Nicaragua's Tobacco Trail
The pursuit of great cigars begins with the pursuit of great tobaccos. Nicaragua's cigar makers prize their country's jet-black earth and ideal climate as the key to their rising fame.
By Ted Hoyt
The drive north from the Nicaraguan cigar-making capital of Estelí starts out smoothly enough on CA-1, Central America's portion of the Pan-American Highway. Rebuilt throughout Nicaragua following the devastating destruction of Hurricane Mitch in 1998, the two-lane highway is more than the road into tobacco country: it's an economic lifeline stretching over 1,500 miles from Mexico in the north to Panama City in the south.
Descending into Condega, the highway twists and turns as it clings to the steep mountainside. Beyond the edge are lush tobacco plantations in the valley's river plain, tobacco curing barns lined up neatly in rows. Continuing on to Ocotal, and leaving the Pan-American behind, yet more farms and barns can be spotted. It is here you catch the notorious road to Jalapa, where the journey to Nicaragua's most noted and remote tobacco farms slows to a crawl. The narrow dirt road, shared by pedestrians, motorbikes, cattle, and tractors, seems to be under perpetual construction, and several bridges still remain washed out from Mitch's torrential floods. Jalapa has always been difficult to get to, but for cigar makers, the reward is well worth the trek.
Ask any Nicaraguan cigar maker why this tiny Central American country has achieved hotspot status in recent years and the discussion is guaranteed to turn passionately to the source of every tobacco grower's pride here: the rich, jet-black soil and ideal climatic conditions that are said to rival Cuba's best growing areas.
From the Jalapa Valley back to Estelí, such boastful claims are anything but idle chat: just ask any of the numerous Cuban farmers, agronomists, and technicians that can be found working the region's farms and curing operations, lifelong tobacco workers whose expertise have been tapped in pursuit of the finest tobaccos the land can deliver, and the roll ing of the finest cigars outside of Cuba.
Nicaragua's cigar industry has traditionally maintained close ties with its Cuban counterpart, a trend begun by Nicaraguan's overthrown Somoza family. Given the close ties, Cuba's efforts to develop tastier and hardier tobacco strains have a habit of methodically making their way to Nicaragua where - once acclimated to local conditions - they thrive.
While many consider tobacco from Cuba's Vuelta Abajo region in the province of Pinar de Rio to be the best in the world, Nicaraguan tobaccos - and those from Jalapa in particular - have gained a fervent following of their own. Nicaragua's tobacco growing regions have successfully yielded top-quality leaf, including fine wrapper, giving birth in recent years to a mini-industry of all- Nicaraguan tobacco cigars - true puros in the tradition of Cuba.
If the buzz surrounding Nicaragua's rising prominence in the world of premium cigars has shifted into high gear in recent years, the nation - which is only slightly bigger than New York - has over 50 years of tobacco growing and cigar making tradition to thank. The companies that comprise Nicaragua's cigar industry today range from small to large; from long-time survivors of the nation's political turmoil to more recent upstarts confident with the country's newfound stability.
The factory where cigar making first began in Nicaragua, and in fact all of Central America, is the storied home of the Joya de Nicaragua brand, Tobaccos Puros de Nicaragua, S.A. Established prior to the Cuban revolution, the factory has a well-deserved reputation as an unofficial "Cigar University," having served as a training ground for countless workers who went on to manage other factories in Estelí, neighboring Central American countries, and beyond. The hands-on expertise among its current employees - some of whom have been with the company as long as 34 years - is unique among cigar makers in Estelí.
Joya de Nicaragua was the earliest Nicaraguan brand to gain widespread notoriety in the United States, and was once the best-known cigar brand in all the Americas.
By the time Nicaraguan economist Alejandro Martinez purchased the company in 1994, the operation had lost much of its sheen, having existed as a government company under the country's communist Sandinista regime. Unfazed and eager to again bring luster, Martinez re-acquired ownership of the Joya de Nicaragua brand several years ago and set out to rebuild it. Turning to the expertise of longtime employees to recreate the original blend that graced cigar shop humidors in the 1970s, the company last year introduced the notably strong Joya de Nicaragua AntaZo 1970, an all-Nicaraguan tobacco cigar.
"It's very expensive tobacco, but not a very expensive cigar," explains Martinez, who is content to see the famed factory produce smaller quantities of high quality cigars rather than setting sights on the nearly nine million cigars it once produced annually. "I want to give the consumer a good, strong cigar at a reasonable price, even if that means cutting off the big numbers," says Martinez. "That's a sacrifice not too many people are ready to make."
Jose Orlando Padrón had already been making cigars in Miami's Little Havana for six years before he established his first factory in Nicaragua in 1970. Padrón, whose tobacco-farming family left Cuba in 1961, was no stranger to Nicaragua, having first visited Jalapa in 1957. He was quite aware of the country's potential to produce world-class tobaccos, and began to slowly build operations in Estelí.
When Nicaragua fell into war during the 1970s, one of Padrón's top priorities was protecting his stockpiles of aged tobacco. Recognizing the imminent dangers of the Sandinista Revolution to his business, he elected to spread out his supply among several warehouses in Miami and Honduras. When his factory was ultimately burned in 1978, damage to the overall operation was much less than it might have been, although thousands of cigars were lost. The family continued rolling cigars here until 1985, when the U.S. embargo halted Nicaraguan imports to America. Operations were shifted entirely to Padrón's Honduras factory, and didn't return to Estelí until 1990, following free elections. Today, both facilities are in use.
Over the years, the family has invested heavily in the business and its facilities in Estelí, and most of it - about 95% of all the company's space - has been allocated to the handling,processing, and storage of tobacco. "We have tobacco from all different areas here in Nicaragua," says Jose's son Jorge Padrón. "Processing tobacco is the most important part of making great cigars - to get the opportunity to control that ourselves." The Padróns own their own farm in Jalapa, and contract with farmers in other growing areas, having established long-term relationships to ensure the consistency of its cigar tobacco.
Last summer, the company moved into a new factory just blocks from its old facility. The compound, spread along the Pan-American Highway, consolidates a number of smaller buildings located throughout town, and gives the company much-needed operating space for rolling cigars. Jorge says the new factory could allow a jump in manufacturing capacity, but the family intends to remain focused on its existing brands, which for years has consisted solely of the flagship Padrón brand, with total annual production at about 2 million cigars. It does intend to slowly increase availability of its first permanent new brand, the Padrón 1964 Anniversary Series, which was released last year.
When Nestor Plasencia's father Sixto first came to Nicaragua in the 1960s from San Luis, Cuba, it was to continue the family tradition of growing tobacco, which accounts for about half of Plasencia Group's operations today. Spanning from Estelí to neighboring Honduras, Plasencia grows and processes tobacco for the industry's top cigar makers both inside and outside of Nicaragua, with facilities in each of the country's main growing areas, about 700 acres in all. He also operates five cigar factories - two in Nicaragua and three in Honduras - producing mainly brands under contract for other companies.
Plasencia's Estelí factory, Segovia Cigars, a joint venture with Swiss-based Danneman, is where his best brands are rolled and his company's best talents showcased. Known locally as the "Cathedral of Cigars," the facility was designed to mimic the architectural style of Danneman's Brazilian facility, and even has a central courtyard garden that belies the building's function as a factory.
Segovia produces two of Nicaragua's more unique brands. Spearheaded by fifth generation grower Nestor Jr., the Plasencia Organica brand is rolled entirely from organic Nicaraguan tobaccos that the company grows and processes without pesticides or chemicals. All tobacco handling, from curing to fermentation to rolling, is entirely separate from regular production. Segovia also makes the Danneman HBPR, made start to finish by a single roller without molds by bunching, pressing, and rolling each stick by hand.
Quality control is the top priority for Fidel Olivas Jarquin, general manager of Latin Cigars S.A. Olivas, a Nicaraguan native who worked for the Joya de Nicaragua factory and managed Plasencia's facility in Danlí, Honduras, started Latin Cigars in 1996 as a partnership with the ToraZo family. It employees 350 people, produces about 50,000 cigars a day, and includes a team of 18 supervisors that oversee a rigorous program of quality tests on each cigar. The partners also operate a larger facility in Honduras, all managed by Fidel and fellow family members Adrian, Jose, and Oscar. The Latin Cigar factories have been producing a number of brands for C.A.O. International for quite some time, and just recently created dedicated cigar operations at both the Honduras and Estelí facilities in conjunction with the Ozgener family. When the transition is complete, C.A.O. Fabrica de Tabaccos will have dedicated staff in both Estelí and in Honduras producing only C.A.O. brands.
In 1995, Omar Ortez established Agroindustrial Nicaraguense de Tabaco, located off the beaten trail in the tiny town of Condega, north of Estelí. A partnership with Felipe Gregorio president Philip Wynne, it is a vertically-integrated operation, processing nearly all of its own family-grown raw tobaccos in Jalapa. "Generally speaking, Philip favors stronger cigars," notes Ortez, who creates the cigars' blends and has developed such Nicaraguan puros as Felipe Gregorio and Felipe II for Wynne, but has also created softer ones like Petrus. Production at the factory is essentially steady at about 1.75 million cigars annually.
Ortez, a native of Condega, can speak at length about the individual styles of Nicaragua's tobacco origins. "Each tobacco has distinct characteristics," Ortez explains. "Esteli leaf is strong, used mostly for filler, but some as wrapper; tobaccos grown in Jalapa are softer and sweeter, used as wrapper and filler. Condega leaf falls somewhere in between in taste."
In stark contrast is Nicaragua American Tobacco S.A. (NATSA), the largest producer in Estelí at 20 million cigars per year, all made exclusively for Santa Clara Inc. and its retail operation, 800-JR Cigar Inc. The sprawling facility was opened in 1995 by the late Juan Francisco Bermejo, a veteran cigar maker who was a co-founder of the original Joya de Nicaragua factory. Bermejo's son Juan "Triki" Bermejo Jr. now oversees production of 15 handmade brands including Montecruz, La Finca, Montequilla, José Martí, Mayorga, Remedios, Flor de Farach, and Aristoff.
Nick Perdomo Jr., president of Tabacalera Perdomo S.A., is one of the more established of the "new wave" of cigar makers to have settled in Estelí. What began as a sideline of two rollers in Miami in 1991 as a means of making extra money for his new family became a full-time career for the former air traffic controller. Perdomo quickly outgrew a factory in Miami's Little Havana and in 1996 moved the operation to cramped quarters in Estelí, installing his father Nick Sr., a former roller at the Partagas factory in Cuba, as its manager. By 2000, the family-owned business had relocated again to a sprawling new 80,000 sq. foot facility built on the outskirts of town.
Perdomo has had no regrets about reconnecting with his family's roots - Nick's grandfather Silvio was a roller at Cuba's H. Upmann factory. "It's a lot of work," Perdomo admits, "But I think what sets us apart is we have a lot of attention to detail about the things we do. You've got to have a passion for it."
The company's cigars, which include La Tradicion Perdomo Reserve, Perdomo Estate Seleccion, Cuban Parejo, and its most exclusive cigar to date, Perdomo Edición de Silvio, have become well known for their characteristic reddish-brown rosado wrappers, square pressed shape, and full body.
Eduardo Fernandez, a former New York financier and self-made entrepreneur who created one of Europe's most successful fast foot chains, started in the cigar business on the agricultural side, having acted upon an opportunity to acquire tobacco farming lands in Condega and Jalapa that had belonged to the post Sandinista-era farming cooperatives. Having land but lacking expert staff, the highly-charged and rapid-speaking Fernandez brought in retired wrapper leaf growers and fermentation experts from Cuba in an effort to "do something special" with the fertile tobacco lands. As president and owner of Aganorsa, he oversees production of 10,000 bales of cigar tobacco annually.
Last year, Fernandez added a missing piece to his puzzle in the form of an expert tobacco blender, Cuban-born Pedro Martin, when he bought the cigar company Martin founded in 1978, now called Tabacalera Tropical. Martin, a lifelong tobacco veteran and expert in wrapper leaf, had previously operated his own factory in the Dominican Republic, but was amazed by the tobaccos being produced in Jalapa. The company's goal is to make the best cigars possible, leveraging its enormous tobacco resources and employing traditional, old-fashion Cuban methods of processing tobacco and rolling cigars. This includes assembling cigar tobaccos in an accordion-like fashion to create a better draw, and finishing cigars with "triple-caps," perfect round cigar heads that require additional steps. Both methods, says Fernandez, are standard in Cuba but not in Central America.
Last summer, Fernandez launched the first new brands developed with Martin, including Buena Cosecha, Lempira, Nicarao, and Condega, a strong, all-Corojo leaf blend. Ironically, Henry "Kiki" Berger, owner and master roller of Tabacalera Esteli, never really intended to be running his own cigar company, much less living in Estelí. Originally one of several investors in a cigar business that quickly went awry during the height of the cigar boom, Berger had only intended to straighten things out at the factory. That was eight years ago, and since then Berger has become one of the most unlikely champions of building a completely integrated cigar operation, buying his own farm two years ago, building a thatch-roofed Cuban style curing barn - the only one of its kind in Nicaragua - and constructing a brand new factory and curing facility on the grounds.
Berger, whose father was a small-time roller in Cuba, now employs 400 people in all. He has long been the hidden face behind other people's successful brands including Savinelli Nicaragua Reserve, Cupido, and 5 Vegas. "Now it's time for me to make my own cigars, to use the best material I have to make the best cigars," says Berger, who is rolling Nicaraguan puros from tobaccos he planted, grew, harvested, cured, fermented, and aged, all on his own farm. "This is where people have to invest, in their quality control and their assurance of having the same tobacco all the time, so when you buy a cigar it's always the same tobacco from the same farm."
Berger's new brands include Vegas of Tabacalera Esteli; Cuban Crafters, which are rolled with long curly head caps and Cuban tails; and his top-of-the-line J.L. Salazar y Hermanos Reserva Especial, a classic, full-bodied, Cuban-style box-pressed cigar with quadruple fermented tobaccos. "I've been aging it," says Berger of his stash of tobacco. "I've been taking my time with it. I haven't rushed it."
The Padrón factory isn't the only impressive new factory expansion to come on-line in Estelí this year; a surprising large facility belonging to the Oliva family's Tabacalera Oliva S.A.(Tabolisa), within walking distance of several other manufacturers on the edge of town, also opened over the summer. The Olivas, who first came to Nicaragua as growers, adding cigar rolling operations about eight years ago, are the source of over 14 different brands, including Flor de Oliva and the much discussed "O" line. Cigar rolling is under the direction of Carlos Oliva. His father, Gilberto Sr. - who was literally born across the street from Cuba's Hoyo de Monterrey factory - first worked in Cuba's tobacco industry before embarking on an international career growing tobacco throughout the Americas. Today he oversees all growing, curing, and fermenting operations in the family business.
The new, larger factory will accommodate increased production, says Carlos's brother Gilberto Oliva, Jr., who is active in both the leaf and cigar rolling operations, but drastic increases are not in the works. "We've always been careful about expanding too quickly," says Oliva, noting that the "O" cigar was actually Gilberto's personal smoke, and he was encouraged by others to make it into a brand. "The wrapper takes a lot more aging - it's a true Havana wrapper," he explains. Oliva originally planned on making only 1,000 boxes per month, but demand has been steep.
If there's one cigar manufacturer in Nicaragua that's broken the mold, it would be Drew Estate. Overseen by company co-founder and Long Island native Jonathan Drew Sann, Drew Estate began as a cigar shop in New York City that had its own cigar made locally. Years later, the shop was gone, and the company was making its own cigars in a former motel in Estelí. Most of Sann's brands have been anything but traditional. The herbal and botanically-infused Acid line put Drew Estate on the map; the spice-infused Ambrosia continued that theme. But Sann, a non-stop bundle of New York-style energy, stresses that other Drew Estate brands, such as Natural, which combines up to 12 different tobacco origins in a single cigar, take aggressive tobacco blending to a whole new level. The company is the largest importer of foreign tobaccos into Nicaragua, he notes.
Even non-aromatic, non-flavored lines, like Industrial Press and La Vieja Habana, prove that Sann's blends can also stand on their own in more traditional styles. While the philosophy and culture at Drew Estate has always emphasized youthful exuberance and non-conformist attitudes, the company has also forged projects with gourmet coffee grower Martin Mayorga for Mayorga Coffee Infused Cigars; and General Cigar Co. for the new Kahlua Cigar line.
Wars, revolutions, and embargos have created a challenging political terrain in Nicaragua for cigar making over the years, but the country's rich lands, ideal weather, and wealth of talent ultimately are too great a temptation for passionate tobacco growers and cigar makers to pass by. Combined with current political stability, improving infrastructure, and a magnetic draw for talent,Nicaragua is again enjoying a golden age in cigars.
