Puro Sabor 2026 Day 5: Seed to Cigar on Display in Estelí

By the fifth day of Puro Sabor 2025, attendees are fully immersed in the all-important farms, barns, and factories of Estelí. 

Before the day is through, my group will have spent time at Tabacalera AJ Fernandez, Plasencia (for lunch), Aganorsa Leaf, and to cap the day off, the joyous White Party at Oliva’s El Fumador facility. 

At Tabacalera AJ Fernandez, we’re welcomed by a small troupe of adorable kindergarten-aged children who are clad in traditional Nicaraguan dress to perform an all-too-cute dance for us. Afterward, we take to the fields to immerse ourselves in an in-depth seed-to-cigar tour led by AJF guide Mario as we enjoy a wide selection of AJ’s creations.

After entering a cheesecloth-covered crop area for shade grown tobacco, Mario emphasizes the difference between what he refers to as the “old school” and “new school” ways of cigar making, implying that the way things are done at AJ Fernandez fall within the new school camp of methodology. 

For example, old Cuban techniques which involved growing filler, binder, and wrapper tobacco within the crop have been replaced by growing each component in separate crops with different soil composition to ultimately forge a more complex and cohesive blend. 

This can be found in the AJ Fernandez El Dorado, which I smoke during tbe tour.  

At the final leg of the tour,  AJF CEO Freddy Molina walks us through the wing of the factory that was ravaged by fire in early 2025. The area is now under construction, and is projected to return looking and functioning better than before the blaze took hold. With fire damage still visible in some areas, It’s a somewhat bittersweet yet optimistic end to the tour. 

We enjoy a mid-day lunch at Plasencia, where unlike the majority of the events, guests are able to comfortably converse over volume of the music. Nestor Plasencia Jr. welcomes the crowd before a delicious, buffet-style lunch. 

“We’re the “biggest of the small factories in Estelí”, says Fabian Ziegler. “Over the years we’ve become vertically integrated though bringing in 20-30 Cuban technicians over the years”. Fabian delivers a highly enthusiastic and informative tour, and concludes by guiding the guests through the smoking of small, rustic-looking fumas cigars, which are typically used to test tobaccos in isolation to determine how they might contribute to a particular blend. 

The day closes out in style with a celebration at Oliva’s El Fumador, where all attendees have diligently worn white. The well-received four-pack cigar sampler for the event includes a Rocky Patel Emerald, CAO Pilon, Oliva Serie V  and coveted Padrón Family Reserve No. 45 Maduro.

Guests happily puff away and dance their way beyond midnight to wrap up what has been a successful day 5 at Puro Sabor 2026.