Cigar Safari Report
Saturday, February 12, 2011 at 11:08AM I'm back from Nicaragua! I spent 4 days on Cigar Safari, Drew Estate's tour of Nicaragua. I have been asked to do a detailed report of my trip, so here it is!
Sunday morning I caught a train at 3am to Ohare airport to catch my 5:30 flight to Miami, which was of course delayed because of snow. After arriving in Miami I had about 20 minutes to get through security and to my gate at the other end of the airport for my flight to Managua, Nicaragua. After running through the airport like a crazy person I met up with Steve Saka from Drew Estate. There were also 7 guys from Top Shelf/Federal Cigar shop in New Hampshire waiting with Steve to go with us. I knew immediately I was going to get along with this crew. Within minutes of meeting them I had the nickname Castro (because of my beard and the green Cuban style had I was wearing). After arriving in Managua (after a very rough landing) we went through customs and Pedro and Jessi were waiting for us with the Drew Estate bus. Pedro was the tour guide for the trip and Jessi is the guy behind Subculture Studios, the in house art department at Drew Estate. Our bus was loaded with Liga Privadas, Joya De Nicaraguas and a bunch of other cigars fro m Drew Estate. Also the ever present cooler filler with Nicaraguan Beer, Coke and water. I immediately lit up a Liga Privada T52 Robusto and listened to Steve and Pedro talk about local politics and the country. We had lunch at a great looking restaurant called Bucanero and I had my first taste of the local rum, FLor De Cana.
After lunch was another T52 Robusto as we drove to check out an active volacano called Masaya! We were able to look down into the top of it and see all the smoke pouring out of it. Then it was off to the Crown Plaza where Jessi had hooked us up with a room to have a Superbowl party! This room was packed with food and of couse more rum! During the game I smoked a Ratzilla (6x46) that will be released soon, a BOTL Small Batch and a T52 Flying Pig that Jessie handed out at halftime. After the game we headed to what Steve said is the finest restaurant in Managua, and it didn't disappoint! Here we met up with 3 guys from Cigar Explorer.com that arrived late in Nicaragua. This place had a mountain lion and leopard in a cage at the front door, they didn't look too happy about the situation and tried to attack Steve through the fence. After dinner we returned to our hotel, Barcelo to crash. I had been up for about 38 hours at this point.
Monday:
The day started with a 2 hour bus trip to Esteli on the Pan-American Highway. Traffic was nuts. If we weren't dodging trucks and motorcycles it was someone driving cattle across the road. I lit up a JDN Cabinetta for the trip. After arriving at the Drew Estate factory and putting our stuff in our rooms ( I had my own room) we had a great lunch. After lunch I had a Liga Privada no.9 Robusto and we headed out for Joya De Nicaragua, the oldest cigar factory in Nicaragua. Mario Perez met us at the gate and told us about the history of the factory. During this meeting and the rest of the tour I enjoyed a JDN Antano Dark Corojo. We toured the rolling floor where we saw the 27 pairs of buncheros (men) and roleras (women) rolling the cigars completely by hand.
This is a very traditional cigar factory. We also checked out the wrapper sorting room and the rest of the leaf sorting. We then did a blending exercise were we were given a list of tobaccos and were given the chance to come up with our own blend. We were able to feel and smell all the different tobaccos we could work with. From there we moved to the aging room and to packaging.
After leaving JDN we went back to Drew Estate for an amazing taco dinner. Steve passed out the new Liga Privada L40 lanceros, but he said they were a bit fresh so I am holding onto mine for a while. For the rest of the evening I had 2 LP T52 Toros and a Liga 9 Toro while hanging out with everyone (and of course drinking a little more Flor De Cana!).
Tuesday:
After a very cold shower and breakfast we checked out a tobacco field where they were growing Criollo filler leaf. It was really cool to see the workers working with the seedlings and then to see the plants in the field. From here we went to visit a storage facility to look at wrapper leaf. Here we were able to see the pilones of fermenting wrapper leaf (specifically the broadleaf used on the Liga 9s).
The amount of ammonia coming off those huge piles was almost overwhelming. After arriving back at Drew Estate we went with Jessi to check out Subculture Studios. We saw them working on tshirts, shoes, and all kinds of other art projects. After having lunch at I lit up a liga 9 and we walked over to the factory. We did another blending session, this time with all the Tobaccos Drew Estate had, a much more detailed session than the one at Joya. I ended up going with a 7x44 size cigar with the T52 wrapper, Mexican binder and a filler of Nicaraguan and Brazilian Tobacccos. After the blending session we did the full tour of the rolling floor (including the room where they finish the Liga 9s), cooling rooms, quality control, leaf sorting, color sorting, and packaging.
All along the way you can see the work of Subculture studios adorning all the walls. There are murals everywhere. We then met Louis Meza, the man that is pretty much in charge of keeping the rolling floor running. I had a Dirty Rat to finish up the tour.
Before dinner I also had a Ratzilla that Steve handed to us right off the rolling floor. It was a little wet since it was only a few hours old but it smoked very well. After dinner we hung out at the pool and in the clubhouse. Pedro presented us with the cigars we blended at JDN (we each got 5 robustos of our blend) and a bundle of 12 cigars from the blend we came up with at Drew Estate. Jessi also handed out Tshirts he made for us, all of them diferent. The rest of the night was spent hanging out poolside or in the clubhouse. I finished off the night with one of my custom Drew Estate blends and a Cuchillos Cubanos.
Wednesday:
We left Drew Estate around 9:30 to go catch our flight in Managua. I smoked a Liga Privada T52 Toro as my last cigar of the trip.
This was an amazing experience and I definitely recommend this trip to anyone interested in seeing the origin of some fantastic cigars. The amount of quality control that goes into making the Liga Privada line, the JDNs and everything else Drew Estate makes is just astounding. Steve Saka was an amazing host and Pedro always made sure we were taken care of and in the right place at the right time. Jessi hooked us up with some amazing shirts and great company as well. I bought a guyabera in Esteli and Jessi hooked it up with a huge T52 logo on the back. Also when we were hanging out late one night he had one of his guys do some custom painting on my travel humidor! Steve had answers for all of our million questions, except for those that hes not allowed to talk about. (which is anything involving the Acid cigar line) We didn't see about 40% of the factory because they keep the Acid line of cigars very secret. The food was fantastic for the entire trip and everyone we came across was friendly and welcoming. I'd like to thank not only everyone at Drew Estate, but all the guys that joined me on this Safari. From Top Shelf there was Ben, Keith, Dom, EJ, Peaches, Snatches, and Doc. (obviously some nickames in there) From Cigar Explorer.com there was Dan, Mario and Nelson. Jonathan Drew was supposed to be with us but something came up and he wasn't able to join us. This was truely the experience of a lifetime. Oh, and in case you were wodering, the final tally for cigars smoked was 18!
Ill have a new review posted soon!
Cigar Safari
Reader Comments (4)
Sounds like a truly unique experience.
It sounds like they really wanted to provide you the best experience possible, having their workers roll your own custom blend is a step beyond anything I would have expected.
I didn't realize the bunchers and rollers worked in pairs, I learned something new.
Looking forward to hearing about that L40!
Glad you were able to make this trip and share it with us!
Man sounds like you had a great time, one day I hope to make it there myself one day. Looking forward to hearing how your personal blend turns out.
Wow Ben, it looks like you had an amazing time on that tour.
I would like to do something like that eventually. I visited a cigar factory last year in Cuba (Holguin) and was very impressed with quality control and how much the rollers are dedicated to their Art (with a capital A!!!). I imagine it is the same for the factories you visited.
Not so many people realize how important this industry is for the citizens of cigar producing countries. It often provides employment for whole villages, some of the companies also finance schools and other facilities for the locals.
Glad to see that you enjoyed the experience and made the most out of it, and came back with a few cigars in hand!
Great write-up and pics! I've always thought of Jonathan Drew as 'Willy Wonka' and the ACID line as the 'Everlasting Gobstopper' with all of the secrecy behind it. Too bad you didn't win the lifetime supply of cigars! Keep up the great work, bro.