Puro Sabor 2025: Day 3

Granada was the first stop of this year’s festival, and has been a wonderfully authentic Nicaraguan experience in one of its most scenic colonial towns.

After a post-breakfast cigar and coffee in the Plaza Colon hotel courtyard, It’s time to say goodbye to Grenada and embark to the North of the country to  Estelì, aka, “The Diamond of Segovia”.

The drive along the Panamerica Highway takes place in a small convoy of tour busses and spans nearly 3 hours in total. It’s a relatively straight drive without any arduous winding turns. At any given vantage point, there seems to be either a volcano or large hills off in the distance. There are lots of roadside cows, too.

Of course, I see a lot of poverty along the way, but also a lot of smiling faces. Though not without its challenges, life is simple here.

Along the highway, we come to an abrupt stop after a tractor trailer carrying a bulldozer dozer bottoms out and jackknifes, effectively blocking traffic along the highway for miles. Thankfully, our lunch stop destination is the next right turn, so we’re forced to exit our large tour bus and board a smaller one that can drive along the side of the road to sneak past the blockage and complete the drive to our lunch destination at Victor Calvo cigars.

The stop at Victor Calvo welcomes attendees with a Habano cigar that I choose to enjoy after big lunch along with a neat pour of rum.  Victor Calvo Sr. and Victor Calvo Jr. take an opportunity to welcome everyone and say a few words about the featured cigar, which exhibits notes of rye bread, coffee and salted pretzel.

Victor Calvo Cigars began in Costa Rica in 1996 and then relocated to Estelí in 2001.

Our next stop is to visit Nicaragua’s largest grower of tobacco, Plasencia, for a farm and factory tour.

Upon arrival, everyone is immediately greeted by Nestor Plasencia Jr. and his team once stepping off the bus. Plasencia Alma Fuerte and Alma Fuego cigars are handed out and within a few minutes we’re listening to Nestor passionately discuss his progressive biodiversity program, including a detailed discussion about the importance of worm manure.

From the farm, to the factory Nestor Jr.’s passion the about the processes of his family’s operation and the people it supports pours out with ease.

Altogether Plasencia employs over 10,000 workers – roughly five thousand in Nicaragua and five thousand across the border in Honduras.

At the tour’s end, guests are treated to a surprise appearance from patriarch Nestor Plasencia Sr., who alongside his son, pose for pictures with smiling visitors.

The evening event is the inauguration dinner at Pensa, a large outdoor space that is very well attended. I’m handed a welcome sampler pack that features cigars from Aganorsa Leaf, Foundation, and a J.C. Newman Brickhouse, the same cigar that was released earlier as “Bricktoberfest” to accompany Octoberfest. Eric Newman takes an opportunity to speak to the crowd and touch upon the legacy his historic company.

He even humors the crowd by speaking in a little Spanish – which surprisingly isn’t half bad.

This event is the first event where the dance floor really gets cooking after dinner is over.

The day has taken me from Grenada to Estelì and has felt like a marathon at times, but was well with it. It’s time to retire to my hotel to rest for a big first full day in Estelì.