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Drew Estate - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

Guide to Visiting the Cigar Capital of Nicaragua – Estelí

He was a heavy-set man with a shaved head that disguised his receding hairline. He was wearing a plain white t-shirt and baggy, faded blue jeans. In the dim light of the hostel courtyard, he sat in a rocking chair with a modest pour of a young Flor de Caña rum on the coffee table in front of him, drawing on what Estelí, Nicaragua is best known for.

The cigar in his hand was produced by an old friend of his, who now runs his own cigar factory in Estelí. The old friends had seen each other only a handful of times since their youth in Cuba. The man in front of me went by the name of Juan.

Best Things to Do in Estelí, Nicaragua

Visit a cigar factory, somoto canyon, miraflor natural reserve, salto de estanzuela (waterfall), el jalacate hiking path and stone carvings.

Juan was a big man with a loud, deep voice and a warm, friendly smile. He brought his family to Nicaragua to visit some old friends. During the day they’d either be out around the town or just relaxing at the hostel. After dinner, Juan was habitually in his chair enjoying one of Nicaragua’s finest puros .

Juan’s friend left Cuba after the agrarian reforms of the early 60s. His family came to Estelí, Nicaragua, as did many Cubans at that time, in large part due to the fertile tobacco growing soil that Estelí has been blessed with. Juan comes to visit every once in a while, but admittedly, not as often as he’d like.

How to Get to Estelí, Nicaragua

Getting to Estelí is pretty easy and can be done from Leon , Managua, or Matagalpa. Buses run regularly and you can arrive at the bus terminal without a ticket and be on your way to Estelí likely within 30 minutes.

I had come to Estelí specifically to try the cigars here and see the production process. Meeting a Cuban family was the cherry on top of my cigar region visit. Juan offered me one of his friend’s cigars, and while he said it wasn’t of amazing quality, I accepted it appreciatively. Frankly, I didn’t care about the quality – I was excited to be sharing a cigar with a Cuban.

Where to Stay in Estelí, Nicaragua

You don’t have a plethora of options for lodging in Estelí. I stayed in the lone hostel they have in town called Luna International Hostel . It’s a simple place that is nothing to write home about, but I’d have no problem staying there again. I rate it a 2/3.

The great thing about this hostel is that they also operate tours. Wherever you want to go in Estelí, you can just walk to the reception desk and find all the information you need and book a tour to Somoto, Miraflor, or a cigar factory.

The even better thing about this place is that they are a non-profit eco-tourism organization that supports the community through childhood education programs, environmental conservation projects, and creating employment for the community.

Juan and I enjoyed our cigars and spoke about what brought us here, albeit with some difficulty; the Cuban Spanish accent is difficult to understand for newly trained ears. He knew my hometown, Winnipeg, Canada, because of the Pan-Am Games we hosted in 1999 where Cuba won gold in baseball. Juan loved baseball and cigars; he was as Cuban as they come.

After I visited a cigar factory in town and came home with my own collection, I went to return the favour by gifting Juan a cigar. He politely refused saying he had plenty already.

Visiting a Cigar Factory

The highlight for me in Estelí was visiting a cigar factory on a tour I booked through Luna International Hostel . The cost is about $8 USD and will take you to a cigar factory in the town. You’ll get to see the process of making cigars from when the leaves arrive at the factory to how they are dried, sorted, and eventually rolled.

You may have the opportunity to roll your own cigar and will get to taste cigars as well. The quality of the cigars here is very high, and you can purchase as many as you like afterwards for around $2 each. A steal at this price when they would easily go for 10x that price in Europe or North America.

It was very cool to see all the different shapes, sizes, and colours that the tobacco leaves were rolled into.

If you want to see the tobacco plantations, you will have to get out of the city and contact one of the cigar factories privately to see if they will show you around their property.

It wasn’t much, but being able to chat with a cigar enthusiast from Cuba and enjoy one with him made my trip to Nicaragua’s cigar capital all that more memorable. After a few days in Estelí, Juan and I went our separate ways. Though my cigar experience is limited, my time with Juan raised my appreciation for puros . Muchas gracias amigo.

Where to Eat in Estelí, Nicaragua

I was on a pretty tight budget during my time in Nicaragua, so majority of my meals came from streetside cookouts which are plentiful and easy to find in this city. Surrounding the central plaza you can find a lineup of stalls frying, barbecuing, and grilling a variety of meats and vegetables.

As far as nicer restaurants go, Rincon Pinareño came highly recommended to me.

I hope this mix of narrative and information was helpful and entertaining. You can keep up with my travels and ask any questions by finding me on Instagram . Safe travels!

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• December 30, 2017

Destination: Nicaragua — Exploring the Estelí tobacco trail

• Cigar Factory , Travel
• Author: Nicolas Jimenez

For years now, there have been a number of ways to experience Estelí, Nicaragua’s cigar capital and the source of some of the most celebrated products in the cigar world. Travelers who make their way to Estelí generally do so through or with significant help from tobacconists and cigar manufacturers. Those are still great options, but what if you want to do your own thing?

Unfortunately, planning a trip to Estelí can feel a bit overwhelming. Between the scarcity of information available online (businesses here don’t tend to have much of a web presence) and the language barrier that might exist for smokers who aren’t fluent in Spanish, a trip to Estelí might feel like a bit of a crap shoot. But it doesn’t have to. We traveled to “El diamante de las Segovias” to get the lay of the land and give you some sense of what it takes to pull off an incredible cigar trip on your own terms.

Getting to Estelí

We landed in Managua at right around lunch time, and cigar industry friends we asked insisted there weren’t very many good options for food along the way to Estelí. So before starting the drive, we had lunch at the Hotel Camino Real — which also happened to be the pickup location for our Avis rental car. The Camino Real is a small hotel with lots of beautiful courtyard areas and a lunch buffet that will provide all the short-road-trip fuel you’ll need to make it to your next destination. On the day we stopped by, there were steak skewers, grilled fish, and filet mignon de pollo a la gorgonzola (which was chicken breast wrapped in a bacon strip and covered in a gorgonzola cheese sauce).

TIP: When you’re booking your flights, make sure you account for the drive between Managua and Estelí. It can take between two and three hours, depending on what traffic looks like. Also, Estelianos tell us there’s been a push by law enforcement to curb speeding, so keep that lead foot under control on the highways.

The road to Estelí consists almost entirely of two-lane highways that run along mountains and through valleys. You’ll see beautiful countrysides dotted by small shanty towns and roadside vendors hawking everything from rotisserie chicken to iguanas to birdcages made from metal barrels. Chances are you’re not in the market for most of that stuff, but keep your eyes open and your cameras at the ready; there are some incredible views along this drive.

Eventually, you’ll end up entering Estelí from the south on the Pan-American Highway (or the Panamericana, as it’s called in Spanish) , which runs north center of the city, merging with the Avenida Central at the north and south ends. The six-or-so-block-wide strip that runs between the Panamericana and Avenida Central for about 2 miles is essentially the heart of Estelí. This is where you’ll find not only most of the city’s noteworthy cigar factories, but also its best hotels, cafés, bars, restaurants and other attractions.

Your first move should be to stop into your hotel and drop off your luggage. Generally speaking, Estelí is a safe city to roam during the daytime, but there is some serious poverty here and you don’t want to leave lots of luggage out in the open. This time around, we stayed at the Hotel Hex Estelí . Located adjacent to Estelí’s first and only shopping mall, the Multicentro , the Hex (which also has a Managua location) is as close as you can come to a modern business traveler’s hotel in Estelí. There’s a gym, good breakfast, and a cigar-friendly terrace area. You might prefer to feel like you’re more in the thick of things. For that, there are other options with a more Nicaraguan feel closer to the heart of the city ( Hotel Los Arcos , for instance).

TIP: Take it easy on your first day driving around Estelí. The roads can feel a little chaotic, as there’s a mix of cars, motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians with few traffic signals (usually none at all). You’ll want to keep your wits about you as you get the hang of driving around here.

Once we’d put our things away and showered off the day’s travel, we met up with Alex García, the art director at Foundation Cigar Company . You probably know his work best from Foundation’s El Güegüense brand art, which pays homage to an ancient work of Nicaraguan theater.

Alex guided us around Estelí for a tour of the city’s street art. All over town, the murals that cover the sides of buildings are elaborate, modern, and “street” in a way that makes it clear American graffiti culture has spread to this region and blended with Nicaraguan political themes and native folklore.

“My profile, since I started, was in urban art ad graffiti. I started in 1998 in Managua with one of the first graffiti groups that was known around the country — and maybe all over Central America. People didn’t talk much about graffiti then,” Alex said, pausing to give directions from one mural to the next. “We were just coming out of the war (between the Contras and the Sandinistas) and there still weren’t art magazines or Internet here. I came back to Estelí, my hometown, after college. At first, I was disoriented because I didn’t know if there would be much graffiti here. There were murals, but it was all political or related to the war.”

Drew Estate — the company that first brought Nicholas and Alex together — has clearly been a catalyst in the street art scene here. A significant chunk of the murals in Estelí was commissioned by and makes mention of Drew Estate (with varying degrees of subtlety).

Once the sun had set, making the art harder to appreciate, we stopped for an end-of-tour drink at Café Luz . Among Estelí bars, this is one of the places that will remind you most of the kinds of craft beer and cocktail bars you’ll find back home. In fact, it’s one of the bars that serves what lots of locals insist was Nicaragua’s best craft beer: Moropotente Lado Oscuro. It’s a stout with coffee and chocolate notes — not quite the sort of thing you’d figure is brewed (never mind brewed well) in the tropics.

On the recommendation of friends at Oliva Cigars, we capped off the night with dinner at one of the cigar industry’s new favorite Estelí restaurants: Finca A Su Mesa (which translates to “Farm to Your Table”). It’s owned and operated by chef Darren Remy, an American who left the U.S. for Costa Rica in 2007 after years working in the Los Angeles, Calif. area between restaurants and a five-year stint as a personal chef to a wealthy family.

“I had a restaurant (in Costa Rica) about eight years. During my time there, I would come to Nicaragua and explore,” said Darren, pulling a chair up to our table to tell his story as the kitchen started to shut down. “I made connections with people in the cigar industry who are food lovers and they were begging me to start a restaurant in Estelí. It was kind of a no- brainer; I love the weather here, I love cigars, I love rum.”

Eating at Darren’s restaurant feels a lot like visiting an old friend who just happens to be really damn good with a smoker. The small dining room is comfortable and no-frills without feeling divey, which is a pretty close reflection of the food.

TIP: When you’re packing a lighter, consider the fact that you might have few opportunities to refill. Make sure you’re working with something that has an ample tank and maybe even bring along some refill cans of your own.

“There’s an organic farmer’s market here on Fridays, which is where I’ll get all my vegetables for the week. I also source local beef, local pork, local chicken. I have a custom-built smoker and use wood from my friend’s farm in Condega. We smoke ribs, sausage, and I make my own hot sauce with a special chili which everyone seems to like. Everything is savory, big flavors, but nothing too fancy. Sea salt, cracked pepper and butter is pretty much all I use in the kitchen.”

We tried the ribs, a steak and a burger—the latter being an easy choice since some guys from Plasencia Cigars were at the next table raving about it while we were trying to make up our minds. All of it lived up to the high expectations people had set for this restaurant — and it was all true to Darren’s philosophy of big portions and simple dishes. The burger was nothing but a massive half pound patty, grilled onions and melted cheese, while the ribs were as good and expertly smoked as any you might find in the U.S. (although these are more for the dry-rub crowd).

Just minutes from food comas, we headed back to the Hex. We’d need the rest with a two-day cigar factory marathon ahead of us.

The cigar factory marathon begins

When you think cigar tourism, one manufacturer should be coming to mind first; nobody does it quite as well as Drew Estate . Their factory is not only one of the largest manufacturing operations in the country, but also one of the most beautiful. What’s more, they even have their own on-site lodging (in the form of 11 cabañas) for visitors and a swimming pool with a mountain view on site.

Generally, most of that is made available to smokers who travel to Nicaragua for Drew Estate’s Cigar Safari , a program which was recently expanded to happen several times a month. If you’re traveling independently and want to check out the factory, you just need to contact them with a week’s notice or more to book a tour — which is what practically every factory told us when we asked about how best to set up visits.

On this particular visit, we had a chance to see production of Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve cigars, which are made front and center on the rolling floor, on tables specially labeled to make sure you know what you’re watching. Off to one side of the sprawling rolling floor is a separate room in which Liga Privada cigars are made by the company’s best rollers. Yet another room is reserved for production of many of the infused cigars that help make it one of the most prolific factories in the world.

Our next stop was a factory that’s about as large, but not quite so old. A.J. Fernandez used to make his cigars in several smaller factories — primarily a cramped one closer to the heart of the city. Having outgrown that setup, for the last few years, A.J. has been making his cigars at an expansive factory at the north end of the city, just east of the Panamericana, with much of his farmland situated in that area as well. In part because it’s among the newest, but also because A.J. is maniacal about quality, the factory is one of the more modern in Nicaragua.

TIP: Be aware that the AJ Fernandez factory is one of the few — perhaps the only — that charges for one-off tours (about $15 per person). All proceeds are donated to area charities doing work related to childhood diabetes.

Our walkthrough of the factory with A.J. and his father Ismael afforded us plenty of opportunity to see them both in action. They’re both personable, gregarious characters who ooze knowledge about tobacco and cigar making. Throughout our brief tour with A.J. — which also included a bumpy drive through his farms — he never stopped inspecting tobacco, asking workers for updates, and checking whatever happened to be near him to make sure the quality was up to snuff. It’s that compulsive, almost obsessive preoccupation with detail that has helped this factory earn a reputation for consistently high quality.

Next, we drove just a few minutes west, crossing over to the other side of the Panamericana, where Oliva Cigars makes products like Serie V, Serie V Melanio, Connecticut Reserve, and Nub. We did a walkthrough with María José Morales, who — among other things — manages visits to and tours of the factory.

The parts of the factory that were operational were largely identical to what I’d seen the last time I visited the Oliva factory nearly four years ago. The exciting part — aside from the incredible aroma of the aging room — is what’s in store for the future. The land just beyond the longstanding factory is now largely a construction site. Over the course of the next year or so, Oliva is not only expanding its cigar production facilities, but also adding a box factory to its campus. Especially if you’re a big Oliva fan, you might want to ensure you visit Estelí after these projects have been completed so you can take in that much more of the process.

The last factory visit of the day was to the Yayabo facility, just a bit farther south. This boutique manufacturer is situated right at the intersection of the Panamericana and the entrance to Residencial La Riviera — a small neighborhood of about 65 acres that many in the cigar industry refer to jokingly as “Hialeah” (a reference to the ultra-Cuban populations of both this neighborhood and the South Florida city that’s also home to so much of the cigar industry). In other words, when much of the cigar industry goes home at night, it drives right past Yayabo headquarters, which produces Yayabo, Doña Diana and Cirion. We sat with Yayabo’s owners, Diany Perez and Alexander Basulto, for cigars and coffee at their factory’s lounge before taking a look at the rest of the building.

This factory is unusual in its layout, at least as compared with other factories in town. Once you get through the gate and into the parking lot, you’ll find yourself looking at what looks a bit like a strip mall — except that, instead of various storefronts, you’re actually looking at various phases of the cigar production process. One door leads to a room filled with pilones of fermenting tobacco, another to a small tobacco sorting area, another to the part where cigars are packaged, and still another to the rolling floor. Yayabo does great work here, and there’s still plenty of room for them to grow, as the dozen or so rolling tables don’t even come close to filling out the room.

Estelí is cigars

We went into our last day in Estelí determined to pack in as much as we possibly could — knowing that there’s almost no way to experience all that the Estelí cigar community has to offer in the time we’d given ourselves.

First, we headed to My Father Cigars , where we were fortunate enough to catch cigar legends Pepín and Jaime García. Cigar Snob’s relationship with My Father goes way back to the magazine’s — and My Father’s — beginnings (check out our 10th Anniversary Issue — May/ June 2016 — for some of our earliest stories about the company from back before they’d moved manufacturing to Nicaragua), so it was a special treat to catch up with them over coffee and cigars while we smoked Vegas Cubanas, the brand that the Garcías have revived from their earlier days.

Even with the tall wall that separates the facility from the Panamericana, the My Father factory has an almost unnecessary amount of curb appeal. The Italian-inspired main building and lush landscaping are entirely consistent with the traditional and ornate branding that you’ve probably come to associate with My Father products like Le Bijou and H-2K-CT (although this factory is also known for making many cigars for many other brands, like Tatuaje and Crowned Heads, to name just two).

It’s not generally a part of the tour they offer visitors, but we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to check out the large building, just a few minutes’ drive away, where My Father’s tobacco fermentation happens. That was an experience you shouldn’t pass up, either. It really is something to see how perfectionists like these handle tobacco. Case in point: Pepín boasted far more about how clean and meticulously organized his fermentation process was than he did about the quality of his cigars during our visit. Indeed, the pilones were so neat and the floors were so squeaky clean that this was starting to look more like a showroom than a fermentation building.

“This is how we always keep it,” Pepín assured us, beaming. “We had no idea you were coming.”

Having smoked at least a couple of cigars at My Father (which isn’t exactly known for catering to lightweights), we needed a quick bite before moving on to our next factory visit. Dig back through the pages of Cigar Snob’s travel content and you’ll see that we rarely recommend anything that even resembles fast food. Estelí, though, is an exception. Quick service chicken is a staple here, and anybody who spends significant time in this town has strong opinions about which chicken joint is best. On this trip, we went with Tip-Top (fans of rival chain RostiPollos, which is a bit nicer, were less than pleased with us). The cheesy cartoon chicken logo might give you the impression that this chicken shouldn’t be taken seriously; that’s the wrong impression. We’d put Tip-Top’s fried chicken up against any American chain’s any day of the week. This is an excellent option for smokers on the run or travelers who need a break from a steady diet of steak and tostones.

TIP: Are you a soccer fan? Check on whether there’s a match happening at Estelí’s stadium during your visit. Their team is a perennial championship contender.

Having refueled, we made our way to Tabacos Villa Cuba , the factory from which most of Rocky Patel ’s Nicaraguan-made lineup comes. The factory isn’t huge, but there’s a ton of activity packed into this space, which is located a bit more centrally on one of Estelí’s city blocks east of the Panamericana. At the time of our visit, just about every rolling table was occupied and the staff in the packaging area were hard at work getting cigars into their boxes, including Rocky Patel Fifteenth Anniversary. This factory is a bit smaller, making it a great place to take in the cigar manufacturing process in a quick visit while still getting to come up close and personal with some of the world’s best-known smokes.

For our last two cigar factory stops of the day, we visited companies that are practically synonymous with their home country. First, we took the tour at Joya de Nicaragua , where Ariel López leads guests through a journey that starts with one of the most fascinating corporate histories you’ll ever hear.

“Nicaragua had been growing tobacco a long time, but a very different kind than we would use in cigars; it was mostly consumed by the natives,” said Ariel during his presentation. “In the 1940s, the Nicaraguan government started looking for regions that would be suitable for growing tobacco. Eventually, they identified this region. At that point, Nicaragua began to grow Virginia tobacco and American British Tobacco invested here. However, after the Cuban revolution, many of the Cubans who left the island ended up in Nicaragua since they’d heard that there was tobacco being grown here. Plus, (then dictator) Somoza was offering subsidies and financing to foreigners who came to Nicaragua to start businesses in agriculture. So these Cubans bring black tobacco seeds and start growing.”

It wasn’t until 1968 that J.F. Bermejo and Simón Camacho (yes, that Camacho) founded Nicaragua Cigars, launching with just one line: Joya de Nicaragua. Eventually, that became the name of the whole company, which ended up sold to Somoza under political pressure in the mid-1970s. In 1994, the company was purchased by Alejandro Martinez Cuenca, who is its current owner and has been responsible for the brand’s renaissance.

All this is to say that the history of Joya de Nicaragua serves as a pretty apt analogy for the history (at least the modern history) of its home country. We did this one on our last day, but if you can start your Estelí experience with a tour of Joya de Nicaragua, that would do a lot to put the rest of your time in Estelí in context.

TIP: A tour of Joya de Nicaragua will probably be one of your few chances to try Joya Clásico, a brand that isn’t generally available in the U.S. market.

Our last cigar factory visit was to Plasencia Cigars . The Plasencia family has been growing tobacco for five generations and has multiple factories manufacturing cigars for third parties, but it was only recently that they began their push to get their own brand name out there — starting with Plasencia Alma Fuerte. While the Plasencia factory isn’t the largest around, it might be one of the most attractive once you get past the front reception area. There’s a courtyard with a fountain in the middle of it, French windows that give you a look onto the rolling floor, and a lounge that’s got to be the nicest of any cigar factory we have visited in Estelí so far.

After a dinner at Los Chagüites , we joined María José (from Oliva) and Diany and Alex (from Yayabo) at Hard Bar — a multi-level nightclub, bar and restaurant located right on the Panamericana. When it comes to Estelí nightlife, this is as big as it gets. We ended this trip with a bang, starting at the bar’s open-air dining room and moving on to the indoor, mezzanine-level dance floor.

Cigars are a key component of Estelí’s identity, but that’s only been the case for a relatively short time. The city feels like it’s coming into its own, as is the cigar industry insofar as it’s just now beginning to mature as a tourist draw. We were only able to get to a small fraction of the factories here, and even then it felt like there was evolution and expansion and change around every corner. That’s what makes this place — all this life and potential, not to mention great cigars and steaks — so exciting and easy to come back to again and again.

Click HERE fore more travel stories!

Nicolas Jimenez

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Cigars Tour, & waterfall Estanzuela, Estelí

Category One Days Tours

From $ 250.00 – $ 480.00 VAT not Included

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One Day Tours

Since the traveler enters the city of Estelí, in the north of Nicaragua, he begins to feel the fresh air that comes from the Segovian mountain range, which brings, among smells of pine and oak, the unmistakable aroma of tobacco.

“The diamond of the Segovia’s” as it is popularly known the department of Estelí has a lot of exceptional tourist destinations, of which we will visit: A cigar factory where we will know about the whole process of making cigars and the history of this economic activity In our country, we will visit the community “La Garnacha” where we can enjoy one of the best viewpoints in the North of the country, since from there we can see the whole Amerrisque mountain range, we will know about the production of different types of cheeses and organic products. The community, later we will go to Finca El Jalacate where Don Alberto Gutierrez a talented sculptor has turned each stone into a work of art.

Places to visit

Jewel of Nicaragua, Factory of Cigars City of Estelí La Garnacha Community Finca El Jalacate

Departure Time: 7:00 a.m.

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We recommend comfortable clothes, comfortable shoes, camera, sunscreen, and swimwear.

On Saturdays another Factory is visited

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Cigar Safari 2017 is SOLD OUT to be notified when we open registration to the public for Cigar Safari 2018!

About cigar safari.

Take a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Drew Estate’s Nicaraguan Cigar Factory and begin exploring the eco-tourism of Nicaragua. Visit our Estelí-based factory, La Gran Fabrica Drew Estate, and blend your own cigars using some of our most sought-after tobaccos.

See the sights of Nicaragua! Bring home handmade souvenirs from a local Esteliano shop, including leather goods and pottery. Also, smoke all the cigars you want while you’re there!

We run trips January through May to avoid the rainy season. We usually run approximately 16 trips per season, with 15 people on each trip. Please subscribe to our mailing list using the button about to hear about 2018 dates.

Cigar Safari Itinerary

. Arrive at Managua Airport . Grab lunch at a top-notch steakhouse . Travel from Managua to Estelí, where the Drew Estate factory resides and where you will stay . Have dinner at the Drew Estate factory, unpack . Free time at night to hang out in our lounge, play poker, sip on scotch

. Have breakfast at Drew Estate factory . Visit a tobacco plantation . Tour Joya de Nicaragua’s factory . Have dinner at Drew Estate factory

Cigar Safari Itinerary Pt. 2

. Have breakfast at Drew Estate factory . Tour Drew Estate’s pre-production facilities . Have lunch at Drew Estate factory . Tour Drew Estate’s factory . Blend your own cigars . Tour Subculture Studios, Drew Estate’s art studio . Have dinner at Drew Estate factory . Hang out at night

. Have breakfast at Drew Estate factory . Head to Managua International Airport from Esteli . Depart for the US

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Not Your Grandpa’s Cigars – Drew Estate Factory Tour, Estelí, Nicaragua

Forget what you think you know about cigars. Drew Estate is redefining the art of cigar making and marketing, as we found out when we traveled to the town of Estelí and took the hippest cigar factory tour in Nicaragua.

This 50 foot (15 meter) tall mural is just one of the many pieces of cool original art at the Drew Estate Cigar Co. factory in Estelí, Nicaragua.

The rebirth of cigars

That’s the slogan of Drew Estate  and the personal goal of its co-founder Johnathan Drew, a 43-year-old guy from New York City who was selling cigars in a tiny kiosk in the World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan while dreaming of bigger things. Using cool art, irreverent names, inventive, modern cigars, and high quality they’re aiming for a new breed of cigar aficionados. In 1998 Johnathan and his partners started Drew Estate Cigar Co. and began making some of the most unorthodox and successful cigars in the world from a massive factory in Estelí.

Cigars in the making at Drew Estate Cigar Co. in Estelí, Nicaragua.

Estelí is well known as a cigar producing region and there are many other cigar factories in town. As in other tobacco and cigar producing regions, Cubans brought tobacco seeds and know how to Nicaragua and the rest is history.

Inside the coolest cigar factory in Nicaragua

We’ve toured cigar factories before, including the Plasencia cigar factory  and the Flor de Copán cigar factory , both in Honduras. That’s how we know Drew Estate is really doing something different. While the other cigar factories in Estelí and around the world are busy doing things the old-fashioned way, Drew Estate took a left turn at traditional and decided to go their own way.

One of the young workers at the Drew Estate Cigar Co. factory in Estelí, Nicaragua with a tray of finished cigars.

Rock music plays in the massive warehouse and factory facility. The staff is remarkably young. There’s cool art everywhere, a modern riff on traditional cigar box art inspired by tattoos and graffiti.

We spent hours gawking at the range of cigars (they even make square ones), learning about tobacco curing and cigar rolling, and probably getting some sort of nicotine contact high in the process.

Part of our tour of the Drew Estate Cigar Co. facility in Estelí, Nicaragua included a peak into their massive tobacco warehouse where the best leaves from around the world are carefully stored before being turned into millions of cigars.

It’s not just the music and the art work that makes Drew Estate different. We learned that at Drew Estate they don’t call their cigars puros, as many other regional makers do, since they aren’t made with tobacco from a single source. Instead, Drew Estate blends tobacco from around the world, sort of like how a winemaker would blend grapes from different regions to come up with the desired flavor and aroma.

Also, unlike most other cigar makers, Drew Estate doesn’t rely on a machine to measure the “draw” of each cigar. That’s checked primarily by weight.

The only area we weren’t allowed to see during the Drew Estate factory tour was the on-site graphic art studio, called the Subculture Studio, where staff artists were busy cooking up new top secret marketing materials.

Tobacco air-drying at the Drew Estate cigar factory in Estelí, Nicaragua.

Taking the cigar world by storm

Though there were some lean years, today Drew Estate makes millions of dollars and millions of cigars with names like My Uzi Weighs a Ton (an uzi is an official measurement in the world of cigars). And then there’s Acid.

Named for the artist Scott “Acid” Chester (that’s him on the motorcycle in the Acid logo) this is one of Drew Estate’s top sellers. Cigar purists call Acid a “flavored” cigar but Drew prefers the term “infused” since the tobacco used in Acid cigars is steeped in a secret blend of flavors.

Drew Estate’s Liga cigar is not flavored or infused and even the purists love it. It was scored as high as 89 points by  Cigar Aficionado magazine.

A selection of Drew Estate cigars with distinctive names including Acid, Liga Privada and My Uzi Weighs a Ton.

Here are some more of our favorite shots from the Drew Estate Cigar Co. factory in Estelí and don’t miss the aficionados-only info at the end of this post.

Sorting tobacco at the Drew Estate cigar factory in Estelí, Nicaragua.

Unlike other cigar factories we’ve toured, the work rooms at Drew Estate were airy, well-lit and even had rock music piped in.

Rollin’ and smokin’ at the Drew Estate cigar factory in Estelí, Nicaragua.

Many believe that women make the best cigar rollers.

This guy could probably do this in his sleep.

Almost done…

This wooden box helps ensure every cigar is well-packed so it has a good “draw” when you smoke it. Unlike other cigar makers, Drew Estate does not use a machine to measure the draw of each cigar.

Finished cigars pass through manual quality control at the Drew Estate cigar factory.

More quality control at the Drew Estate cigar factory in Nicaragua.

Finished cigars in all shapes and sizes at the Drew Estate cigar factory in Nicaragua.

Fancy labels and protective packaging are added before Drew Estate cigars are ready to be shipped around the world.

Fancy labels and packaging are added before Drew Estate cigars are ready to be shipped around the world.

The unique art of Drew Estate Cigar Co. is created by in-house artists who put a modern twist on traditional cigar box motifs.

Want to really get into the cool, cool world of Drew Estate cigars? Sign up for their four-day Cigar Safari guided tour of parts of Nicaragua and, of course, the factory which includes accommodation in the very hip and plush house next to the factory. There’s a swimming pool, decks with epic views, a poker table, full staff and, of course, all the cigars you can smoke. Just don’t hold your breath: the Drew Estate Cigar Safari is already sold out for 2014.

Estelí travel tip

Estelí doesn’t see a lot of tourists and hotel options in town are a bit slim. We were hard pressed to find decent budget accommodation with parking. There’s a budget hostel but they don’t have parking, there’s an over-priced seen-better-days hotel with a parking lot that just felt like a rip off and then there’s Hotel Los Arcos . Rooms start at US$45 but they’re big, clean and include breakfast and there’s a secure parking lot.

Here’s more about  travel in Nicaragua

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That sounds like an awesome experience. Square cigars make for a good conversation starter lol. I’ve never been a fan of cigars but I love seeing how they are made. We’ll have to visit a factory while in the Dominican Republic.

If you are a cigar smoker, it’s just right to know how it is made and where it came from. This tour is to make people realize that there is an art in cigar smoking and why there are still a lot of people all over the world appreciate it.

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Padron Factory Cigar Trip  

• All ground and Airport Transportation
• Lodging at La Gran Fabrica Drew Estate ( Photos )
• All Food, Drink & Cigars

In addition to the $250.00 registration fee (payable by using the "Register Now" link above), all guests must make their own air travel arrangements. Due to the limited flights between the United States and Managua, Nicaragua (MGA), all guests are asked to fly through Miami (MIA) and arrange to take these specific flights:

• American Airlines #947 ; Leave Tuesday, April 10, 2012 12:40 PM Miami MIA ; Arrive 1:10 PM Managua non-stop 2hr 30min total time
• American Airlines #970 ; Return Friday, April 13, 2012 12:30 PM Managua MGA ; Arrive 5:05 PM Miami non-stop 2hr 35min total time

Make your air transportation arrangements now by visiting the American Airlines website.

ABOUT ALTERNATE AIR TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS: You are welcome to utilize the airline of your choosing to arrive in Nicaragua. However for the sake of the entire group, we ask that you arrive in Managua (MGA) on or before 1:10 PM on Tuesday, April 10 . On the return flight we ask that you arrange to depart Managua (MGA) at or after 12:30 PM on Friday, April 13 .

Once ALL travel itineraries are confirmed regardless of airline, please email them to Ron Melendi at [email protected]

Take special note of dates, flight numbers and airport codes to ensure you are on the same travel leg with the De La Concha group. De La Concha Tobacconist and Padron Cigars are not responsible for any lost time, or costs incurred as a result of mis-booked flights.

Added to your suitcase

Visit esteli nicaragua.

Travel to the northeast of Nicaragua and visit a cigar factory or go hiking around Estelí. This charming town lies in a valley at an altitude of 800 meters. It is surrounded by mountains, in a beautiful natural area. Here, mass tourism is still far away and you can immerse yourself in the real Nicaraguan way of life.

Estelí is Nicaragua’s agriculture centre. In this region, a lot of (organic) vegetables and fruit are being produced, but also crops like tobacco. Because of the fact that many professional cigar makers left Cuba in the 1950s and Esteli has the perfect climate to grow tobacco, some of these Cuban producers ended up here. Now you can visit a tobacco plantation or one of the cigar factories where high-quality cigars are being produced.

A visit to Esteli will definitely not be boring, because there’s a lot to see and do. Hike in 1.5 hours through beautiful green and hilly area to the waterfall of Salto Estanzuela. There’s a small lake as well where you can swim. If you feel a bit more adventurous, do a canyoning tour to the Somoto Canyon. Accompanied by a local, professional guide, you’ll find your way through the canyon while hiking, climbing and swimming.

You can also visit a traditional cigar factory, explore the town centre of  Esteli or book a day tour to one of the nearby nature reserves Miraflor or Quiabus las Brisas.

Nicole and Anne

You should visit Esteli Nicaragua for sure, it is a nice and lively town where you can experience how the `real` Nicaraguans live. We saw very few tourists and did a lot during the three days we spent here and enjoyed especially the beautiful natural surroundings of this area.  Fun fact: they say that in this zone many Nicaraguans live with blond hair and blue eyes. That’s true. Our guide seemed like a Dutchman.

Tip from Edventure:

Do you have more time and are you up for a real Edventure? Then we recommend you combine your visit to Esteli with a trekking in the Miraflor Reserve. During this trip you are accompanied by a local guide and you stay overnight at local family’s homes. They run organic farms and coffee plantations and are members of a local cooperative which is now also offering eco-tourism packages. That trip will be a very special experience in a beautiful area with special people who would like to share their story with you. More information about this trekking can be found here .

What you can see in and around Estelí:

The following destinations are close to this travel package:

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• Travel conditions

Cigar Factory: Nicaragua

Welcome to tavicusa – our nicaraguan cigar factory.

Our story begins on a tight little side street in the bustling  heart of Esteli, Nicaragua, where an inconspicuous boutique cigar factory resides. This is TaviCusa – the diminutive yet constantly active habitat where every premium Nicaraguan brand made by Rocky Patel is hand rolled, aged, banded and boxed.

Click Here to see our Nicaraguan Cigar Collection

The rp family.

Cigar Factory: Honduras

Factory Tour

How a Cigar is Made

LOVERS OF THE LEAF

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Cigar Aficionado

A Walking Tour Of Rocky Patel’s Nicaraguan Factory And Fields

“It’s not exactly a glorious factory, but the cigars it produces are glorious,” says Rocky Patel. He’s talking about Tabacalera Villa Cuba S.A. in Estelí, Nicaragua. You know it better as Tavicusa and the modest operation produces some seven million cigars a year, including high-scoring brands such as the Rocky Patel Sixty ( No. 2 cigar of 2022 ) and the A.L.R. Second Edition ( No. 4 cigar of 2023 ). 

Patel strives to get as vertically integrated as possible and he has not only purchased more tobacco fields in Nicaragua over the last 10 years, but he plans on expanding his factory to a new facility in the future. On the final day of the Puro Sabor festival, we visited one of his newer farms, located in Estelí, not far from Tavicusa. It’s planted with 170 acres of Criollo ’98 tobacco that Patel says will produce 1.7 million pounds of leaf. Afterward, the entire festival converged for a lunch inside one of Patel’s tobacco barns.

Read Next: Padrón Growing First Crop On New Tobacco Farm

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