degree in marketing, and he loves music, particularly rap. Music, he says, is an outlet and way for him to deal with stress and express himself. Rapping provided Santana with a way to say what he wanted at any given moment while also having fun. This same attitude and feeling is what he’s worked into his tobacco business, Blackbird Cigar Co., and its various bird-
inspired cigar lines.
