Samir & Rotors in confab
Drew Estate gets down with the brand image.
Dirty Rat...... Get it.
But they do make a fine cigar from fine tobacco
On this last day of touring, we were headed to Drew Estate, the punk-rock bad boys of the cigars world. That is the image that is portrayed by almost all of the Drew Estate products. So it was up for modern cube Hotel Hex breakfast, a forgettable meal as always. At least the juego frescas are always great. And, as always, Samir and our renowned former pilot were camped on the curb, deep in confab.
Drew is the story of small business guys from Brooklyn with a struggling cigar company, trying to stay afloat. They hit upon the idea of "infused cigars" with names like Acid and Blondie. Here's a tip, if you call their cigars "flavoured," the Drew guys will run around waving their hands in the air and shrieking. Its fun.
In their defense, Drew also produces a fine line of what they call traditional cigars. This means not flavoured. (Aieee! Aieee!!). With colourful names like Dirty Rat and Feral Pig, they are still sort of silly, but they are damn good smokes.
The factory is huge, modern and slick. It is decorated in a neo-colonial style which is a bizarre contrast to the carefully crafted rattle-can murals. Again, it's all image. The flavoured cigars that Drew produces are some of the top selling cigars in the USA. The company doesn't give two hoots what a bunch of purists think. The telling fact was this: at the cigar buffet, they literally could not give away the flavoured sticks, while the traditional puros were snatched up like Coach bags on a suburban clearance rack.
The Drew Estate tour is a lesson in talking points and branding. Even the careful choice in tour leaders was telling. Our guy Pedro (he would say Main Man) was a slick talking Nicaraguan guy, young and brash, who used just enough profanity to make us all feel a little more streetwise. One of the Drew gang, you here what I'm saying? One the plus side, the factory is immense and interesting. The buncheros and rolleras were friendly. In a nod towards modern times, this was the only factory where I saw forklifts and pallet jacks.
Our merry group had been to different factories, farms and shops. This was not the case with the Drew Estate Cigar Safari group that we were paired with. Drew brings groups down from the USA, usually in conjunction with a particular cigar shop. The tour is given access only to Drew facilities and they stay at the Drew compound attached to the factory. Our two groups did not mix all that well, although everything was civil. I guess we weren't bad-boy enough, which is hysterical because the average age of these cats was probably 55 or so and they were from Oklahoma. I suspect that their first use for a rattle can would be touching up the paint on the lawn mower, not tagging a wall. Banksey they ain't. OK, enough cattiness. Well, one more: think "Indoctrination."
Regardless of motivation, everything at the Drew Compound was top notch and they were very generous with the cigar buffet. We shared lunch with the Safari boys and continued on the tour. I could have spent the rest of the day on the compound's terrace overlooking the Esteli hills and the river below.
At two PM we were rescued from the Drew tour, heading for the bus which would whisk us to the Padron factory, hallowed ground. And then...... poor Colin had to tell us that Padron had fallen through again. Last day, last chance, it just wasn't in the cards. I had watched Collin making dogged effort on the phone most of the week, and not without some stress. It was made more difficult, I'm sure, by our stories of how the Padron visit had been the spark that lit the conflagration of our tour.
Resilient, Colin managed to adapt, improvise and overcome. Some quick calls later and we were on our way to visit the small, exclusive, and very traditional Rocky Patel "factory." Tucked in a shoebox of a building in the center of Esteli, the traditional methods of cigar rolling are alive and well here. Highly rated puros are bunched on flat rolling plates as opposed to the hand cranked machines used in other factories. The rolleras finish the cigar with a triple cap, a time-honoured Cuban method. This unadorned gem of a facility was a look back into the past.
For me, the point-counterpoint of the Drew factory and the Rocky Patel factory was illuminating. I think the Padron tour, had it happened, would have had the same effect. While change is inevitable and traditions exist to be rebelled against, corporately cultivated rebellion is just another form of bait in the trap of consumerism. The quiet quality of a finely crafted product, without need of flash, is a reassurance to me. Sure, Rocky wants me to buy his cigars, fair enough, but the sticks don't come packaged with a pseudo lifestyle image, thank Dog.
As an aside, Rocky was at the Hex when we checked in, greeting our group, shaking hands, etc. We all recognized him of course, with the exception of our Doc. He thought Mr. Patel was a hotel employee fishing for a tip, so the Doc just sidled on by.
After a pit-stop at the Hex, it as back to the House That Drew Built for a tour of the art studio and then the rock star treatment in the compound. Don't misunderstand me, I dug the rock star deal. Drinks, a cigar buffet, a beautiful terrace and people chatting you up. It's just, well, a little out of my comfort zone. That aside, dinner was great, sans vege, and I was fortunate to win a "longest ash" contest. Smoke a cigar, don't drop the ash, longest one wins. Simple, no? For my troubles I was rewarded with a very special box of five puros from Colin's private humidor, an honour indeed.
The evening waned and so did we. Cribbage was played, houses designed, and laughter shared. The groups had drifted into their respective orbits, so everything felt normal again. It was a fine evening.
Back at the Hex, there was one more game of cribbage on the terrace, the. Yawns and goodnights. Our time done, the next morning would be packing for Managua and the flight home.
I want to extend my profound thanks to Colin and Andrea of Cigar Tourism for all of their hard work, and also to our great driver, Samir. I also want to remind Colin that Cuba is waiting and we are ready!!!!!!
Tomorrow: Managua and travel silliness. More blog posts to come ( sorry )
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