podman28
Podman Cigar Company
It is the end of our last night in Esteli and all are off to bed except me. I am sitting here at the source with a Dirty Rat looking back at what was an over the top experience. Many, many thanks goes to above all JD and his crew also Jorge Padron, Pete Johnson, Jose "Don Pepin" Garcia, and the guys over at Joya de Nicaragua.
I think back from the first day that you guys got to read about. The second day was a full blown My Father experience with Pete and Don Pepin. Our bus getting stuck in the mud in the fields and watching JD organize a group of workers to push us out was a great sideshow and sure to show up on Youtube.
The Joya de Nicaragua tour was another experience of a traditional, historical cigar factory. The special part came when they were experimenting with a new blend of Antano. JD took one off a rolling table and lit it up. It lit his eyes and told each of us to grab one and smoke it. It was a very tasty cigar and they had a few bundles made up to bring to us back at Drew Estate.
Many great cigars were passed around that day with the over the top part coming with Pete and Pepin coming for dinner with us and Pete handing out some Verite 2009. After dinner we heading to the Cigarzone club for a night of fun with JD, Pete and Jorge Padron meeting us there with a bundle of 1926 #6 Maduro in tow. We made a few new friends that night and ended up much too late.
The last tour day of the trip started with some groggy eyes but we rebounded for the most part. A trip to the Padron factory has that effect on people. The night before Jorge told me he had a surprise in store for us. When we got there he was there to greet us with a smile and some jokes about the night before. He then presented us with a special 5 pack of BOTL Family Reserve 46 maduro. The cigar is a Family Reserve 46 with one of the ligeros changed. It was a very generous gesture that we were humbled by. The tour was informative, fun and gave us a new found respect for a brand that we had already loved.
The second part of the tour was finally the massive 98,000 sq. foot Drew Estate factory. Before lunch we ran though the basics of the factory with packaging, sorting, cooling and such. Things got really interesting in the afternoon with production. We walked into the salon and to a man were taken aback some by the sheer volume of rolling going on. JD took us to the Liga production area. The stations were labeled with the vitolas each pair was making that day which is very unusual. They showed us a twist in rolling technique that they use which makes for a superb draw. Then came even more fun. JD led us to another table where low and behold they were rolling a few Liga Privada Flying Pig #9's for us! It was extrordinarily interesting to see the technique and here more about how they do things.
Things moved along and we ended up in the conference room for a blending session. Tobaccos and descriptions were layed out for us to come up with our own blend and create our own cigar. To add a little spice to that the guys from JdN came over to observe what we were doing but beyond that they brought a few bundles of cigars with us. The bundles were labeled "My Uzi Weighs a Ton" and "The Punk". The Uzi and Punk were vitolas of the Antano with 2 different binders. One was Connecticut and the other Dark Corojo. We were each given a couple to bring home to sample and report back.
The evening brought dinner with Pete Johnson and then some relaxation, cigars and conversation. My surprise came when a bundle of 25 lanceros I had blended 9 months earlier showed up. I was able to offer everyone an after dinner cigar to see how 9 months changed the blend which I was happy with and everyone else seemed to enjoy. Later that evening each guy received a 10 pack of cigars that they had created in their blending session along with a very cool Cigar Safari T-shirt that we saw being created before in Subculture Studios.
Tomorrow morning we will have some breakfast and the food has been outstanding. Then we will check out a bit of Drew Estate pre-industry before heading to the airport. Pete Johnson will be riding with us because he is on the same flight. I am sure it will be the finally to what was a truely over-the-top experience for us all. Again I can't give enough thanks for the hospitality granted to us and I can't wait to return to Esteli. Again we are collecting pictures and limited bandwith makes uploading now difficult but I am sure you will see some here and on Facebook soon.
I think back from the first day that you guys got to read about. The second day was a full blown My Father experience with Pete and Don Pepin. Our bus getting stuck in the mud in the fields and watching JD organize a group of workers to push us out was a great sideshow and sure to show up on Youtube.
The Joya de Nicaragua tour was another experience of a traditional, historical cigar factory. The special part came when they were experimenting with a new blend of Antano. JD took one off a rolling table and lit it up. It lit his eyes and told each of us to grab one and smoke it. It was a very tasty cigar and they had a few bundles made up to bring to us back at Drew Estate.
Many great cigars were passed around that day with the over the top part coming with Pete and Pepin coming for dinner with us and Pete handing out some Verite 2009. After dinner we heading to the Cigarzone club for a night of fun with JD, Pete and Jorge Padron meeting us there with a bundle of 1926 #6 Maduro in tow. We made a few new friends that night and ended up much too late.
The last tour day of the trip started with some groggy eyes but we rebounded for the most part. A trip to the Padron factory has that effect on people. The night before Jorge told me he had a surprise in store for us. When we got there he was there to greet us with a smile and some jokes about the night before. He then presented us with a special 5 pack of BOTL Family Reserve 46 maduro. The cigar is a Family Reserve 46 with one of the ligeros changed. It was a very generous gesture that we were humbled by. The tour was informative, fun and gave us a new found respect for a brand that we had already loved.
The second part of the tour was finally the massive 98,000 sq. foot Drew Estate factory. Before lunch we ran though the basics of the factory with packaging, sorting, cooling and such. Things got really interesting in the afternoon with production. We walked into the salon and to a man were taken aback some by the sheer volume of rolling going on. JD took us to the Liga production area. The stations were labeled with the vitolas each pair was making that day which is very unusual. They showed us a twist in rolling technique that they use which makes for a superb draw. Then came even more fun. JD led us to another table where low and behold they were rolling a few Liga Privada Flying Pig #9's for us! It was extrordinarily interesting to see the technique and here more about how they do things.
Things moved along and we ended up in the conference room for a blending session. Tobaccos and descriptions were layed out for us to come up with our own blend and create our own cigar. To add a little spice to that the guys from JdN came over to observe what we were doing but beyond that they brought a few bundles of cigars with us. The bundles were labeled "My Uzi Weighs a Ton" and "The Punk". The Uzi and Punk were vitolas of the Antano with 2 different binders. One was Connecticut and the other Dark Corojo. We were each given a couple to bring home to sample and report back.
The evening brought dinner with Pete Johnson and then some relaxation, cigars and conversation. My surprise came when a bundle of 25 lanceros I had blended 9 months earlier showed up. I was able to offer everyone an after dinner cigar to see how 9 months changed the blend which I was happy with and everyone else seemed to enjoy. Later that evening each guy received a 10 pack of cigars that they had created in their blending session along with a very cool Cigar Safari T-shirt that we saw being created before in Subculture Studios.
Tomorrow morning we will have some breakfast and the food has been outstanding. Then we will check out a bit of Drew Estate pre-industry before heading to the airport. Pete Johnson will be riding with us because he is on the same flight. I am sure it will be the finally to what was a truely over-the-top experience for us all. Again I can't give enough thanks for the hospitality granted to us and I can't wait to return to Esteli. Again we are collecting pictures and limited bandwith makes uploading now difficult but I am sure you will see some here and on Facebook soon.
