Johnny Ortiz and his family start their day hand-rolling products for their shop Ortiz Cigars, channeling their Dominican roots one cigar at a time.

"In my country, we come from a town [called] ‘Tamboril,' [which] they call the capital of cigars," said Ortiz, the president of Ortiz Cigars. "We had 65 cigar factories."

Four generations of Dominican tobacco experience have been passed down through the entire Ortiz family, starting with Ortiz's grandfather.

"I was working with my grandpa way back in the Dominican Republic in 1980, and [I] have those memories when I was watching my grandpa making the traditional cigars that we call Gabillero," he said. "I had one memory, that one day I will open a business in memory of my grandpa."

After settling in Haverstraw, the Ortiz family made that dream a reality and kept the family tradition alive. They opened Ortiz Cigars in December 2020, offering cigars blended with Dominican Piloto Cubano, Honduran, Ecuadorian, and Connecticut tobacco.

"When you smoke my cigars, they don't have humidity, so you feel so good that when you finish my cigars, you're able to smoke another cigar," Ortiz explained. "We are really focused [on] quality and consistency."

After nearly four years of running the shop, Ortiz says that sentiment is now shared by their customers.

"We have the support from all the community because they love our cigars," said Ortiz "Our goal is that you come back and say, ‘Thank you for having that kind of cigar.’”

Ortiz Cigars is located at 2 West St. Apartment 2 in Haverstraw.