A most unusual producer in the world of premium cigars continues to make waves in Nicaragua and on store shelves.
Counter-culture cigar maker Drew Estate turns 15 years old this year and that in and of itself is a remarkable achievement. The company was started by a couple of New Yorkers, Jonathan Drew and Marvin Samel. With no background in tobacco and with only borrowed money along the way, the company has grown from a small pushcart to one of the largest cigar factories in the world. With the addition of Steve Saka five years ago as president, Drew Estate embarked on its biggest jump yet, moving from 10 buildings spread around Estelí, Nicaragua into its current state-of-the art 96,000-square foot home. Once known soley for its aromatically-infused ACID and globally-blended natural cigar lines, Drew Estate has forged a credible reputation with more traditional products like Tabak Especial coffee-infused, Chateau Real, and its world-class, connoiseur-grade Liga Privada. Frank Seltzer caught up with Saka upon his return from Nicaragua.
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SMOKE: When we last sat down in June 2007, you were getting ready to move into your new factory. How has it turned out?
La Gran Fabrica Drew Estate sits atop a bluff overlooking prime tobacco growing fields in the Estelí Valley in Nicaragua.
SAKA: Fantastic. We have been able to nearly triple both our workforce and the production of our handmade cigars while being more efficient and increasing the quality of all our products.
Another major plus is how beautiful the factory is. It really blows people away. We invested a lot of thought into the operational design so that it was an effective place to make cigars. But Jonathan wanted it to be aesthetically pleasing as well. It was built on colonial Grenada architecture with all the artwork done onsite by our own artists. It is a very bright, clean, and open facility. Most factories would not spend any money on the things that we did. If you take pride in your environment, you will take pride in your work. It starts from the top. Since moving in, we've launched two of the best cigars we've ever made - the Tabak Especial and Liga Privada. We also assumed exclusive U.S. distribution of the legendary Joya de Nicaragua brand which is made just down the road in Estelí, and we've introduced the first truly new, innovative product - ACID Tips - into the mass market segment after decades of the same ol' stuff from the same ol' companies. The new factory also allowed us to bring consumers in for our Cigar Safaris.
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SMOKE: Explain about the Cigar Safaris.
SAKA: When we built the factory, Jonathan, Marvin, and I needed a place to stay when we are in Estelí. We had been using the hotel, which was fine, but since we had the land, why not make a place for us to stay? Once we started building, Jonathan had this idea of putting casitas in the back as well so we could bring down both retailers and consumers. Near the end of 2008, the casitas were finished. Most are double accommodations with a shared bath but every room has its own heat and air conditioning, television, and phone. There is a fully decked-out cigar lounge with big screen TVs, a poker table, and a bar, plus we have a great pool area for people to relax. Last year we began the Cigar Safari, which is a four-day and three-night adventure. We pick visitors up in Managua and take them to Granada - one of the oldest cities in Nicaragua and right on the shore of Lake Nicaragua. It is a beautiful Spanish colonial town, which dates back to the 1500s. You spend the night there, then come up to Estelí and visit our factory and the Joya de Nicaragua factory. We show them the whole process of making cigars. If there is tobacco in the fields when they are here, we take a trip out to the fields as well. The reaction from those who have made the trip has been terrific.
SMOKE: Earlier you mentioned the Liga Privada. The No. 9 was your own pet project and its name basically came from the 9th blend you smoked and realized it had potential. Now you have expanded the Liga line with the T-52, which uses stalk-cut tobacco. What's the history of this project?
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SAKA: Actually the stalk cutting is just the beginning - it is the stalk curing part that makes this cigar exceptional. This is a very old, traditional method of curing tobacco that almost no one does because it significantly reduces the yield and is therefore very expensive. Jonathan, Nicholas Melillo - our director of tobacco and production - and I were up in Connecticut looking at broadleaf tobacco for the Liga No. 9 and saw these stalks curing in the barn. The farmer was teaching his son this old technique on about 3,000 pounds of sungrown Habano seed wrapper and we liked what we saw.
What they do is begin by cutting the entire stalk from the field rather than harvesting the leaf in primings. In the stalk curing process, instead of the leaves being tied into a 50-leaf gavilla, hung in the barn, and then cured, this entire stalk is speared at the base, hung upside down and allowed to cure entirely on the stalk. By curing the leaves on the stalk, the process takes almost twice as long as picked leaves because the stalk serves as a life support system for the leaves. Rather than just sucking the nutrients and oils from their own stems, the leaves now live off all of those same components, but much more highly concentrated in their stalks. The result is leaves that are extra intense in flavor and rich in oils.
The downside is the farmer ends up with far less sellable weight, which required twice as long to cure and the manufacturer ends up with far less usable capa leaves as many are unsuitable for use as wrapper. But the select leaves that are usable are freaking amazing in flavor, richness, and texture due to this stalk cut and cure process. We decided that we were willing to pay more to the farmer for the much lower yield and his extra labor, because those select leaves in our opinion are worth their price for the smoking experience they can deliver. Because the leaves are so fat and greasy, not only do we have to pay a huge premium, but they also require significantly more time to ferment, again resulting in a higher cost. Many industry insiders will tell you we are crazy… won't be the first time, nor the last.
As for the "T52" part, the Connecticut River Valley Tobacco Experimental Station is responsible for maintaining and classifying all the past and present locally grown seed stocks. This particular seed variety, which originates from the late 1800s, is designated as "Type 52," and serves as the inspiration for the name.
SMOKE: Last year, the federal government imposed the SCHIP tax on cigars then followed with FDA regulations. How have they affected business?
SAKA: The impact has been, and will continue to be, tremendous and we are deeply concerned about what additional senseless government intervention may result. We have spent the last two years in constant combat with taxes and regulation, both proposed and enacted. It has become apparent to me our government is woefully ignorant of our industry and the havoc they bring upon small businesses like the retailers of, and producers of, premium cigars like ourselves.
The worst part is most of what they do is horrifically counter-productive to their own stated goals. Preventing youths from smoking? Premium cigars have nothing to do with kids… we are the absolute best industry in the tobacco business at preventing the purchase of our products by youths. We have no collective interest in young people smoking handmade cigars, they simply cannot afford it and therefore, no one in our industry wants them as customers. Collect additional revenues? These local and state governments keep passing these ridiculously punitive taxes that forces business out of their own backyard to elsewhere and result in even less revenues for themselves. It is total lunacy!
For example, New York City recently passed such a restrictive tobacco ban that it will even prevent the sale of pipe tobacco! Can you imagine? At the same time this is the very same place that passes out free needles for heroin addicts and brochures on how to use them. I am telling you, we are quickly become a country governed by the intellectually inept and morally bankrupt.
SMOKE: What about the ban on flavored cigars - will that affect ACID?
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SAKA: No. From its very inception, ACID has never been described or sold by us as a "flavored" cigar; we always knew it was unique. All of the proposed bans are not actually banning flavored tobacco products, but restricting the sale of those with a "characterizing" flavor. I understand the meaning of this term to be whether a consumer of the product can readily identify and distinguish the non-tobacco flavor he or she is smoking, for example chocolate or cherry could be considered characterizing. Some others are extending this to include any products that might be labeled as grape, banana, etc. There is still a lot to sort out on this issue, both legally and practically, but in speaking with lawmakers, industry experts, and a myriad of others, it has become very clear to me that ACID will not be impacted. As we have always said, ACID is a unique smoking experience, not a flavored one.
SMOKE: You recently began shipping the new Joya de Nicaragua Antaño Dark Corona. Is it the strongest cigar of the line?
SAKA: Joya de Nicaragua's Antaño 1970 was the first truly, ultra-strong cigar in the marketplace - it sparked the revolution that has since been followed by cigars like La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero, Ashton VSG, Pepin's My Father, and so on. Before the Antaño 1970, the conventional wisdom among those in our industry was that no consumer wanted such a spicy, strong smoke. The quality and power of the Joya de Nicaragua Antaño 1970 has managed to sustain its popularity for ten straight years. That says a lot about just how good a cigar it truly is, particularly in today's market.
Most manufacturers would have capitalized on its wild success with a million spin-offs within the first two years, but that is not who Joya de Nicaragua is as a company or Dr. Alejandro Martinez Cuenca is as their master maker. They instead have spent years working on the next Antaño and like its predecessor, the Antaño Dark Corojo, will prove to be another groundbreaking, traditional blend with no current peers. The "ADC" is one of the most powerful cigars ever blended, but it is wonderfully creamy and smooth at the very same time. It is devoid of any bite whatsoever, yet at its core it is a powerhouse, blockbuster of a smoke. I personally have never experienced any cigar like it, one so smooth, yet so strong - it is a total contradiction of everything most expect from such a robust cigar. Many people will even declare it isn't strong because of it creaminess, but I am sure all will have changed their minds by the time they nub their first El Martillo. I am talking heavy, dense, and delicious.
Despite their near fairy-tale rise in the world of cigars, Drew Estate founders Jonathan Drew (top) and Marvin Samel (above) have never lost sight of their original vision and desire to maintain an edge.
SMOKE: The "Flying Pig" is another new cigar. What makes it so different and why is it so limited?
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SAKA: The "Flying Pig" is one of those cigars I have always wanted to make. I originally saw the odd, short, super-fat perfecto shape and name in a cigar salesman's sampler catalog from 1895. It is the No. 9 blend, but with additional viso and ligero added to fill its ample girth, making it a real flavor bomb. It is limited due to how difficult it is to make this peculiar shape draw properly; a typical day's production is just 125 cigars per pair [of rollers]. I knew the cigar was great and different, but even I am blown away by its runaway success with cigar smokers.
SMOKE: The Dirty Rat is another cigar people are talking about. Do you have plans to release it?
SAKA: The "Dirty Rat" is a very spicy, strong 5 x 44 fat corona with a twisted head. This cigar resulted from a failed attempt to recreate the Liga Privada No. 9 blend in a corona size. Due to their narrow girth, coronas typically only have two filler tobaccos in their recipe and sometimes just a tear of a third leaf, so trying to squeeze a five-filler recipe into a corona is nearly impossible. We started by using scissors to paper doll the tobacco to get the proportions correct, but it is very difficult to bunch such small pieces of leaf long filler. We eventually got the bunch and blend correct, but ultimately the Liga Privada No. 9 blend in this corona size was unsatisfactory flavor-wise. The higher combustion temperature robbed it of its complexities, so the project was abandoned.
Nicholas Melillo created the "Dirty Rat" blend using the five-fillers-in-a-corona techniques he developed on his own and it was simply delicious. We have been making them since early 2009 in small batches for own consumption and to share with friends. We have been discussing the possibility of releasing this product into the marketplace, the problem is it costs so much to make this corona due to the difficulty of the bunch.
SMOKE: So what do you see ahead for Drew Estate? New ACID? New Liga? New Joyas?
SAKA: Relentless evolution, confusion, and originality with our inherent authenticity hallmarking everything we create and do. New ACID? Yes. New Liga? Yes. New Joyas? Yes. But none of it for the sake of being new - only when it is time, when it is right, when we can offer the smoker something different. Our goal has never been to sell the most cigars, but to always share a cigar experience unparalleled by any other. Enditem
