Drew Estate

Even with their 2013 releases (Nica Rustica and Kentucky Fire Cured) delayed, the Drew Estate table had no problem drawing the crowds, men and women alike, throughout the day.  With the No. 9, T52, Undercrown, Herrera Esteli, infused lines and Joya de Nicaragua products available, there was something for everyone. Fabian Ziegler, national sales director for Drew Estate, represented the company for their first appearance at Foxtoberfext.

Knowing it would be a full day of cigar smoking, I grabbed a Herrera Esteli to kick off the day.  The more I visit the Herrera Esteli the more I enjoy it. Tony mentioned to me that during his trip to Esteli earlier this year that he smoked a Herrera Esteli each morning. Something about the profile and the way it compliments a cup of Joe makes it a great morning stick.

It was a great event at a great location with lots of happy smokers.  I enjoy hanging and smoking with people who truly enjoy both the simpleness and complexity of a cigar. – Fabian Ziegler

 

J. Fuego Cigars

Jesus Fuego arrived at the event looking like he just finished a deep-sea fishing excursion. Whether on purpose or accident, his apparel was quite fitting since a box purchase of the Edicion de Familia could land you on a deep-sea fishing trip with Jesus. As Tony and I made our way around to Jesus’ table, he introduced us to his new Connoisseur line. My immediate reaction was to reach for the Original size but he insisted that we smoke the Gordo 5 by 60. He couldn’t have been more right. While still uncomfortable in the mouth, the cigar delivered in the flavor department. Unlike my past two experiences with the Connoisseur Originals, the Gordo did not become a dud at the halfway point.

As the end of the event drew near, I made my way back to the table to purchase a brick of the Sangre de Toro Originals as I did last year. Under $2 bucks a stick, I do not think there is a better deal on the market.

Rocky Patel Premium Cigars

Nish Patel attended Foxtoberfest in place of Rocky Patel this year. With a smile as bright as his head, Nish Patel lit up the event. One of the first cigar we were handed  was the Rocky Patel Royale. The Royale was one of several cigars released by Rocky Patel Premium Cigars this year and wears an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper over Honduran and Nicaraguan tobaccos.

As I mentioned in Post 1 of Foxtoberfest, Matt Booth really enjoyed his brief visit to El Paso. Well, Nish had only good things to say about El Paso as well and he will be making another appearance on November 6th at a local shop.

My Father Cigars

Everyone in attendance could agree that the true celebrity of Foxtoberfest was Sparky D’Lighter. Only making a few brief appearance during the event, we were able to capture a moment between Sparky and Jose Ortega. Along with being Sparky’s personal handler, Jose Ortega is the Vice President of Sales for My Father Cigars. You can follow Sparky D’Lighter’s adventures on Twitter, @SparkyDLighter.

Boutique Blends

Rafael Alejandro of Boutique Blends proudly displayed and promoted their Aging Room Maduro that was released at the 2013 IPCPR Trade Show. Since its release, the AR Maduro has been making a lot of noise in social media and cigar review sites. After smoking the Aging Room Small Batch M356 back in February, I have been intrigued with Boutique Blends and keeping an eye out on their cigars.

Not being outdone by fellow manufacturers, Boutique Blends arrived at Foxtoberfest 2013 with a SWAG event exclusive cigar. Tony and I snagged a 5-pack of the SWAG exclusive and will be posting a review in the near future.

Ashton

I was introduced to Ashton’s La Aroma de Cuba Mi Amor Reserva line at last year’s Foxtoberfest which I instantly fell in love with , so I was excited to be one of the first to get their  hands on the new San Cristobal Revelation by Ashton. Tony previewed the cigar before the event and had this to say:  “This new release features an Ecuadorian Sumatran wrapper, the same wrapper used on Ashton’s Virgin Sun Grown of ‘VSG’ Cigar only using a lower “viso” priming wrapped around Nicaraguan binder and fillers. The cigar will come in 5 sizes, 3 of which are box-pressed and will carry a price point between $6.95 and $9.50 a cigar. This should be a regular production cigar and will come packaged in boxes of 24.”

262 Cigars

Clint Aaron made his second appearance at Foxtoberfest continuing to fight the good fight to bring lanceros back into fad. At the 2013 IPCPR Trade Show, 262 Cigars unveiled the Revere Lancero which was available at the event. While I did not grab one, this is a cigar I plan on hunting down soon. Along with the Revere line, the Ideology and Paradigm lines were also available. I am not sure if Cliff Coen was trying to punish Clint or was just looking for a little entertainment, but he stuck Clint right next to Matt Booth for the 8 hour event. I am sure Clint is seeking psychological help after that.

The folks at Fox seem to one-up themselves with each and every Foxtoberfest. I was honored to be in attendance again this year. Matt Booth frightened me though. It is true what they say, “Don’t feed the animal. – Clint Aaron

With all that was taking place throughout the day, we didn’t have a chance to visit the Xikar or Oliva Cigar Company representatives.

Below is a gallery containing all photos we took at the event. I know it may be a bit of a cumbersome gallery so if you’d like to view them on Facebook instead (no account required) click here.

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The post Foxtoberfest 2013 – Event Coverage (Post 2 of 2) appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

The Ashton Members Lounge is done up top-notch with leather chairs, ten flat panel TVs, private cigar lockers, and much, much more. According to Cliff Coen, owner of Fox Cigar Bar, the lounge is still a work in progress. The place already looks fantastic and I can’t wait to return to Fox Cigar Bar to see the final product.

Smoking our way into early Saturday morning with Wes Thornton of Crowned heads and Cliff, we headed back to the hotel to finally get some rest for the Saturday festivities. After a couple hours of rest, the wives were up ready to begin their shopping adventures and Tony and I were excited to get down to Fox Cigar Bar and enjoy what the day had offer.

Saturday was  turning out to be a beautiful day with the sun shining and the high being in the low 80’s.  At 1:00 manufacturers began to arrive and Fox Cigar Bar staff put up the final touches before the gates opened at 2:00 for Foxtoberfest 2013.

There was an unbelievable turnout at this year’s event. Those in attendance included Eddie Ortega from Ortega Cigar Company, Jose Ortega from My Father, Jesus Fuego from J. Fuego Cigars, Matt Booth from Room 101, Nish Patel from Rocky Patel, Fabian Ziegler from Drew Estate, Tony Gomez and Anthony Cantelmo from La Flor Dominicana, Rafael Alejandro from Boutique Blends, Wes Thornton from the Crowned Heads, Clint Aaron from 262 Cigars, David Fraser from Xikar, Meera Levin from Ashton, Terence Reilly from SAG Imports, Jeff Nolen from Oliva Cigars, and Glynn Loope from CRA.

Tony and I had an opportunity touch base with several manufacturers throughout the day.  Below, you will find highlights of the events but in no way does this encompass all of the day’s shenanigans.

Crowned Heads

Wes Thornton of Crowned Heads happened to be in the best shape when we arrived at Fox Cigar Bar Friday evening. While I am not sure of Wes’ official title, a blog post at crownedheads.com refers to his position as an ambassador of Crowned Heads who acts as a liaison between the company and their retail partners. Making our way to some open leather chairs, we sat down with Wes to shoot the bull and see what was in the works at Crowned Heads. One topic of discussion was the 2013 limited edition Headley Grange Drumstick. In Wes’ opinion, the Headley Grande Drumstick is the best cigar to come out of Crowned Heads to-date. The first shipment went out the previous Tuesday but had yet to arrive at Fox Cigar Bar the day of the festival.

The Crowned Heads booth showcased all three of their regular production brands: Four Kicks, Headley Grange, and J.D. Howard Reserve. A sampler made up of two cigars from each line above, named the 6 Shooter, was available for under $50.

Ortega Cigar Company

Making his second appearance at Foxtoberfest, Eddie Ortega, owner of Ortega Cigar Company, made quite the arrival with his Foxtoberfest exclusive cigar, appropriately named “The Fox”. Check out Tony’s review here. While The Fox was the talk of the event, the Ortega Serie “D” and Ortega Minis were also out on display. The Ortega Serie “D” has been a staple in my humidor since its release and I do not see that changing anytime soon considering the flavors and excellent price. And if you are looking for a great commuter cigar, I highly recommend trying out the Minis.

Tony and I were able to spend a good amount of time with the lady-killer throughout the day. While most conversation did not involve cigars, I did ask what his favorite cigar was in the Wild Bunch series. According to Eddie, Dandy McCoy (see Tony’s review here) ranks high up there. He even hinted of a possible continuation of the cigar after the completion of the Wild Bunch.

Cliff puts on a great yearly event and I’m very glad to be part of the manufacturers he invites. It was great event again this year, I think it just keeps growing and getting better every year. – Eddie Ortega

La Flor Dominicana

Tony Gomez and Anthony Cantelmo manned the LFD booth. For those unaware, Tony Gomez is Litto Gomez’s son. Also, you may be familiar with Anthony Cantelmo’s work at cigarbrief.com . Anthony was present at Foxtoberfest in 2012 but in a much different role, as an employee of Fox Cigar Bar. In Early 2013, he moved from Arizona to east Texas to start a new job with La Flor Dominicana as the Southwest Area Manager. Anthony must be a good salesman because he was able to get Tony Gomez to attend this year’s event. LFD has grabbed my attention this past year and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to grab the La Flor Dominicana Foxtoberfest exclusive cigar. The cigar sports a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, Cameroon binder, and Dominican and Nicaraguan filler. Keep your eyes out for a review of this special cigar in the near future.

My impression was that it went really well and that the Folks at Fox are doing a fantastic job at creating a wonderful destination spot for cigar lovers in the Valley of the Sun. Our sales this year were great and we had a fantastic time making a special cigar to commemorate the festival. – Anthony  Cantelmo

I thought the event was just awesome. Mitch, Rob, Cliff, and the crew over there are top notch. You couldn’t ask for a better venue to enjoy a smoke & a cocktail with good company. It’s definitely an event worth going to. – Antonio Gomez

SAG Imports

Tony found his soul mate during the event, Mr. Terence Reilly of SAG imports.  Not only is Terence a cigar guys, but he is also a huge beer guy. As I smoked away, Tony and Terence lost themselves in conversation over beer. But for real, Terence is one of the most friendly, down to earth guys in the industry.

The SAG Imports table showcased the seasonally released Quesada Oktoberfest that first appeared in 2011. The cigar is blended to be paired with Marzen style beers that are enjoyed during fall season. Tony reviewed the 2011 release here and absolutely loved it. In conversation with Terence, he mentioned that while the 2011 and 2012 releases had very similar flavor profiles, he does note some profile difference in the 2013 release.

Foxtoberfest is an incredible event because it captures everything people enjoy about cigars. The store is incredible to begin with and has an amazing bar selection, and when you combine that with food music anda bunch of cigar lovers it creates an amazing atmosphere. – Terence Reilly

Room 101 Cigars

Just a few days before Foxtoberfest, Matt Booth of Room 101 was in our neck of the woods for an event at a local shop. It is extremely rare for El Paso to see individuals of his caliber from the cigar industry. Our busy schedules kept us from hanging out with Matt during his stay, but a couple of our smoking buddies stopped by. Chatting with Matt on Saturday, he mentioned that he really enjoyed El Paso. Hopefully, this is a first of many things to come for the cigar community in El Paso.

If you have ever met Matt you know he is quite the character with a quick wit. It was a good thing Tony had a few drinks in him because he was able to dish it back out. I on the other hand had to go hide in a corner.  For a $100, attendees could pick up a 10 pack of Room 101 cigars and an awesome ashtray. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I didn’t jump on the deal. I am kicking myself for that.

The cattle are dying, the answer is Room 101. – Matt Booth

Cigar Rights of America

Last year, Patrick Carr, Field Manager, managed the CRA booth single-handily. Whether it was from the great membership turnout the previous year or just not wanting to miss an awesome cigar and beer festival, Glynn Loope, Executive Director, made his way to Gilbert, AZ to enjoy the festivities, as well as represent an organization that is fighting for our rights to enjoy fine cigars.

If you are unaware, “Cigar Rights of America (CRA) is a national advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the rights of the Consumer, Retail Tobacconist, Supply Chain and Manufacturers of premium cigars. In an effort to combat the threats of enjoying, selling, and producing premium cigars, Cigar Rights of America serves as a voice at each level of government and with the public at-large on issues of significance to the industry as a whole, and the cigar consumers of America, specifically.”

I took the time to renew my membership at the event which only took a couple of minutes. The guys over at CRA were kind enough to throw in a travel humidor with the renewal. If you are not a member, I encourage you to sign up here.

CRA was well represented at this year’s Foxtoberfest, during the event we signed up over 75 new members and proceeds from the golf tournament also went to fight the battle to protect our rights to enjoy premium tobacco products. We would like to thank Fox Cigar Bar and its staff for allowing us to be part of this year’s event, Fox is a model B&M shop supporting CRA and our efforts to help protect our rights to enjoy premium cigars and keep our passion alive! – Patrick Carr, Field Manager

Below is a gallery containing all photos we took at the event. I know it may be a bit of a cumbersome gallery so if you’d like to view them on Facebook instead (no account required) click here.

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The post Foxtoberfest 2013 – Event Coverage (Post 1 of 2) appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

On Friday, Oktober (like the way I spelled that?) 18th you can spend the day sipping drinks, smoking cigars, and rubbing elbows at the golf course with Matt Booth from 101, Nish Patel from Rocky Patel, Fabian Ziegler from Drew Estate, Tony Gomez from La Flor Dominicana, Eddie Ortega from Ortega Cigars, Rafael Alejandro from Boutique Blends, Wes Thornton from the Crowned Heads, Clint Aaron from 262 Cigars, David Fraser from Xikar, Meera Levin from Ashton, Terence Reilly from Sag, Jeff Nolen from Oliva Cigars, and Glen Loope from CRA. If that isn’t enough, on Saturday you can hang out at the shop, enjoy some great beers and cigars while shooting the crap with these guys plus Jose Ortega from My Father Cigars and Jesus Fuego from J. Fuego Cigars. Cliff and Fox went HUGE on this one and I can honestly say that I am looking forward to the event. I could see this even becoming one of the premier cigar events in the southwest. Below is the full information on the event as well as pricing. If you plan on going buy your tickets ASAP cause they sold out crazy fast last year. You can keep up with any changes by follow Fox Cigar Bar on twitter, facebook, or through their website. We will provide you guys will full event coverage as well.

The post Fox Cigar Bar’s Foxtoberfest / Golf Classic 2013 appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

Without further adieu, let’s get right into it shall we?

Day 3

After a very restful evening (the staff gave us all extra pillows cause we are special) and a wonderful breakfast (seriously, you will gain about 20 lbs. on this trip) we were back at it. This time, we were spending the day with the Drew Estate team touring their facilities and learning their processes.

We started out by visiting one of Drew Estate’s tobacco bodegas. One of many. In fact, Saka actually told us they have about 7 spread out through Esteli. He also went on to explain that land in Esteli is getting more expensive and harder to come by. They would love to consolidate and expand, but it’s tough due to cost and location. Drew Estate is about to take their bodegas from 7 down to about 2. I’ll touch more on that later though.

The bodega was a simple, crude building filled with millions of dollars in tobacco. Not joking, millions. As I talked about in the previous post, tobacco is stored here in pilons for a number of years while the tobacco ferments. As the tobacco generates heat it is then broken down and rotated. This process happens over and over and over until the tobacco reaches a storing point where it is no longer fermenting and can go on to be used in cigars or stored for future use. Here is an example of the detail in the process. The following picture illustrates a number of pilons, their daily temperature reads, and when the pilon had been rotated.

We headed to a facility next door where there was a number of women sorting tobacco leaves which was ready to go on to other processes. One note is that you see mostly women doing the sorting as well as the rolling while men handle the bunching. This is due to the idea that women tend to have a gentler, more matriculate composure making it easier for them to be more accurate. Again, tobacco here was sorted by type, weight, size and texture.

After that we were brought to the newest addition to the Drew Estate family. Basically it’s a massive, MASSIVE, project under development. Once done (later this year) the facility located directly across from the Drew Estate factory will house 6 out of 7 of the previous tobacco bodegas. Big right? My first thought was “Yay more room! That means, more production!”. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Saka went on to explain that even with the addition of this facility, since they would be combining bodegas, it really wasn’t going to be adding more room or space for production. In fact, Saka went on to tell us that they are pretty much maxed out as far as production and storage goes at the moment. That’s great for the company. Basically every single brand that they have right now is growing in profit each year. Even brands as small as Ambrosia are turning profit. Keep it up guys.

After a quick stop at the new facility we headed to the Drew Estate factory. This factory too has changed quite a bit since the last time we visited. An outdoor cafeteria area that I remember walking through last year now houses a rolling room where eager rollers master their craft before hitting the production floor. The cafeteria has since been moved to the new facility across the street.

We didn’t spend too much time at the factory as the guys knew we had all already seen it so we took a quick tour and went straight into blending. We hit the factory floor to observe bunching and rolling, then took a stroll through their tobacco storage and sorting operations. It’s worth mentioning that even now Drew Estate houses the largest production floor that I have ever been on. Not only that, but the employees are encouraged to enjoy a smoke, rock out to music, laugh and talk. You don’t see that too often.

Before stopping at the blending room we took a quick stop at the new rolling room and tried our hands at the process. Needless to say, mine were terrible. These chubby, stubby fingers just do not understand how to roll a cigar. It was fun though and I think the rollers had a good time laughing at our expense. We also got a quick lesson on the difference between standard bunching/rolling and the entubado technique (rolling each leaf into small tubes while bunching) which Willy is famous for.

The blending session was great. Drew Estate hooked it up with new, awesomely designed tobacco menus which give detailed descriptions of each of the tobaccos we could use. The room also contains huge bins with each different leaf sorted so that you can smell, burn, and some each different leaf before you make your decisions.

From there, it was a quick stop over to see Jessie Flores the Heart and soul of Subculture Studios and pretty much all of Drew Estate’s look and feel. This man and his team are responsible for the marketing, merchandise, and design that you see coming out of the factory. Jessie showed us boxes they were screen printing (that’s right! They screen print some of their own boxes), shirts they were pressing, stickers and magnets they were creating. It’s basically and artist’s dream workshop. A lot of the Subculture Studio was actually blocked off as they were working on this year’s booth set up for IPCPR and if you have ever seen one of their booth’s you will know just how crazy those get.

 That evening we spent some time together in the lounge with Steve Saka, Jonathan Drew, and Jose Blanco. It’s always a bit sad to know that you are going home the next day and that it will be a long while before you see everyone again. We shared stories and heard many more before receiving out personal blends and saying our goodbyes. We headed out early the next morning.

If you have not ever been on a Cigar Safari tour I cannot stress how amazing it is. The culture, the land, the views, and the knowledge you take in is incredible. Drew Estate and Joya de Nicaragua are generous hosts and my deepest thanks goes out to them and their crew for inviting us to come along on yet another adventure.

Dates for the 2014 Cigar Safari Tours will be released soon. You can keep up with the tour as well as book your own here: www.cigarsafari.com

Again, the following gallery may be a bit cumbersome. You can view the entire photo set over at our facebook by clicking this link (no need for an account).

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The post Drew Estate Cigar Safari 2013 – Day 3 appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

I am going to do something slightly different this time around. Instead of splitting it up between 3 separate posts I am going to try to generalize the trip and pack it all into two different posts, combining a few of the days. I hope you guys are ready to read!

This trip included:

Me
Dan Reeve from Cigar Press
Jay L. from Cigar Photo
Ben Lee from Stogie Review
Brian Hewitt from Stogie Review
Stace Berkland from Leaf and Grape
William Cooper from Cigar Coop
Craig Vanderslice from Cigar Craig
Stephen Ross from Tobacconist Magazine
And Johnny Brooke’s little brother, the Vet.

Day 1:

The first day was travel day. Since I was flying in a bit further than the other guys I had stayed in Houston the night prior. I met up with Ben Lee at the airport. We shared a romantic breakfast before our 4 hour flight to Managua. We were scheduled to get in before the rest of the guys flying in from Miami, but we were delayed and they were all already there along with Pedro, our Drew Estate tour guide, waiting. Within minutes from landing in Nicaragua we were packed into the bus, handed Liga Privadas and on our way!

We had lunch at this incredible outdoor restaurant. Steak, potatoes, plantains, veggies, salad, and lots of Tona (Nicaraguan beer). We were met there by Jose Blanco of Joya de Nicaragua, Dr. Alejando Cuenca from Joya de Nicaragua, Steve Saka from Drew Estate, Willy Herrera from Drew Estate, Johnny Brooke from Drew Estate, and Jessie Flores from Subculture studios. The food was excellent and the conversation and company were even better. After a long lunch we were off to Esteli.

Esteli is about 2 – 2.5 hours north of Managua. The bus ride is interesting as it gives you plenty of time to take in the sights, sounds, and smells of Nicaragua. Rain season is just around the corner so many of the roads had small fires going just off to the side of them. Most of these fires were created to burn trash and debris before the moisture moved in. The Nicaraguan roads were also covered in kids playing soccer, locals selling fruits, and tons of stray cattle and dogs.

Upon our arrival to the Drew Estate factory we were sent off to settle into our rooms ( I shared mine with Jay ) before eating a nice, hearty dinner and a relaxing evening at the Drew Estate poolside lounge. Steve Saka, Jose Blanco, and Pedro joined us. We also had the pleasure of participating in a rum tasting showcasing each different blend of the Nicaragua created “Flor de Cana” rum. I’m not much of a rum guy but I really enjoyed getting to try each blend. The 12 year had to be my favorite. After a nice relaxing evening we all went to bed early as we knew how big of a day we had a head of us tomorrow.

The following photo gallery may be a bit cumbersome. You can view the entire set over on our facebook (I don’t think you need an account to see them). 

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Day 2:

Anyone who has been on this trips knows how important it is to get a good night rest, which I still feel bad for. Seems like I kept Jay up with my snoring the night prior, but we all woke early and after having a nice breakfast, headed out to Oliva Tobacco Company’s farm, “Finca la Joya” or The Jewel Farm. Last year we didn’t get to see much of the farms so we were all pretty excited. Oliva Tobacco Company is not to be confused with Oliva Family Cigars. Oliva Tobacco Company is actually one of the largest tobacco growers in the world alongside ASP and the Plasencia Family.

We spent the first leg of the tour checking out their curing barns. Basically when tobacco is pulled from the plant it gets transported to these huge barns where they are then sorted by texture and size before being hung in twos across large rods. Workers then take these rods and hang them from the ceiling down to about 3 – 4 feet from the ground (Note: They will never touch the ground during this process). The tobacco stays in these barns for a number days while the tobacco begins to cure and dry out. We actually got to see a barn that contained tobacco that was above the humidity desired for the curing process. In this barn there was small pits dug into the floor which contained large amounts of burning charcoal which is used to draw the humidity out of the leaves.

After the curing process the tobacco is packed up and sold off to various companies or stored to carry forth through other various processes. One interesting fact I picked up while we were at the field was that during the tobacco off-season the farm actually plants red beans in place of the tobacco. These plants release nutrients into the soil which then carry over to the next batch of tobacco the following season.

From the farm we headed to Oliva Tobacco Company’s sorting and fermenting facility. This place is HUGE. After months (and sometimes years) of storage, tobacco is taken here where it is fermented, sorted, and then sold off or stored.

Once the tobacco comes in the door it is sorted yet again by size, type, and texture. They are then bunched into “hands” of tobacco (containing around 10 leaves) and then stacked into massive stacks called “pilons”. Pilons are about 3 feet wide and about 4 feet tall weighing around 5000 lbs. each. Inside the pilons the tobacco with start to generate heat causing the tobacco to ferment. The fermentation process is a tedious one. The pilons are monitored for temperature daily and once the tobacco reaches a certain temperature (different depending on tobacco type and desired outcome) the pilon is then broken down and resorted, and rebuilt disbursing the heat to other leaves in the stack. This process happens many, many times.  It’s insane how hot the tobacco gets while it’s fermenting. In some cases well over 100 degrees. This process is actually known to spontaneously combust creating large fires if it isn’t handled properly.

Once the tobacco is ready it’s then sorted yet again, packaged up, and ready to sell or store before being rolled into the cigars that we all love. After a break for lunch we headed back out on the town. This time, visiting our friend over at the Joya de Nicaragua factory. You may remember this visit from last trip, but the factory was so different this time around. Joya de Nicaragua is in the midst of a huge change and it was insane seeing just how much they had changes over the last year.

First of all, if you look at the photos from last year you can see that the front of the factory was a bright yellow. This year we were greeted with a beautiful red brick. During a presentation at the factory we learned that the yellow paint was actually carefully chiseled off to showcase the original brick underneath. Not only was it pretty, but it held significance as well. Once you get closer to the brick you can actually see that much of it showcases burn marks and bullet holes. During Nicaraguan revolution Joya de Nicaragua was actually burned down as it was in the center of all the commotion. Since then the factory was completely rebuilt from the inside out.

Letting the true colors show is only one step to the regeneration process. The company recently picked up the master blender Jose Blanco and Joya de Nicaragua has also changed hands and is now in the hands of Dr. Cuenca’s son, Juan Martinez. Juan’s professionalism and young blood is being strung through the factory, the marketing, and pretty much every factor of the company. We got to spend some time with Juan and his marketing team and I can personally say that I love the direction this company is heading. Keep your eye on them.

The Joya de Nicaragua factory tour was conducted once again by Jose Bland and Mario Perez, the head of production at the factory. As stated earlier, the tour started out with a presentation by the staff that demonstrated Joya de Nicaragua’s roots and where the company is headed. We also got to take a sneak peek at a room we didn’t see on our last tour. This room was filled with every blend, exclusive, and historical release that Joya de Nicaragua has gotten then hands on including a box of Joya de Nicaragua from 1970.

We then took a look at the production floor. Why the floor looked similar to the way it did last trip, with the exception of new paint and touch-ups as well as a raised roof with lots of new natural light being brought into the building. After the production floor we quickly toured the sorting facility which is combined with their packaging department.

After the tour we were brought to an outside facility for one of Jose Blanco’s world famous blending seminars. Jose had us smoke multiple “puro” cigars (cigars made with only 1 tobacco type) while sharing out thoughts on the blend, burn, body, strength, and even guessing the ago, tobacco type, and country of origin. Needless to say, I bombed that. No matter how much we think we know about cigars, it’s always humbling to be part of these seminars. We finished the Joya de Nicaragua factory tour off with a “Nicaraguan shot” which was basically a shot of Nicaraguan rum chased with mango dipped into spicy chili and salt. The rum was good, but I went a bit crazy with the salt. It’s all I could taste for a few hours.

We headed back for dinner at the Drew Estate Factory and was greeted by the presence of Jonathan Drew. We were also surprised with a full pork roast (apple in the mouth and everything) and live Mariachi’s. We had a few drinks by the pool before calling it a night. We had another early morning ahead of us.

The following photo gallery may be a bit cumbersome. You can view the entire set over on our facebook (I don’t think you need an account to see them). 

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The post Drew Estate Cigar Safari 2013 – Days 1 – 2 appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

FOX CIGAR BAR PRESENTS: FOXTOBERFEST 2012

Cigar and Beer Festival – October 27th, 4pm – 10pm

Fox Cigar Bar in Gilbert, AZ is proud to announce our first annual Foxtoberfest Festival! Foxtoberfest will be packed with premium cigars, a wide variety of beer, Oktoberfest themed food and entertainment. Great cigars, amazing beer, traditional cuisine, all while raising money for a local scholarship fund!

Special Guests Include Cigar Manufacturers:

Jesus Fuego – J. Fuego Cigars
Eddie Ortega – Ortega Cigar Company
Matt Booth – Room 101 Cigar Company
Craig Cunningham – Esteban Carreras Cigar Company
Clint Aaron – 262 Cigar Company

Fox Cigar Bar has teamed up with local brewery Four Peaks Brewing Company to provide some specialty beer created just for Foxtoberfest. In addition, Fox Cigar Bar has selected some of the best craft beer breweries from around the country to bring you a wide variety of Oktoberfest and Pumpkin styled beers.

Entry to this event is free. However, VIP tickets are available that allow guests to participate in cigar seminars with the manufacturers, sample additional beers and walk away with some additional commemorative merchandise.

Tickets can be purchased in our lounge, online, or over the phone (480.917.3117). Tickets go on sale September 15th and can be purchased in advance or at the door the day of the event.

Fox Cigar Bar is an 18 and over establishment that has a wide variety of premium cigars, craft beer, premium spirits and a comfortable atmosphere. Fox Cigar Bar has a large indoor smoking lounge as well as a outdoor patio area.

Fox Cigar Bar is located at: 1464 E. Williamsfield Rd. #105 Gilbert, Arizona 85295. Hours of Operation: Sunday – Thursday 10am – 12am * Friday & Saturday 10am – 2am

If you would like more information or to schedule an interview with Cliff Coen, please contact him at 480.917.3117 or via email at cigarcliff@gmail.com.

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We were greeted by Jose Blanco and Mario as soon as we arrived. The first thing you notice about the JDN factory was how old, yet well taken care of the factory is. There is a lot of history there and it shows. After a brief introduction Jose and Mario took us inside. Right away I was surprised by just how small and quaint the factory is. It seems as if this is the little factory that could. Once we got out to the production floor I couldn’t help but get a sense of pride from all the workers. It was a totally different feel than any other factory I had toured in the past. The factory is set up very different too. There are two main floors, production goes down on the top floor while storage and packaging take place on the bottom floor. Once you climb the stairs you are thrown right into the rolling floor. Surrounding the rolling area are the sorting, tobacco storage, and quality assurance areas. One neat conversation I had with Jose Blanco was concerning the quality assurance process of the Cabinetta serie cigars. I was watching a lady roll only the maduro portion onto the cigar. You see, the cabinettas are rolled with the natural wrapper just like any other cigar, then a separate roller adds the maduro section. Jose was telling me that they limit their rollers productivity. They get paid per piece, but most are limited to about 325 cigars a day. There reason they do this is so that the roller doesn’t try to speed through their cigars to make more money which could possibly produce bad quality cigars. The idea is to pace yourself and do every cigar right. I then asked if that goes the same for that one roller who only had to place the maduro cap section on the Cabinetta, and surprisingly it did. They train that roller to be extra precise with that one portion. We even timed her with the roller rolling full sized cigars next to her and sure enough, they were working at the same piece. What this means is, each Cabinetta made actually costs Joya De Nicaragua almost twice as much in man-power cost, yet they commit to keeping the cost of that cigar low. Nicely done JDN.

Anyways. After touring the entire production floor we headed downstairs to take a look at warehousing and packaging. Again, this factory in all aspects is a well oiled machine. They have about half the people pumping out just as much product. The employees there really seem to know what they are doing. One thing I didn’t ask was what the average length of employment was for each of the workers there. I would imagine with the history of the company it would be pretty lengthy.

After the tour Jose and Mario brought us out back to an open, covered patio for some coffee and our Joya De Nicaragua blending session. The blending session here was really straight forward. We were schooled on the types and differences of the tobacco that they carry at Joya De Nicaragua. We were given tips on how to mix them, and what to pay attention to as we felt the texture of the tobacco, smelt the aromas, and even rolled a few leaves up and smoked them. Thor obviously new how to roll his own, but Mario Takeyama had some problems. I don’t have a picture of it, but I know some of the other guys there snapped a few. Basically, he made what he called the “Mawio Cigaw Buwwito”. It was almost the size of my arm. Man I love that guy.

After the blending sessions we headed back to Drew Estate to enjoy a relaxing lunch before checking out Jessie Flores’ subculture studios. Bascially, Subculture studios is the place where all the artwork for all the crazy Drew Estate projects gets thrown down. The company started with Jessie doing all the work. He actually explained that he hooked up with Jonthan Drew as a mere graffiti artist who ran into him at a gas station. The two hit it off and became good friends. As time went on, Jessie realized that Jonathan spoke very poor Spanish, and his translator sucked so Jessie went on to assume that role. The two became very close and as time went on Jessie soon became the artist behind all things Drew Estate.

Jessie now employs a handful of people under him who ensure that all things Drew Estate are hip, artistic, and plentiful. Serious this kid has so much raw talent it’s scary. You should really check out the pictures at the end of the post to see more of his artwork.

We headed back out on the road, this time on our way to visit the My Father factory. It was interesting to see how close the Nicaraguan factories are both in terms of distance, and relationships. Joya, Drew Estate, Oliva, Perdomo, and My father were all within a few minutes of each other

The rain had been hitting hard all day. We were actually there during the rainy season which means it was incredibly sunny one minute, pouring rain the next, the back to sunny, back to rain, and the cycle continued. Kind of like that clip in Forrest Gump. Anyways. What the rain did was it actually caused part of the My Father factory to lose power. Pete Johnson from Tatuaje greeted us at the door and took us on our tour. The first leg was the 4 buildings that were sans-power; the tobacco receiving, storage and sorting areas. It was different than most factories as each of these areas were housed within their own buildings. I wish I could have gotten more pictures there, but most of them didn’t come out due to the fact that it was pitch black.

After we toured the smaller buildings we headed inside while making a quick stop at the box storage area. My Father actually has a full box manufacturing facility on site, but it was closed and locked when we too the tour so sadly, we didn’t get to see that. Either way I was very impressed with the massive amounts of ready made boxes they had on hand. We proceeded through the tobacco bodega, then onto the rolling floor. Much like Drew Estate, My Father is a huge factory with a ton of rollers. Every at that, I don’t think that they had more than Drew Estate did. One awesome addition was a double table roller set put up in front of the rest of the rollers. You can see in the picture below who these two seats belong to.

After the production tour we hit the packaging department. Again, this area was huge. There was a ton of neat little projects going on. We actually got to take a first, hands on look to the much anticipated “Little Monsters” series by Tatuaje.

We ended the tour with a few minutes with the man, Jaime Garcia. The air in any room feels different when you have Steve Saka, Jaime Garcia, Pete Johnson, Jose Blanco, and Willie Herrera in it. It was a shocker and I think we were all impressed at the amount of talent and knowledge in that room.

After the My Father factory the Cigar Safari team lead us to a quick tour of the Oliva factory. After being in so many factories we were brisked through this one. The first thing I noticed about the factory was it was rather primitive. They weren’t using some of the same technologies or procedures some of the larger factories did. Again, this factory was just more of a hands on machine. This isn’t to say the company doesn’t produce top-quality smokes, we all know they do. It was just interesting how they seemed to put less money in the factory which ultimately shaves off the cost of their product. Oliva has always produced quality, cost effective cigars.

The most impressive part of the Oliva tour was the massive amounts of tobacco they have stored. Seriously, there were tons. Another great experience at the factory was we got to meet the legend himself, Gilberto Oliva, a.k.a. “the chick magnet”. Ok, they don’t call him that, but they did go on to tell us on how much a of a flirt he was. Look at the dude, he’s got charm written all over him!

The last leg of this expedition was a tour through the Drew Estate tobacco bodega. This was basically a crash course led by Steve Saka on how they store, ferment, and ready their tobacco for processing. I’ve never actually been involved as much with the hands on fermentation of tobacco so I soaked up a ton of knowledge from this experience. For those of you who don’t know, tobacco is fermented by being stacked in huge “pilons” about 4 feet tall. I have no idea how to spell that word, but you get the idea. Anyways, the stacking of the tobacco causes a reaction within the leaves that heats up the tobacco to temperatures as high as 160 degrees. No one knows for sure if it’s a chemical reaction or biological, but Steve Saka and Jose Blanco seem to think it’s more chemical. As the tobacco heats it releases the natural aroma into the air. They track the tobacco on a daily basis and rotation the fermentation as needed. We got to actually stick our hands inside a pilon to see just how hot it gets, ant it’s hot! Saka said that if you leave it unattended long enough it could actually combust and catch fire. Luckily, fire is the only disaster Drew Estate has yet to face (knock on wood).

From the tobacco bodega we headed back to Drew Estate for a much needed rest, and dinner. Burrito dinner to be exact with some of the best BBQ I have had. After dinner we hung out on the patio for some time before Jose Blanco started his blending session. This session was much more intensive. We started out by smoking a cigar that had 4 different wrappers. We had to guess which tobacco was used. I actually went 3-4 on that. He also went into everything from taste, texture, body, strength, and construction. One huge subject that came up was flavor in which Saka and Jose agreed with us bloggers that taste is related to memories of items that we have actually enjoyed. For instance, when we say chocolate and coffee, this is just our taste buds picking up flavors that remind us of coffee and chocolate which enables us to describe these flavors to you all. This is a subject that comes up often and I am glad that someone was finally on our side.

And that was that, the end of the trip. A few of us spent that night smoking and drinking late into the evening. Steve Saka eventually joined us and told us all sorts of stories from his past, his family, when he was a blogger, and the start of his career. It was really nice to hear from him on such a personal level. I swear, that guy needs to write a damn book on his experiences. One thing that I loved about the trip was Jonathan, Saka, and Jose’s love for not only what they do, but for us. Not many companies see new media as a valid form of media. Although more and more are coming around, these guys really see the power in what we do, the passion behind it, and the work we put in and respect it and us. We felt loved. At least I did.

In closing, I just want to thank everyone involved in this trip. It was a once in a lifetime experience and I urge any cigar enthusiast to enjoy a Cigar Safari trip. You get to meet amazing people, experience a wonderful country, and get schooled on the cigar manufacturing process. Again, Thank you Steve Saka, Jonathan Drew, Pedro, Allejandro, Pedro, Jessi, Jose Blanco, Gary, Pete Johnson, Dave Lafferty, John Brooke, Willie, and everyone else that joined us, and welcomed us.

Check out more pictures from the day: (click each image, once you are done hit “back” on your browser to return to this page. Annoying, I know, but the only other quick option was stupid flash.)

Click Here if you rather see the image via my personal Flickr slideshow.

Link: Drew Estate – Cigar Safari – Blogger Trip Day 1

Link: Drew Estate – Cigar Safari – Blogger Trip Day 2

The post Drew Estate – Cigar Safari 2012 – Blogger Trip Day 3 appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

After a full night’s rest we enjoyed a quick breakfast at the hotel and then it was off to Esteli. It was roughly a two and a half hour bus ride to Esteli. I started the morning off with a Joya De Nicaragua Cabinetta, possibly one of my favorite morning smokes. I was quickly chased off that cigar while Jonathan Drew shared some “Thank You” prototype cigar they had created with us. I don’t know too much about the blend or it’s purpose, but it was badass. Really badass… Anyhow, the bus-ride took us through the city of Managua, the countryside, and the city of Esteli. I was blown away by the amount of loose cattle along the way. The highway was full of drifting cows and horses, not to mention people who just crashed out and napped under random shade trees. The ride was long, and scary at times as we were doing 80mph up a twisty mountain-side highways, but we arrived at the Drew Estate factory in Esteli in one piece.

The city of Esteli is actually quite pretty. Modest, and on the lower class end, but the people where happy as they hustled through the colorful streets. Almost every corner had a mess of kids playing soccer or running through the streets. We hung out at the resort-side of the factory for a few hours. Checked out the pool, the rooms, the patio, and an awesome clubhouse all overlooking a river valley.

After the brief introduction to our home for the next two days we settled down for some lunch. I can’t quite remember what we ate that afternoon, but everything we had at the Drew Estate facility was just ridiculously delicious. Serious. Five Star, professional Chef-style. Along with out food we were introduced Drew Estate President Steve Saka, Alejandro Martinez Cuenca – the man behind Joya de Nicaragua, as well as two new cigars I hadn’t heard of pre-Cigar Safari. The Liga Privada “Black Rat” and the “Big Black Rat”. Saka basically said the blend was based off the Dirty Rat with a slightly tweaked blend including a much darker, lower priming wrapper. The interesting thing is as we were smoking them together, we had all talked about how the cigar tasted much more similar to the No. 9, and less like the dirty rat. Saka agreed. He agreed so much that the next night he actually handed us a few more of the same blend, only with a new name “LP 9 Pequeno”.  I’m not sure if these cigars will ever hit the market, but we can only hope. One thing that’s hard to overlook at the factory is the crazy artwork at every turn. Seriously, every corner, crown, baseboard, wall, everything has crazy amounts of artistic attention.

Anyways, after lunch we took a tour of the Drew Estate factory hosted by Jonathan Drew and Steve Saka. Despite being a big scary guy, I must say, Saka is a sweetheart and one of the most knowledgeable people I have ever met. Not just about the cigar industry, but about all things. He’s like a big, nerdy, sweet, teddy bear. Anyhow. We started in the board room where they guys passed out another new blend, the “UF-13 Dark” and told us all about the Drew Estate history. A few things that I totally admired about the company was the incredible way they treat their employees. They told us about a benefit that all Nicaraguans receive at work called the “13^th Month Bonus”. Basically, once you complete 12 months of employment you receive a bonus month of pay. That bonus decreases over time and by the 8^th month, it is no more. Most employers in Nicaragua get around the policy by firing their employees before their 12^th month just to re-hire them. At Drew Estate, not only do they pay them the full 13^th month bonus, but the pay them that every year no matter how long they have been with the company. Along with that, they offer lots of other benefits unheard of in the country, such as life insurance. Not to mention they actually have disabled workers in the factory. One guy didn’t have any arms, and we spotted a blind gentleman loading cigar boxes into bulk packages to be added to containers. They really are out for the best interest of the city and rightfully so, Tobacco is one of the top 5 items that carry the Nicaraguan economy.

The first two things that caught my eye on the tour was the massive amount of cigar rollers they have going at the factory. Seriously, there must have been at least 300 going at any given time. (a side note on this, Saka actually explained that just about all of his rolling staff enters the company fresh. They don’t like to get rollers that have worked at other companies before as they are likely to carry over habits they learned. Every factory does things differently and Drew Estate is interested in teaching their employees their way from the ground up)  Secondly, the entire staff was much younger that I expected. Saka actually pointed out that there are condom stations in the facility to promote safe sex. Needless to say the one we saw was dead empty, even though it was filled earlier that morning. Another thing I noticed was the employees were so happy, laughing, smoking, joking. It’s not something I had seen before. Another interesting note was there were very few bunchers using Liebermans (press machines used to assist in the bunching of cigars). They actually try to ween them off the machine until each and every cigar is rolled 100% by hand. This isn’t the case in most factories, but it helps in the Quality Assurance area as it forces more accountability on the bunchers. We watched the rollers roll quite a few cigars including the infamous EGG and Medusa. We even got to smoke newly bunched feral pigs before being put into molds, pre-wrapper. What a difference. Seriously. The cigars was crazy loose, pepperbomb powerhouses. I couldn’t even get halfway though mine.

Next we headed into the Quality Assurance rooms. Drew Estate actually enlists a computerized system that includes bar-codes that get scanned every step of the way. This way they can track each team of rollers and bunchers to address any problems that they have. These bar codes actually follow each bunch of cigars all the way though the creation process until they hit the color sorting tables. If there is a problem they can track it down to each and every employee that touched that bunch of cigars. This enables Drew Estate to crack down on inconsistencies quickly and address them. Pretty high tech.

We visited room after room of cooled cigar storage rooms. These areas are cooled so that the cigars will get a change to de-humidify a bit before being packaged. As we learned in the sorting process, the tobacco has to be wet and shaken out in order to separate the leafs before sorting. This also helps remove any excess ammonia left in the leaf. Needless to say the tobacco will stay pretty moist from that point forward. We also spent some time in packing. Basically, we got a tour from the time the raw tobacco hits the factory, and the finished, packaged cigars leave. We even got a look into the blending process as we took a detail-oriented blending seminar with Jonathan and Saka in which we got schooled on the different regions, tobaccos, farms, and even blended our own cigars. I haven’t tried mine yet as I have been way too sick, but I can only imagine it’s pretty terrible.

After the tour we had dinner, then headed up to the clubhouse for some drinks. We were then joined by some very special guests, Pete Johnson from Tatuaje Cigars, Gary Griffith from Emilio Cigars, and Jose Blanco along with his fiancé. I tried to troop it out, but after a few hours and a few drinks I hit the sack. I know some of the guys actually stayed up until 4:30 that evening. I just couldn’t hang.

Check out more pictures from the day: (click each image, once you are done hit “back” on your browser to return to this page. Annoying, I know, but the only other quick option was stupid flash.)

Click Here if you rather see the image via my personal Flickr slideshow.

Link: Drew Estate – Cigar Safari – Blogger Trip Day 1

Link: Drew Estate – Cigar Safari – Blogger Trip Day 3

The post Drew Estate – Cigar Safar 2012 – Blogger Trip Day 2 appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

With the exception of Ben Lee from Nice Tight Ash who traveled through Houston, we all met up in Miami before the flight. The personalities on this trip were: Jerry Cruz and Brian Hewitt from Stogie Review, Thor from Cigar Press Magazine, Brooks and Charlie from Halfwheel, Ben from Nice Tight Ash, Dan Reeve and Mario Takeyama from Cigar Explorer, Jason and Anthony from Cigar Brief, and Jay from Cigar Photo. Although I have met a few of these guys before, it was a pleasure to finally meet up with some of the other guys for the first time.

Fast Forward 3 hours or so and we land in Managua, Nicaragua. The airport was crazy. It was jam packed. After you get through the baggage there was hardly enough room to walk. Luckily the Drew Estate crew quickly scooped us up, and threw us on the bus. Within seconds of boarding the bus I had a can of Tonu (Nicaraguan Beer) in one hand and a Liga Privada 9 in the other, Which is a good thing considering how crazy hot and humid the country was. Pedro, our tour guide and one of the front-runners for all the Cigar Safari trips, went over tons of information about the country as we headed for our first destination.

I can’t say exactly how long the bus ride was to the restaurant as I was too busy taking in the sights, but I would estimate it was about 45 minutes until we reached “Bucaneros”. A nice dining restaurant overlooking a large lake.

As we got off the bus Jonathan Drew, Johnny Brooke, and Dave Lafferty were all there to greet us. We enjoyed some badass meals and drinks as we were briefed on the trip’s agenda, what we should and shouldn’t eat, and just how awesome the trip was going to be. We spent about an hour and a half there before moving on to the next destination.

From the restaurant we were bussed about and hour and a half away to the city of Granada. Granada was once famous for the war that took place there, and parts of the city are still a wreck. Now, Granada is a beautifully rebuilt, humble city and overall tourist destination. We drove through the cobblestone streets until we arrived at a huge, open lake. It was hear that Jonathan Drew loaded us onto boats and we embarked out a very relaxing, and beautiful boat ride around some of the small islands on the lake. Each island looked as if it was own by a single party who build some of the highest-end luxury houses, as well as some tiny, cozy, living quarters. There was a even a tiny island about the size of your average house that housed a half dozen monkeys. We took plenty of food to toss to them as Pedro explained that they have always lived there and all the passing boats drop food for them. They were once allowed to hang out with the tourists on the boats until one jumped on and caused a lady to go crazy.

After the boat ride we headed out of Granada and headed for our hotel back in Managua. The bus ride was another hour and a half or so, so we were able to see even more of the country. We even passed an active volcano that was only a few miles from the highway. Once we reached our hotel, we dumped our bags, freshened up, and headed poolside for a drink and smoke before departing one more time for the evening.

The next item on our itinerary was dinner. Drew Estate decided to take us to one of the best, if not the highest rated restaurant in the city. Senses de something. Yes I know, boring, I forgot the name, but I didn’t forget the food, nor could I forget the live Jaguar and Puma they had in cages as you approach the establishment. As far as the food goes, They had to have had the best steak I have ever had, hands down. Not to mention the best avocado. The thing was as big as my head. Jose Blanco and his fiancé met up with us for dinner as well as Jonathan Drew’s banker. Jonathan and his banker went on to tell us about how he started the company financially, as a kid with only a few hundred dollars, literally begging someone to open a bank account for him. Needless to say, He has come a long way. After dinner we packed up, and headed back to the hotel room for the evening. No one stayed up that night, I think all of us were pretty tuckered out.

Check out more pictures from the day: (click each image, once you are done hit “back” on your browser to return to this page. Annoying, I know, but the only other quick option was stupid flash.)

Click Here if you rather see the image via my personal Flickr slideshow.

Link: Drew Estate – Cigar Safari – Blogger Trip Day 2

Link: Drew Estate – Cigar Safari – Blogger Trip Day 3

The post Drew Estate – Cigar Safari 2012 – Blogger Trip Day 1 appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

As many of you know I was lucky enough to be one of the bloggers that General Cigar invited on a 4 day trip to cover their operations in Santiago, Dominican Republic. The way this trip went down was kind of random in the most organized way possible. Basically, Victoria McKee, our PR contact with General Cigar, contacted us and let us know that we were all invited on a grand tour of the General Cigar organization in Dominican Republic. This trip would include the rolling, warehousing, box manufacturing, growing, and even machine operations. She also noted that we would be accompanied by key personnel from each of the General related brands. Very cool, and of course we all jumped on it not really knowing what to expect. The crew included: Anthony of Cigar Brief, Barry Stein of A Cigar Smoker, Ben Lee of Nice Tight Ash, Bryan Glynn from Cigar Obsession, Craig Vanderslice from Cigar Craig, Dan Reeve from Cigar Explorer, David Jones from Tiki Bar, Doc from Stogie Fresh, Justin Yoch from Ash Report, Patrick from Cigar Examiner, Patrick from Stogie Guys, Skip Martin from Hava Cigar Shop/Cromagnon, Stephen Boyajian from The Cigar Network and Tony Blake from 365 Cigars. Jerry Cruz from Stogie Review was also slotted to join us, but had to cancel last minute due to a work emergency.

Day 1:

Not really knowing what to expect I set fourth on my journey. A car service picked me up at my house at 5:45am. Why is that important? Cause they weren’t supposed to be there until 6:45am. The driver insisted on waiting in the car, but I felt terrible so I showered and got dressed as fast as I could only to arrive at the airport about two and a half hours early. My first stop was Dallas where I met up with Skip and enjoyed a nice lunch, as well as some interesting conversation. If any of you have ever had the pleasure of meeting Skip you know exactly what I’m talking about. First, he managed to upset an American Airlines flight attendant in line to buy tootsie rolls based on his experiences with the company. Extremely amusing. Then we ate lunch at a pizza bar where we enjoyed some great conversation with our waitress before heading to Miami. Skip’s awesome. Spend some time with him, you’ll love it.

Skip and I were the last ones to fly into Miami so we were greeted with all the family blog faces as well as Abe Flores from Pinar Del Rio who just happened to be on our same flight, Yuri Guillen from Team La Gloria, Michael Giannini from La Gloria Cubana, and Rick Rodriguez from CAO. We packed the plane and headed off.

Once we landed in DR it was evident that the humidity was going to eat me alive. Just the walk from the plane to the airport had me sweating. I’m used to heat, it gets hot as hell in El Paso, but the humidity was something else. We rarely see more than 20% here in the desert. Anyways, to make a long story short, we got our luggage and packed into the van. Driving in the DR is freaken insane. There really is no lanes, no structure, no nothing. That being said, about 5 minutes into our trip from the airport, just as Michael Giannini was telling us how crazy the driving is, we witnessed two kids on motorcycles get PLOWED by an SUV. One kid actually ended up under the wheel of the vehicle before the SUV sped away. Nuts! This all happened about 15 feet away from my window on the van. Welcome to the DR!

After unloading at the hotel we headed poolside for BBQ, drinks, and cigars. Barry and the famous Benji Menendez were already there waiting for us. The rest of the night went on, drink after drink and cigar after cigar. We stayed up a little later than we probably should have considering we didn’t get to the hotel until about 10pm and had to be up around 6:30 am the next morning.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Day 2:

After enjoying breakfast, a new Cromagnon prototype (Thanks Skip, it was Delish!) and realizing that the humidity was actually causing the lenses on my camera to fog up, we headed to a Tax-Free work zone in central Santiago which housed the General Cigar facility as well as quite a few other factories (I can’t remember exactly which ones, and could be way off but I want to say Fuente, Quesada, and even Cigar Rings were part of this zone). Once at the factory we headed straight to the training room to get the inside scoop on the company and meet some of the key personnel behind the brand Jhonny Diaz, Edmundo Garcia, and Francisco Rodriguez. It was insane learning just how big this operation was. General cigar operations span 2,792,362 meters combined and houses over 2,125 employees in the Dominican Republic alone. Granted, the Honduran and Nicaraguan operations under the General brand are smaller, the sheer size of the company blew me away. One neat tidbit was the initiatives that General Cigar actually offers it’s employees. Outside of paying more than just about any other mass organized factory in Santiago, here are a few of the things General Cigar offers each of it’s employees:

Education

General Cigar believes that education is the key to a better future in the Dominican Republic and Honduras.  The company allocates hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to support programs that increase literacy among employees and residents of the D.R. and Honduras, while also providing scholarships for its employees and providing complete funding for schools in both countries.

General Cigar began its “Literacy Initiative” in 2004, and today, this program remains one of the company’s most unique corporate social responsibility endeavors. General Cigar underwrites the program, provides instructors and holds classes within its Dominican and Honduran facilities.  Under this campaign, company employees, as well as citizens who live in urban and rural areas surrounding the company’s farms and factories are taught to read and write based on curriculum mandated by the Dominican and Honduran governments.  Students who pass the course receive a diploma that is formally presented during an annual graduation ceremony, the most important event held by General Cigar in a given year.  To date, more than 600 Dominicans and Hondurans have advanced under this program.

General Cigar is also very proud of its “Continuing Education” program which continues to offer a range of professional development courses designed to provide employees with additional skills and training relevant to jobs within the company.  More than 4,000 employees have prospered under this program which boasts more than 50 unique areas of training, each developed in cooperation with technical education institutions in both countries.

Another component of the company’s commitment to education is General Cigar’s support of post-secondary education for its employees. In a given year, approximately 30 employees are able to attend college or pursue advanced technical training, directly due to financial assistance from the company.  As a result of this program, General Cigar currently employs more than 64 college graduates, with 16 of these employees holding master’s degrees. In fact, all of General Cigar’s upper and middle management employees hold college degrees. This investment continues to make General Cigar one of the Dominican Republic and Honduras’ most professionally and technically-advanced companies.

Under the “School Sponsorship” endeavor which was created in 1997, more than 2,500 students have benefitted from General Cigar’s support, which helps to broaden the scope of learning and ensure a better future for the children.  Through this initiative, General Cigar provides broad-based financial support to four economically-challenged Dominican schools. The company underwrites infrastructure costs, while also providing students with school supplies and sporting goods. General Cigar has also utilized this program to bring technology to remote urban areas by appointing the schools with modern computers.

Health/Well Being

General Cigar also dedicates considerable resources toward creating a better quality of life for its staff. Health insurance, dental exams and blood pressure screenings are available for employees of both countries. In addition, the company provides transportation, including new bicycles to employees and conducts intramural baseball and soccer leagues within their Dominican and Honduran facilities.

For those employees who need assistance in paying for home repairs, General Cigar has a dedicated fund which allows employees to secure no-interest financing for home improvement projects. Over the last 27 years, this program has dramatically improved the quality of life for many employees and their families.

Just as General Cigar is passionately committed to advancing tobacco cultivation, the company uses its vast resources to contribute to the health of the Dominican and Honduran people. General Cigar purchases citrus fruits, vegetables, dairy products, livestock and fish which are then sold at below wholesale prices to company employees. Providing nutritious and affordable food is another way that General Cigar contributes to the well-being of its employees.

General Cigar also maintains a “Natural Disaster” fund allowing the company to readily provide its employees and people in the Dominican Republic and Honduras with food, clean drinking water, necessities such as diapers and medical supplies as well as home repairs and shelter.

Reforestation/Environmental Protection

Protecting the environment and preventing pollution are two additional areas of focus for General Cigar’s corporate social responsibility programs. Perhaps the only cigar manufacturer to have its own reforestation program, General Cigar replenishes cedar and mahogany trees to replace those that are depleted in making their handsome cigar boxes. Each farm in the Dominican Republic and Honduras participates in the reforestation activities which are now part of the company’s standard agricultural operations.  To date, more than 35,000 trees have been replanted.

General Cigar is also pleased to have been recognized for being in compliance with “ISO 14001” standards which acknowledge the company’s commitment to conducting its business in the utmost environmentally-friendly manner.

In addition to its Dominican and Honduran charitable initiatives, General Cigar supports various charities in the United States, to benefit literacy initiatives, support members of the U.S. armed forces and their families, and provide funding for medical research and disease prevention.

With the recent addition of CAO to the General Cigar family, the company now has a dedicated cigar making facility in Nicaragua. They have already begun exploring the possibility of replicating and expanding their corporate social responsibility programs in that country.

The presentation alone blew me away. I guess I just never really took the time to step back and really think about what goes into the cigars we all love. After the presentation we took a really quick tour of the factory before arriving in a room where they stack, and separate stored tobacco. The room houses two huge tables, each containing about 15 different types of tobacco leafs, labeled, waiting for us. It was then that they told us that they were going to have us create our own blend! It was slightly daunting at first, but the more we played around with mixing tobacco, the more I realized that I had no idea what I was doing. Benji Menendez, Rick Rodriguez, and the guy who helped me Michael Giannini were all there to lend us a hand. Sampling each tobacco made it VERY easy to formulate a blend in my head, but every time we rolled them together we were hit with the realization just how hard blending is. I can personally say that my first 5 or 6 blends were absolutely terrible. Finally, crazy nicotine highs later, we left the room with what we all thought was the final blend of our cigars.

We kicked back and enjoyed a feast of a lunch at the training room before heading back out to tour the General Cigar Warehouse. Holy crap it was huge! I wasn’t expecting that much tobacco. Francisco made mention of having 50 year old tobacco stored there and a building total value of over millions of dollars worth of product each bunched, labeled, packed, and piled in these handmade mesh bags weighing hundreds of pounds each, and running anywhere between $2,000 to $9,000 a pop.

After the tour we headed out, had dinner and probably more drinks then we should have at an amazing Italian restaurant before heading back to the hotel room for another late night of drinks by the pool. I swear we were all running about 2 – 3 hours of sleep each night.

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Day 3:

After a quick breakfast and some calls to hotel rooms to wake up some of the guys, we packed back on the bus and headed to Licery El Medio, which was a suburb of Santiago. This area housed another factory ran by General Cigar. This factory only had about 400 employees and handled mainly the long filler portion of the operation. One interesting fact about this factory was that it was once owned by Capote before being taken over by General cigar. General could very easily move these operations into the main factory in Santiago, but due to the poverty and low income area of the location of the factory General Cigar decided to keep it where it was so that they didn’t have to displace any of the current employees who counted on that job as their only means of surviving.

This is where we met Don Quico. Don Quico is an agricultural engineer who is basically in charge of the tobacco from soil to factory storing. He spoke with us giving insight on just about every area in tobacco growing. I had no idea that it took a total of between 30 – 90 days total for the farming of each tobacco plant depending on the type of leaf, and the priming. Most priming happens about 20 days apart. Another interesting note that a few of us picked up on was when he mentioned that most of the flavor of the tobacco is located in the outer edges of the leaf. Also, Ligero always needs to be placed in the center of a cigar when it is being bunched to ensure proper burn. A few of use kept that in mind if we used ligero in any of our personal blends.

After a quick tour of the long filler factory we were taken another 20 minutes away from the city to take a tour of the actual farms where they raise the tobacco. The first leg of the tour showed a smaller section of the farm with large silos where they grow all the shade grown tobacco. The second leg took us through the sun grown facility. That facility houses a MASSIVE above-ground irrigation system. We got to see first hand the machine and man work that went into planting each of the seeds. As we headed further into the farm we came to a huge gazebo that overlooked the entire farm. This gazebo was something straight out of the movies. It had a bar, kitchen, restrooms, power generator, and even a large man made lake. I could spend an entire vacation here. We joined up for dinner and drinks here with General Cigar’s President Dan Carr.

We enjoyed a huge dinner here as well as way too many drinks once again. I was lucky enough to sit next to Stephen on the way back so I could see the train wreck of a night unfold.  We got back to the hotel to find the pool had been closed (probably due to our prior late nights). Victoria immediately jumped on the phone and within minutes had cases of beer, bottles of rum and scotch, as well as a full bar staff waiting for us. 2 bottles of Johnny Walker later Stephen stumbled to bed. Dan Reeve and Skip actually had a bet. Not as to IF he would throw up, but whether or not he would throw up in public or not. I spent most of that evening secretly sending tweets from Skip’s ipad, and listening to Dan Reeve, Ben Lee, and a drunken David Jones talk about how boring football is.

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Day 4:

The next morning I woke up from my 2 hours of sleep and stumbled to breakfast. Surprisingly there was only one person there before me. Any Guesses who it was? Stephen. After being asked why he was there early he went on to tell me how he couldn’t stand to sleep in his vomit ridden room any longer. Turns out he threw up at some point in his slumber and didn’t realize it till he woke up the next morning. Looks like Dan won that bet.

After breakfast we quickly made our way back to the factory. The realization of this being our last day at the factory had already started to set in with a few of us. But today was the day we learned how to bunch, roll, and package our own cigars. First was the bunching. I think all of us thought we were rock stars after that portion. It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t nearly as hard as we thought it was. Each of us were paired with our own personal helper who trained us how to bunch before setting us out on our own. It took us over an hour to bunch all 20 of our cigars. 10 would be brought home while 10 would be smoked by the General team who would then decide a winner.

After the bunching, we let our cigars sit in molds under the press while we took a quick ride over to the box manufacturing facility. I wasn’t expecting such a huge, expedited operation! Basically blank timber came in and boxes went out. They did everything there from cutting, sanding, painting, manufacturing, pressing, stamping, and glazing the boxes. It was insane. They were even making wooden ashtrays as we took our tour.

We then went back to the factory to try our hands at rolling. This was a humbling experience. I think it was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I don’t think very many of us got the hang of it. My cigars looked like they had been made by a 5 year old.

After we rolled our cigars, a few of us had lunch and then headed out to a museum and a few monuments to enjoy our final day in the DR before heading back to the hotel room for a little rest.

That evening we headed up to Camp David for a final farewell party.  Drinks and food! We basically digested the remainder of the trip before listening to a speech from Dan Carr. One of the questions on everyone’s mind was “why did they do this for us?”. He answered that question by basically letting us know three things. One, they appreciate us as a valid source of media (which is something I still don’t take seriously), that they wanted to show us what they were doing as a company, and that they wanted our serious thoughts on what they could do better. They also announced the winner of the best blend, and to our surprised it was Stephen. I don’t know how he did it, he was still half drunk while he was rolling his cigars. We spent the remainder of the night there. Before leaving, Bryan Glynn actually took these pictures of us. The first one was a 15 shot mash up of each of the bloggers, followed by a single shot of us along with the people who made the trip possible.

We headed back to the hotel for a few final drinks before heading to the airport for our journey’s home the next day.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Final Thoughts:

To sum up this trip, it was seriously one of the best, and most educational experiences I ever had. General Cigar really went out of their way to make us feel us feel welcomed, and part of the team. They taught us not only about their day to day operations and what they offer as a company, but how tobacco is grown, harvested, stored, aged, rolled, packaged and consumed. I had no idea the process was so immense and General Cigar has a really efficient way to accomplish it.  Victoria McKee was the star of the show. She really did so much for us every step of the way and my sincerest thanks goes out to her. Did it change the way I perceived the company? Greatly. When most people think General cigar they think of this huge money making machine, which isn’t really the case. They give back more than anyone else in the Santiago area. Did it change the way I thought about cigars. Totally. I can now see the amount of work that goes into each one. Did it change the way I feel about General’s cigars? Not at all. I knew they were quality product, and although they don’t come out with many blends that suit my profile, they have always been a huge hit with other cigar smokers.

Again, if you want to see all the pictures click this link: Dominican Republic Trip 2011

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