Farm to Factory with Rocky Patel

After Las Villas and Rocky Patel, my next cigar factory visit was Plasencia. I was delighted. I had only learned of Plasencia the previous year when I was working in Antigua, Guatemala. The proprietors of the best lounge in Antigua (Antigua Cigars) told me the story of the Plasencia family and introduced me to their cigars. They have been in regular rotation for me ever since.

The Plasencia family started out in the industry in the mid 1800s as tobacco farmers in Cuba after the Plasencia patriarch immigrated there from the Canary Islands. They left during he revolution in the early 1960s and moved their operation to Nicaragua.  In the 1970s the turbulence in Nicaragua caused them to move to Honduras where they started making cigars for other brands.  In the 1990s they returned to Nicaragua and became one the of the most famous and prolific growers and producers (still for other grands) of the cigars outside of Cuba. In 2017, the family decided to start producing cigars under their own name and the Plasencia brand of cigars was born. They are excellent cigars, the Alma Fuerte being my favourite.

I love how they have been in the business for generations and how they have innovated to grow certified organic tobacco and developed way to grow the crops with less water. They are committed to environmental practices. I should say here that no was is paying or asking me to write this. I’m just a fan.

So I was delighted when I was invited to tour the Plasencia factory in Estelí.

I walked to the factory from my hotel. Long and hot, but manageable. I didn’t want to deal with taxis.

I entered the impressive yellow building and was met with my host.

He took me on a tour of the factory. I won’t go through the steps involved or how this experience enlivened my already deep-rooted passion for cigars, as I have done that in the Las Villas and Rocky Patel posts. I was walked through the same, incredible process of cigar fermentation, rolling, aging, testing, and finishing. All by hand, as it has been done for centuries.

The family’s history is told in a series of photos and the story displayed on a wall after entering the building.

A few things surprised me about Plasencia. It isn’t just a company where these people work; they pride themselves on being a responsible employer.  (Take note, corporations.) They pay a good wage, they provide health care onsite, they provide free pre-school for the children of workers, they grow food and use it to supply meals to their workers…it was apparent that this is a company that cares.  I usually cringe when I hear an employer calling its workplace a family, but there was a true sense of that here. The walls were lined with quotes from writers and thinkers like Emerson and there were displays about the Plasencia baseball team and about the importance of mental health. It was impressive, and not what I expected. They even make a point of employing blind people in certain jobs where the task can be done by touch. I came in as a fan of the cigars and left as a fan of that and their corporate culture.

The tour ended in their onsite cigar lounge / café / bar, where I had a coffee and cigars and continued to chat with my host.

I left, with a nice gift bag, and my host insisted on driving my back to my hotel. (He thought it was crazy I had walked.) When he turned on his truck, 1980s Madonna blasted from the speakers. “The radio?” I asked curiously. “No. It is a CD,” he replied and said how much he liked Madonna. Full of surprises, down to the final moments.

These three cigar factory visits were incredible. I felt even more zealous about this thing that I love and that has, truly, shaped so much of my life. It was also a reminder of the kindness and generosity of cigar people and how, despite being strangers, we connect over this shared passion.

What a great way to end my week in Estelí. The next day I would leave Estelí for Granada.

In was in Estelí, Nicaragua remote working for a week and, as it is the cigar production centre of Nicaragua, I had reached out (with the help of a Spanish speaking colleague) to some factories to arrange tours to Las Villas, Rocky Patel, and Plasencia. This led to one of the more unique and personal experiences I have had, combining two of my passions: travel and cigars.

The first of the factories that I visited in Estelí was Las Villas. This wasn’t a factory or brand that I was familiar with, but they were the first to extend an invitation so happily accepted.

I walked there from my hotel. It took a little less than half an hour but the heat made it feel longer. Along the walk I passed other buildings that had cigar logos on the outside. These were not ones that I was familiar with and appeared to be small operations. Occasionally I walked past a building that had no signage outside whatsoever but I could hear voices and smell tobacco through the cracks in the windows. I don’t mean that I could smell smoke from tobacco I meant that I could smell raw tobacco, and it was apparent to me that these were also small rolling operations. There are entire streets in Estelí that smell like tobacco, or like heaven depending on your perspective.

I walked down some unpaved back roads in a residential neighbourhood and passed a couple of donkeys when I found my destination. Behind the security gate was a small, new-looking building containing the cigar factory.

I was met by a fellow who gave me a tour of the factory, I think because his English was the best of the people on staff. And I feel like a jerk because I wrote down the names of the people that I met but I lost the paper and so I don’t remember his name, but this was him and me in the picture enjoying a cigar.

He took me through the Las Villas where people were fermenting tobacco, rolling cigars, bundling and aging them. This glimpse into cigar production was truly fascinating. I had visited factories previously in Miami and Cuba, but it was still thrilling to see. Something about cigars that not many people realize unless you know cigars is how many steps it takes to make a cigar from when you plant the seed to when you box them up. They go through a long and intricate process of growing, harvesting, aging, fermenting, sorting, rolling, testing, aging some more, banding, and boxing. It is said that a cigar passes through 200 hands on its way to being ready to smoke. It’s one of those rare items that still, today, is made entirely by hand. I find it kind of moving to see all of these people handcrafting this thing that I enjoy so much. I don’t think I take it for granted, but it is very special to see first hand all of the effort that goes into a cigar.

My guide showed me around the factory and took me into the rooms where they were aging tobacco. He gave me a cigar to sample which was excellent (and thankfully it was excellent, because I had never had these cigars before and it would have been an awkward experience if the cigars were bad).

After the tour I was taken into the office of the owner of the company and his brother. Guillermo Pena Jr. Is the owner of Las Villas and of course I forget his brother’s name because I lost the little piece of paper where I wrote it down. The brother didn’t speak English, but Guillermo did. He told me the story of how he and his brother grew up in Cuba and worked as cigar rollers there before escaping to Miami in the early 2000s. They started working initially at cigar factories in Miami before going out on their own to create their own cigars. They eventually created a factory in Estelí, Nicaragua and started rolling cigars for other brands as well as creating their own. They started with eight rollers and today they have over 200. While I was there, I tried a Las Villas cigar called By The Book, which came in a cigar box that looked like a book. It was excellent. Full bodied, leathery, earthy, with a hint of natural sweetness, and a perfect construction in an oily wrapper. It was a truly amazing experience to be sitting in this office on the leather sofa in the middle of a cigar factory in the middle of Nicaragua talking about cigars with these men. bonded over our mutual passion.

I left feeling elated. It was such a unique experience – but it was only the first of three.

The next day I would visit Rocky Patel and tour both the farm and factory.