MAYA SELVA received the Lifetime Achievement Award 2024

Dortmund, Germany

September 19th 2024

Maya Selva has been recognized for a lifetime’s work in the cigar world. Creator of the brands Flor de Selva, Cumpay and Villa Zamorano was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the prestigious Trophy Award organized by Cigar Journal during Intertabac 2024.

« ALREADY 30 YEARS! And as you all know, when you work with tobacco, time just flies by. But in this industry, you never stop learning. Learning from your mentors, the legendary Plasencia family, the wise Andrés Diaz, and most importantly, learning from the tobacco itself.

In these 30 years, we have achieved so many goals and accumulated countless unforgettable moments. » As she opened her speech.

When Maya Selva started Flor de Selva in 1995, she fulfilled her dream of bringing together her French and Honduran origins, and became one of the world’s few female manufacturers of entirely handmade cigars. She was also the first to introduce European cigar enthusiasts to the Honduran terroir, the red soil of her ancestors where, every year, a tobacco with woody flavours and subtle aromas is reborn.

Maya sees cigars as an agricultural product first and foremost. Like a fine wine, it bears the stamp of its origins, the character of its land. The greatest challenge for Maya Selva was to enhance the concept of terroir. Each of her brands markets itself as the quintessence of a particular soil, climate and know-how.

“Creating a new cigar is very exciting. I follow my memories and my half-French, half-Honduran sensitivity: I research a particular aroma, a particular potency. After much trial and error, the perfect blend appears… a truly magical moment!”

The modest size of the business reflects the handmade philosophy of Maya Selva Cigars. The entire production process – from farm to the manufacturing of the boxes – is provided by a highly-qualified workforce in Honduras. That’s the true added value.

To keep business moving forward for a legion of loyal aficionados, Maya juggles her time between the company headquarters in central Paris and a world distribution center in the outskirts. And Honduras where the tobacco plantations and a brand-new factory is located, plus a distribution center for the USA in Hollywood, Florida.