Nicaragua

Nicaragua ships more handmade cigars to the US than any other country, and most of them come out of the factories in and around Estelí. The industry took root in the 1960s, when growers leaving Cuba after the revolution found soil and weather that suited Cuban-seed tobacco.

Where it grows

Estelí is the center of it all, with most of the factories and a lot of the leaf. The Jalapa Valley, up near the Honduran border, grows a softer, sweeter tobacco that often becomes wrapper. Condega sits between the two. Ometepe, a volcanic island in Lake Nicaragua, adds leaf with a mineral edge of its own.

The style

Nicaraguan tobacco leans peppery and earthy, and it usually brings more body than Dominican leaf. A cigar made entirely from Nicaraguan tobacco is called a Nicaraguan puro.

Names you'll see

Padrón, Oliva, Joya de Nicaragua, My Father, Drew Estate and AJ Fernandez all roll cigars in Estelí.