Esteli, Home of the World's Finest Cigars

Ask most folks where the finest cigars are produced and they will quickly answer, "Cuba." But ask any true cigar lover and you will get a different answer, "Esteli, Nicaragua." Why? Well, our recent visit to the cigar capital of Nicaragua brought us to a fortuitous meeting with Julio de Armas and his lovely wife Brenda, proprietors of All - Nica Cigar Store located just on the outskirts of Esteli. Julio, who was born and raised in Cuba explained it thus (roughly translated by me from memory), "Before (Castro) in Cuba the people had a sense of pride in their cigars. It was family business and an art passed down from father to son. The family honor rode on the production of the very finest cigars. After (Castro - the name was never uttered but I knew of whom he spoke) the government (who nationalized the cigar industry) was only concerned with money. They did not care about quality, only making money." So it became a question of quality vs. quantity and the family name was no longer honored, nor even cared about. The families who could afford to do so left, and took their tobacco seeds with them, settling in Nicaragua because of the climate and the soil, these being the perfect mix in the mountainous region of Esteli.

Fast forward to present day and you will find dozens of cigar factories by such big names as Drew Estates, Padron, Perdomo, My Father, as well as dozens of smaller factories. Most of these factories use blends of tobacco grown locally along with various wrappers which may come from other places including the Dominican Republic. Padron sets itself apart from all others by using their own private tobacco blends and aging their cigars, exemplifying quality as a priority, the very reason the founders of these estates moved to Nicaragua.

Many of these factories offer tours. Drew Estates (producers of my personal favorite cigar the Tabak Especial) probably tops the list for unique experience in cigar tours with their "cigar safari" taking visitors through a 96,000 SF facility adorned with urban artwork blasting rock and roll music. But don't let the NYC theme fool you, these are serious cigar makers!

A more traditional cigar facility, and undoubtedly one of the finest in existence, is the Perdomo factory. Everything from the cigars to the boxes and even the wrappers are produced in house with over a dozen layers of quality control to ensure the final product is a pure smoking pleasure.

The cigar producing area around Esteli is a "tax free zone" as it was explained to me. Meaning that all of the cigars produced here are intended for export, so they are neither taxed, nor (more importantly) SOLD here. Yes, you got that right...you can't buy cigars here! Yikes! Well, there is an answer to every predicament and we found our answer in the All Nica Cigar Store. Because they are located just outside the "zone" they are allowed to sell cigars and their in house brands (produced locally) are excellent.

Since they are locals who know everyone, they can also obtain for you what you are seeking, from tours to cigars. Chris likes to smoke the big 60 ring Gordos, and even though it was a weekend Julio was able to get his hands on some fine fat smokes for him. Sadly, I was not able to obtain any of my favorites since the Drew estates cigar safari was not happening that weekend, but we enjoyed touring the picturesque hills and visiting with Julio and Brenda, who took us in and treated us like family, even feeding us breakfast at their home on Sunday morning before we headed back to the marina. Not only do they sell cigars, but they also produce lovely cigar boxes in their wood shop for several of the local factories. We were very fortunate to meet these fine folks in cigar heaven!

 One of the fine boxes we had customized for Chris with our Sirena logo...