Jose Blanco, Joya de Nicaragua & Drew Estate :
First of all, let me begin by saying Happy Labor Day to everybody. I am here at Miami beach with my parents, plus my wife and her family - a perfect time to disappear in the madness and check whats crackin on BOTL.
Over the last week or so, I have been communicating with Jose Blanco, who is now in the process of moving to Nicaragua, either Esteli, Managua or both. It is still so odd to me that he is actually part of the JDN/DE Team - but pinch myself JD - yup, its true ...
How could it be that this Punk Team of Dreamers, Drew Estate, could have brought on so many special & talented people over the last thirteen years ? In 1998, they called us the Romper Room, Newjacks, and even idiots - but we just kept moving along with our vision "The Rebirth of Cigars." From the beginning, (after the move to Nica in 1998), I remember staying up many nights to write the DE Website, and one of the concepts most important to Marvin and I was a concept that I have seen transform from our web text to a cult phenomenon : "Combining the Time Honored Tradition of Cigar Manufacturing with the New Era of Cigar Manufacturing" (Sorry, forgot the exact text) ... Who would have known what the future held for us, or even that there would be a future.
Bottom line, many of the special people that have joined our mission are people that many of you will never meet because they live in Nicaragua. Some of you have ventured to Nica for Cigar Safari and have met Jessi, Rubio, Jessenia, Louis, Pedro, Nicholas and others. And as Saka said in his post a bit earlier, we are extremely jazzed with the recent addition of Jose to the JDN/DE Team. Its gonna be cool indeed, and will certainly add to the excitement of what Saka, Nicholas Melillo, Willy Hererra, and the guys are doing in the premium segment.
We are truly blessed & understand the immense responsibility to maintain consistency and quality, and not take the short money.
Best,
JD
