
Some of the finest handmade cigars in the world are made in Central America. Many cigar makers fled Cuba during the revolution and re-started their businesses here. The little town of Esteli Nicaragua is now home to many of them.
The intense smell in there will make your eyes bleed.
While I’m no Cigar Afficianado, I do enjoy a relaxing smoke once in a while. Lazily rolling the tasty tobacco vapor around in my pallet, then slowly blowing it back out again is quite an enjoyable experience.
So I decided to visit the Tabacalera Santiago cigar factory, owned by Francisco Santiago F. Perez (a Cuban), to watch the whole process from start to finish.

Tobacco Fermentation Stinks
After I ignorantly pay a taxi to drive me just 4 blocks down the road :???: we arrive at the factory gates. Turns out you get a free tour guide to show you around, provided you buy a few cigars at the end. Sounds good to me!
First we visit the room where they make the cedar boxes that store the final products. It’s just 3 or 4 guys standing around a single band-saw. Not too impressive.
Next, it’s time to check out the fermentation shed. This is where the Nicaraguan tobacco leaves (grown with Cuban seeds) are stored in a heat & humidity controlled room for about a year, undergoing chemical changes. This is how the aroma and taste of the leaf develops.
The fermentation room is not for pussies. The intense smell in there will make your eyes bleed. It’s not an enticing, fine-cigar type aroma, but more like a “I just dumped a bottle of ammonia on your face” kinda thing.
Spending 15 minutes in the shed was tough enough, I have no idea how local workers spend every day in there!

Women Do the Stripping
Once the tobacco has fermented for 1 year, it is washed & left to dry on racks. After the drying process, the leaves are ready to be sorted again. Some leaves will be used as wrappers, some as binders, others as filler.
Filler is stuff in the middle of the cigar, binders hold the filler together, and the wrapper is the fancy outer layer.
When we entered the next building, I was surprised to find it full of strippers!
You could tell they were pros…
A team of women was hard at work, stripping out the main-vein from the tobacco leaves. This is done so the filler tobacco will burn continuously inside the cigar.

Shaping the Cigar
The stripped & sorted tobacco leaves then make their way to the professional rollers. These men and women are real artists, it takes at least a year of training to become proficient.
Each roller has their own work table with a metal rolling surface, crescent-shaped knife called a chaveta, and a container of vegetable-based glue.
They start by gathering filler leaves and rolling them up in a loose cigar shape, with a binder leaf holding the bundle together. This is then placed in a wooden mold, which will get pressed to help form the proper cigar shape & density.

Wrapping Up a Bundle of Joy
The cigars are now ready to be wrapped with, you guessed it, the wrapper! After cutting away any loose tobacco with the chaveta, the roller carefully lays out the fancy, darker colored tobacco leaves, and cuts them to size.
A little vegetable paste is applied, then as fast as you can blink, the skilled worker rolls the wrapper around the cigar. Finally, a small piece of wrapper-leaf is cut into a little circle, then glued to the tip to finish the package.

Time to Smoke!
With the cigar completed, it’s off to get labeled and packaged. Another group of women are responsible for quality control, making sure the cigars are matched up according to color and size.
This factory makes cigars for many different brands, from all over the world. So they label & package them according to who the client is that day, box em’ up, and ship em’ off. The factory can produce over 30,000 cigars a day!
The Tabacalera Santiago Factory’s most promenant customer is Rocky Patel.
But I ended up buying a different brand for myself, called Nica Libre, which is also produced at the factory. This was on the recommendation of my tour guide. Quite a bargain at $1 a cigar! (Nica Libre cigars cost $7 each in the States).
Later that night I had a nice peaceful smoke on a bench in the central park of Esteli, watching local kids breakdancing and families out walking about.
I enjoy the Nica Libre blend around the office as an everyday go-to cigar since its rich, smooth, flavorful, well constructed and maintains an enjoyable aroma. You’ll experience toasty nuances of earth and cedar with sweet notes in the finish and some natural flavors of espresso and coffee. The finish is hearty and memorable while the draw is effortless.
Total Cost: FREE! (with purchase of cigars)
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Hey guys. I’m writing from Nairobi, Kenya. Looking to find ready to roll tobacco for cigars to import here. Also looking to purchase a rolling kit with all equipment I need. Need a contact in Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Brasil or Equador. Help please!!
hi i smoke cigars will be going on tour to buysome .. i smoke a bout 4 cigars a day thanks for info
Thanks for the post on the FREE cigar factory tour. I am currently in Esteli and was searching for a no cost factory tour and ran across your post.
Thanks for the detail info. and most importantly, which brand to buy, economically. I’m not a smoker myself but intending to purchase some as gift for my 90’s grandpa. My uncle brought some Cuban cigars from Europe for my grandpa and he didn’t like it as much because it’s too mild.
I hoped the Nica Libre would suit his taste better. Thanks for sharing the info. and I found it timely.
Anytime Aisa! I always love to hear when an article helped someone plan a trip. That cigar factory was very cool. :)
Great post. I think we’ll try to go here when we’re in Esteli next week
Nope, didn’t smoke one, but took plenty of photos pretending to! I actually bought one of the boxes that they come in, and only one cigar. Not much of a cigar, but I like decorative boxes to keep travel mementos in.
HA! Went to the same factory as you. I have the exact same picture of the guy above! He must smoke that cigar all day every day! I stopped short when I came to that pic-that guy looks familiar! haha. I love looking at your Nicaragua pics-we have some of the same ones, but yours are so much better ;)
He was definitely the most photogenic of the bunch for sure. Did you smoke one of the cigars?
I did a cigar factory tour in that city also! Soooooo badly wanted to hit the Padron factory on my trip — my favs.
Padron is one of my favorites too. :)
Awesome post. i had teh opportunity to go on a cigar bar shoot last year ad regretted it. I will get my husband to look at it, he putts on a cigar or two, especially in golf season. I have the duty of keeping his cigars moist in the little cigar safe.
That’s an important duty! :)
Hey Matt, great pictures and a good look behind the scenes.
Do you have any idea how much the workers get paid? Would be interesting to see and to compare with the income they produce for the owners of the factory.
Cheers, Harry
I forgot to ask while I was at the factory, but I believe it’s around $100 (US) a month for rollers.
Matt – That’s amazing. I love visiting factories, too, and I’ve never seen a cigar making factory. Amazing how much effort goes into a single cigar. Very very cool post!
Thx Akila! They take their cigars very seriously. :)
I had no idea how much work went into making cigars. Great explanation and great photos.
Makes me appreciate it a bit more now.
NO photos of ANYONE enjoying a cigar. Unless it’s me of course. FedEx is worldwide, I’m sure. Forget the address? We can fix that. No comments “Sissy”.
You better not let your father see this post, especially if you have not yet sent him any cigars :)
I’m trying to work up his anticipation… I think I’ll post a photo of me enjoying one next. ;)
Absolutely awesome man! I’ve never really been a fan of cigars, but also didn’t really know anything about them either. I may have to go buy one just to give ‘er a try. Thanks for the info/update..
Perfect! The object of this post was to get as many people to start smoking cigars as possible…
Make sure to buy some extra ones to hand out to local kids in the neighborhood! :twisted:
so are things still operating as you portrayed in 2011?