IF you’ve ever wondered about attending the Nicaraguan Puro Sabor cigar festival – stop wondering.
Book for next year, now.
This is a glorious celebration of the cigar in the warm, welcoming and sometimes wacky embrace of magnificent Nicaragua.
This year’s event was no exception, with thousands of attendees from across the globe gathering to celebrate the country which has become the mecca of handrolled cigars. These events are informal, informative, social – and funny; a five-day extravaganza of all things cigar-related.
As well as copious goodies upon arrival at your sunny destination, you will never have to go long without a cigar in your hand. Nor, for that matter, a drink. You will be fed at every available opportunity and if you’re worried about logistics and travel – don’t be. The organisers at Puro Sabor know what they’re doing. Professional guides, coaches and minibuses will be on hand at all times to make sure you get where you need to be when you need to be there.
If you’re a seasoned cigar lover, perhaps visits to legendary farms and factories will be your highlight. You will get to meet the likes of Don Pepin Garcia and his son, Jaime; you will be personally shown around factories like JC Newman’s PENSA, or the wonder that is Tabalalera Fernandez, where AJ Fernandez works his magic on Nicaragua leaf. Or perhaps you’d like to see the beautiful farm of the mighty Plasencia factory in Estelí, and enjoy a hog roast under cover of a barn in the midst of swaying tobacco plants? Lesser known, but still fascinating factories also play an important part in the Puro Sabor week.
Each day is like a cigar lover’s dream come true, and there’s no respite when the stars come out. Each evening is punctuated by a dinner event; the week starting low key and casual and building to a crescendo and Gala Dinner by the end of the week. And the music gets incrementally louder, too, by the way!
As well as enthusiasts and manufacturers, many retailers from around the world choose to attend Puro Sabor to meet contacts, discuss business – and have a good time. You will be treated to boat rides and historical tours, to tutored tastings and to special ‘festival only’ cigars. You will meet old friends and make plenty of new ones.
I’d like to tell you more, while it’s fresh in my memory – I got back to England just last night. But the fact is, I can’t. That’s because my trip to this year’s festival is the starter’s gun for my latest project – an exciting collaboration with the PCA which takes my Around The World in 80 Cigars series of books to a new level.
Working hand in hand with the PCA, I will be writing the next Around The World book all about the American cigar scene. And, appropriately enough, it will be entitled: Around The World in 80 Cigars – The American Dream.
This early salvo was to re-orientate me with the handmade cigar’s powerhouse of production, Nicaragua. It gave me a chance to renew old friendships with manufacturers and retailers from across the globe; and the chance to mingle with fellow cigar enthusiasts who come to Nicaragua starry-eyed and get to meet their heroes.
From the fields, farms and factories here, I will follow the cigar trail back to America and to the heartlands of American cigar culture. Using my now familiar blend of storytelling, compelling history, humour and firsthand accounts of people, places and wonderful cigars, I am looking forward to seeing firsthand and up close and personal how the world’s biggest cigar market operates, interacts, predicts and reacts to new blends, trends and obstacles in its path.
It’s a dream assignment and will take over a year to research and write. I will be attending events at multiple US locations – who knows, maybe at your local brick and mortar? – where you will have the opportunity to buy books and have them signed and pre-order The American Dream.
I can’t wait to meet you and hear what cigars do for you. Now go book next year’s Puro Sabor.
– Contributed by Nick Hammond, author of Around the World in 80 Cigars.