“My journey started early on Monday morning when I left Phoenix, Ariz. a little after midnight on a red-eye flight to Miami—don’t book seat 27B on an American Airlines A321neo if you’re looking to get some sleep—a couple hours of layover in the Miami airport, and then onto Managua, Nicaragua, home of the country’s international airport and for most of us, the very beginning of Puro Sabor, if you don’t count the plane flight down with any number of cigar makers and fellow attendees.
Once through customs and the baggage claim process, we boarded the familiar white vans to Granada, a historic colonial city about 27 miles southeast of Managua. In addition to being the oldest continuously occupied city in the Americas, as it was founded in 1524. It is also home to Casa Favilli, the factory that was once home to Mombacho Cigars, though you now know them as Favilli in the U.S. The factory hosted the registration event, essentially confirming you were there, picking up a leather backpack with all sorts of goodies inside, and seeing a brief glimpse of the factory, which is transitioning more to a tourism location with only a handful of bunchers and rollers. It still maintains its retail store and has added two restaurants and bars to cater to visitors curious about cigars.
It was here that I ran into Indiana Ortez, who you might have heard just announced the launch of her own company, Casa De Ortez, which is scheduled to launch its first line, Primavera, in the spring. Also, Ortez recently got engaged to Jared Ingrisano, who recently obtained control of the Favilli brands and will be giving them a refresh in the coming months, so congratulations to the two of them.
It was also at Casa Favilli that I got my first look at the box of cigars included in everyone’s backpack, which features 20 cigars from members of the Cámara Nicaragüense de Tabacaleros (Nicaragua Tobacco Chamber)”
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