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December 2003 |
Nicaragua:Growing by
Leaps & Bounds
From the cigar making capital of Estelí, to the farms of Condega and the remote Jalapa Valley, Nicaragua's cigar industry is abuzz with the hottest strains of rich tobaccos, expanded factories, and some of the most talked about brands in the market.
By E. Edward Hoyt III
Ask any Nicaraguan
cigar maker why this tiny Central American country has achieved hotspot status for crafting premium cigars 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 remote farming region of the Jalapa Valley to Nicaragua's bustling cigar-making capital of 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 tobacco the lands can deliver and some of the finest cigars rolled outside of Cuba. Nicaragua's cigar industry has traditionally maintained close ties with its Cuban counterpart, a trend begun by Nicaragua's ousted 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, those from Jalapa in particular, have gained a fervent following as the finest non-Cuban leaf. Nicaragua's tobacco growing regions have successfully yielded top-quality tobaccos, including fine wrapper leaves, giving birth in recent years to a mini-industry of all-Nicaraguan tobacco cigars - true puros in the tradition of Cuban cigars.
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 traditions 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 and transplants confident with the country's newfound stability.
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 which 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 considered the best known cigar brand in all of 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 back its 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 Anta-o 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."
This year, TPN - through its U.S. distributor, S.A.G. Imports - added a new size to the Anta-o line, "Consul," and introduced a six-cigar gift pack. For those retailers lucky enough to obtain one, the company released a mere 200 special edition, number boxes of a special aged Anta-o, the Anta-o 2003.
Tabaccos Cubanica S.A. 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 consistency of its tobaccos and ultimately in its cigars.
Last summer, the company moved into a brand new factory just blocks from its old facilities. The new 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.
Plasencia's greatest manufacturing pride lies his Estelí factory, Segovia Cigars, a joint venture with Swiss-based Danneman, where his most exclusive 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. While many of Plasencia's factories produce large volumes of cigars, Segovia is a relatively small operation - only about 150 people - and produces two of Nicaragua's more unusual brands. Spearheaded by fifth generation grower Nestor Jr., the Plasencia Organica 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. The facility also makes the OneOff brand.
Latin Cigars S.A. Agroindustrial Nicaraguense de Tabaco Ortez, whose father is a tobacco farmer and who himself ran farms in Estelí and Jalapa during the Sandinista regime, runs 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 cigar's 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. Estelí 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.
Nicaragua American Tobacco S.A.
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.
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, who's 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 piece by piece in Estelí.
Segovia Cigars, S.A.
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 a 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.
CAO Farbrica de Tabaccos
Quality control is the top priority for Fidel Olivas Jarquin, general manager of Latin Cigars S.A. and a Nicaraguan native whose second-generation family involvement in tobacco extends back 20 years. Olivas, who has 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 Toraño family. It employees 350 people producing 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 factories have been producing a number of brands for CAO International for quite some time, and just recently created dedicated cigar operations at both facilities in Honduras and Estelí in conjunction with the Ozgener family. When the transition is complete, CAO Fabrica de Tabaccos with have dedicated staff in both Estelí and in Honduras producing only CAO brands.
In 1995, Omar Ortez established Agroindustrial Nicaraguense de Tabaco, located a good clip off of Nicaragua's main cigar rolling trail in the tiny town of Condega, north of Estelí. A partnership with Felipe Gregorio president Philip Wynne, what the small-scale operation lacks in sheer size - a mere 15 pairs of rollers and bunchers and two supervisors on the production floor - it makes up for in control.
In stark contrast to Ortez's tiny Condega shop is Nicaragua American Tobacco S.A. or Natsa, the largest producer in Estelí at 20 million cigars per year, all made exclusively for 800-JR Cigar Inc. and its wholesale distribution arm Santa Clara 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.
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