Photography/cigar lover
Rocky Patel in the aging room of a cigar factory in Nicaragua. All around him are tens of thousands of cigars aging peacefully in a temperature-controlled environment, an essential component to a business that rolls millions of cigars each year.
“It's not a great factory, but the cigars they produce are great,” says Rocky Patel. He is talking about his Cuba SA Villa Tabacalera in Esteli, Nicaragua. Tavikoosa produces about 7 million cigars a year in its modest operation, including high-scoring brands such as Rocky Patel Sixty (No. 2 Cigar of 2022) and his ALR Second Edition (No. 4 of 2023). You're probably familiar with it because it's in production. .
Mr. Patel aims to be as vertically integrated as possible, and has not only purchased more tobacco fields in Nicaragua over the past decade, but also plans to expand the factory into new facilities in the future. On the last day of the Puro Sabor festival, we visited one of his new farms in Esteli, not far from Tavicusa. The 170 acres are planted with Criollo '98 tobacco, which Patel says will produce 1.7 million pounds of leaves. The entire festival then gathered for lunch at one of Patel's tobacco barns.
A pair of rollers. At the Tavikoosa factory, the rollers work in pairs. On the left is the buncher, which assembles the tobacco filler and binder. The wrapper and cap are then applied with the right roller and the cigar is finished.
Yes, you can smoke. The factory allows the rollers to be blown with air, but most rollers didn't allow it, preferring to focus solely on their work.
quality management. Patel found something he didn't like during his inspection. This cigar is rejected because it is underfilled.
It's a bit boxy. These cigars may be round now, but after this worker slides the slats between each cigar, he stacks the trays and puts them all into a crank press until the round smoke becomes a rectangle.
Babies at nursery school. The baby tobacco plants are placed in nursery trays until they are mature enough to be transplanted into the tobacco field.
Cigarette smoking in adolescence. This relatively young tobacco field in Estelí is only two weeks old and still has several weeks to mature.
Checking fermentation. Large quantities of tobacco are fermented in the farm's processing facility. Patel looks at his clipboard to see when the pile was assembled and how long it will take to fully ferment.
Lunch at the barn. All the participants of the Purosabor Festival had lunch at one of his tobacco barns in Patel on the last day of the festival.
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