The Cigar Kingdom

Which country makes the best cigars in the world? Many would say Cuba but those who have tasted both Cuban and Nicaraguan cigars might have a different opinion. Far in the northern highlands of Nicaragua, a small town with the name Esteli is known as one of the cigar capitals of the world. It is home to many cigar factories.

Drew Estate Cigars : The Rebirth of Cigars factory is the biggest cigar factory in Esteli. It was founded by two guys from Brooklyn, New York back in 1998. When Drew Estate first began, only 6 people used to work here. Now the factory employs 2300 people and produces 94,000 handmade cigars a day.

Drew Estate import tobacco from 40 different countries. Unlike other factories, they buy whole crops instead of a selected portion or quality of them. At one time, there are 14,000 bales of tobacco stocked in the factory, enough to make cigars for four years in case a natural disaster destroys the tobacco crops.

Light coloured tobacco is used to make cigarettes while dark coloured tobacco is used to make cigars. The darker the tobacco, the more nicotine in it. The strongest tasting cigars are made of darker leaves. The colder Nicaraguan climate is only suitable for growing darker leaves.

The finished cigars are bundled into sets of 25 and are sent for quality control. Each bundle has a bar code to identify the employees and their supervisors that were involved in the making of the packaged cigars.

The finished cigars are stored in shelves in controlled temperature and humidity to age. The ageing process allows the cigars to lose excess moisture, become firmer and burn slower. Ideal storage conditions for a cigar are 70% humidity and 21°C temperature. If kept outside these conditions for a long time, the cigars would become drier or damp and despite moisturising or de-moisturising will never taste as good as they were when they came out of factory.

At one time, Drew Estate has about 2.2 million cigars in their storage room.The premium quality cigars are packaged in wooden boxes together with tobacco leaves which can be smoked using a pipe.