A Full Day At Nicaragua’s Cigar Festival
Would you accept a Plasencia cigar from a trio of cowgirls on the edge of a tobacco field? I would. And I did. That was exactly how I and a few hundred other cigar lovers were greeted at Puro Sabor’s open-air pig roast on the second day of the Nicaraguan cigar festival.
There are few meals as befitting of the cultural theme as a pig roast. There’s something to be said about everyone partaking of the same animal. Yes, there was some insipid chicken breast overcooking in a chafing dish for those who refused to partake in the pork, but to do that is to largely defy the spirit of the festival. And typically, the pig roast is the best meal of the entire tour. The lunch was hosted by Plasencia Cigars and took place under a tent at the edge of a tobacco field.
Before lunch I visited Drew Estate, the Bohemian powerhouse that produces such premium smokes as Liga Privada, Herrera Esteli, Blackened, and other cigars, along with tens of millions of its signature infused brand, Acid. The company’s face and unofficial guru, Jonathan Drew, was not there in person, but even in his absence, he managed to be present in every colorful mural and whiff of infused tobacco. There’s hardly a wall in the factory that isn’t tagged with someone’s street art. I started the day with a Herrera Esteli Lonsdale Deluxe, a brilliant longish corona that reminds us how Drew Estate can be understated when it wants to.
The factory is a popular among festival-goers, so I was able to stop by and snoop around before the tour group arrived. Pedro Gomez, the international brand manager, was there to make sure I didn’t wander into any restricted areas—and there are indeed restricted areas. The company’s infusion process is a closely guarded trade secret. No matter. A little mystery is part of the appeal. They used to hold Cigar Safari tours and host visitors from all over the United States in order to connect with consumers and better communicate its alternative ethos. They haven’t had one since before the Covid pandemic, so Puro Sabor is probably the easiest way for Drew Estate fans to get through the door.
After lunch, I hopped on one of the tour busses headed to the Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG), Estelí factory. We sat in a good amount of traffic, but it gave us the opportunity to get a look at downtown Estelí. It’s a small city, and doesn’t really have colonial architecture like you’d find in places like Havana or Quito. Rather, it’s a series of either low-rise concrete buildings or small shacks with rusty, corrugated rooves where people sell everything from foam mattresses to car tires. Unneutered dogs roam the sidewalks sniffing for food scraps or else nap in the gutter.
When our bus arrived at STG—a group of about a dozen—we were all shepherded into an odd structure. It was a mostly empty room where we were asked to stand in a circle and introduce ourselves. This is unusual. After that, we received our swag bag, which is also unusual. Gift bags are typically handed to you at the end of a tour, not the beginning. Then we headed over to the main factory building.
The primary brand coming out of STG Estelí is CAO. Yes, they also produce Macanudo Red and Cohiba here, but CAO is the main focus. Like Drew Estate, CAO was an edgy brand with nontraditional marketing behind it. And also like Drew Estate, the brand was privately owned and then acquired by a large corporation. CAO is still a nontraditional brand that experiments with different concepts. It’s popular too. I was hoping to see some CAO Flatheads being rolled and then pressed into their blocky form. Or maybe some of the Amazon Basin. Instead, as I entered the rolling room, I was startled to see a small troupe of barefooted girls twirling in colorful dresses to very loud music before a masked couple performed the Nicaraguan folk dance “El Viejo y La Vieja.” Believe it or not, unexpected pop-up shows like this actually are typical of cigar festivals. I was more interested in the cigars.
They weren’t rolling any Flatheads that day, and sadly, I was too late to see any of the CAO Pilón cigars they were banding in the packaging room. But I did see some rollers making the light CAO Gold, the dark CAO Brazilia and the pinstriped CAO America. The factory isn’t huge (100 pairs of rollers), but it isn’t tiny either and produces 46,000 cigar a day. Here’s an interesting fact: there is no tobacco fermentation at this facility. They have storage for aged bales, but all the leaf is fermented in either Honduras or the Dominican Republic. Even the Nicaraguan tobacco. I suppose that simplifies things here and lets the workers concentrate on production.
I asked if there were any CAO Flathead Sparkplugs laying around. It’s a short robusto shape and my favorite in the line. No. Not today. Instead, I reached for a CAO Consigliere. Remember that cigar? If you recall, that used to go by the name CAO Sopranos, which was themed to the HBO show of the same name. The licensing ended and it was rebranded but kept the same mafioso theme. I hadn’t seen one of those in a while. I did it more for nostalgia’s sake.
The evening ended with The White Party. This is my least favorite dinner of the festival because I hate wearing white, but they do a good job. It was hosted at Oliva’s beautifully landscaped tobacco processing center El Fumador, a compound made to look like a hacienda. Most of Nicaragua’s cigarmaking families and companies were in attendance. When I walked in, I was given a bag of three cigars: a CAO Pilón, a Padrón 1964 Anniversary Series and an Oliva Serie V Maduro. They were handed to me by the same three cowgirls from lunch, only now they were robed in white evening gowns, but they were still smiling the same convincing smiles, making full eye contact, and setting the right tone for another night of cigars.
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