Nick R Agua - Drew Estate
- Thread starter NicaNick
- Start date
Hola MDS - No relation to George Melillo.
The long winded version ☺
I was born and raised in the great black tobacco state of Connecticut. We are proud to lay claim to the first cigar factory in the new world in Suffield, CT. (I am sure this will start some debate amongst Cubans ☺ ) I started smoking cigars toward the beginning of the boom in the early 90's. My grandfather on my fathers side was an avid CT BROADLEAF smoker. He worked at the Winchester Factory after WWII and at the time New Haven, CT had many cigar factories. He smoked Top Stone extra oscuros along with Toppers and FD Graves. My other grandfather has been an avid pipe smoker for the past 60 + years. My earliest memories are filled with the aroma of some great tobaccos and from this time I began to gain a great appreciation for the sacred leaf.
By August of 1996 I had learned everything I could , at that time, about the process of growing, curing, construction, and all the brands (advertised) blends on the market. My favorite shop was the Calabash Shoppee in Hamden, CT - ( in 2005 they sold to new owners whom ended up destroying the business) which was owned by two amazing women - Mary Russo and Carol Velardi. They had started the store in the 70's and were a full fledge tobacconist with a walk in humidor and the largest pipe selection in the state. I used to frequent the store often in 1996 and there would constantly be lines outside the humidor. I was working grounds crew at Quinnipiac University that summer and it was my dream to work at the Calabash. So one day in July I approached the ladies and they took down my contact info. A month later they hired me to handle all customer relations/sales and they also put me in charge of sampling all new products/blends to see which ones were worthy to bring into the shop. Bingo ! That was August 1996 and I just started working on my bachelors degree in International Business the same month . When I wasnt in class I was at the store working. These were some of the best days of my life and I got to meet so many different people from all walks of life. Mary and Carol became my second mothers and taught me a lot about the retail end of the business.
About a year or so later in 1997 I met Rick Ardito(currently works for Kurt Kendal with 7-20-4 cigars) who was working for a company I never heard of called Drew Estate. Rick was from Guildford, CT and a lot of my family is from Guilford, and it turns out Rick knew a lot of them or knew of them.. We instantly hit it off and I enjoyed Ricks amazing sense of humor and goofy nature. He would always bring a smile to my face. At the time Rick was pushing a cigar called Cimero which I never brought into the store but Rick would always pass by to chat. Soon after Rick brought me samples of La Vieja Habana which was being made in Esteli, Nicaragua by Nick Perdomo. They were great cigars and we brought them into the shop and not soon after we did an event one Saturday afternoon. That was the first time I met Jonathan Drew. It was a very successful event and we exchanged contact info that day and continued to remain in touch from about 1997 until 2003.
I graduated in 2000 and a month later moved to Rome, Italy to work for the Vatican during the great Jubilee. I helped pilgrims around the world at different holy and tourist sites throughout Rome. I also worked with refugees from Ethiopia and Eritrea. I then set off to follow Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers around Europe with only a back pack. I slept in hostiles and in parks to make ends meet since I didnt have much money. I went to Spain, German, France, Slovakia, Austria, and Switzerland always enjoying cigars along the way. My staple smoke was Montecristo #4.
I returned to CT in 2001 to continue my masters degree in International Business and working at the Calabash. After a year into the program I was offered a job in Italy to work for an Italian Renaissance art history tour that took high school students from Sienna, to Florence and Rome. I had a full blown case of the travel bug and I figured while I was already in Europe I would back pack around the globe. I set off from Italy to Spain to Paris to Mubai , India, then to Thailand, down the Mai Kong river into Laos , Vietnam, China, and then to Japan. The whole time I was traveling around the globe Jonathan and I had been emailing each other back and forth. JD sent me an email in Dec. 2002 Nick Call me . I obviously have some serious shit to talk about. I didnt have any plans returning to the States but it was my dream to rent a BWM bike and travel through Central America and learn how to bunch and roll cigars. I called JD from Japan and he invited me to come to Nicaragua and check out the operations and see if I would like to be his right hand man. Of course I was interested. ☺ I arrived to San Francisco in Jan. 2003 a day before the Iraq War protest 250,000 strong in the streets and all I could think about was finding a book store through the large crowds so I could learn more about Nicaragua. I then took a train from San Fran to Denver and then a plane to CT and on March 15th I landed in Managua , Nicaragua for the first time.
I had just gotten married in India and was expecting a child that June. It was an amazing time of my life and I now had the opportunity to put my degree in International Business and my great love for the leaf into action. My daughter was born in Managua in May and I didnt leave Nicaragua for almost 3 years straight. And when I did leave it was only for a week or two. For the past 10 ½ years the majority of my time has been spent living in Esteli. Jonathan put a tremendous amount of trust in me and I began to learn the production process. Almost the first month in I began experiment with blending. I was a Padron 3000 maduro , Fuente Hemingways, Don Carlos, VSG , Opus X , smoker at the time. Although I didnt smoke infused cigars I had an appreciation for all products from working at the store. I have never been in the business of telling people what they should like but always trying to find cigars /blends. that people would enjoy. I was now in the thick of things and exposed to legends in the business that I had always read about and admired. These legends were my teachers of taking my knowledge and skill to the next level. I then learned how to bunch cigars and my next dream was developing a non-infused blend.
The company was growing rapidly and I was fortunate to work along side Manuel Rubio, the GM of the factory. He welcomed me in with open arms and we began working as a team immediately collaborating on making the operation more efficient and continually increasing and maintaining quality. Every month the States would call for more production and shipments. Rubio and I were knocking down walls renting new buildings expanding to keep up with the demand. Jonathan put me in charge working with him on the Kahlua blend that year and it was a success. He then gave me the reigns to work on Java with Rocky and eventually Sauza. All along I had been working on a number of non-infused blends that I would smoke and bunch myself. By the time Steve Saka joined the company I had a number of base blends I had been working with and developing and smoking on a regular basis. By the time 2005 / 6 rolled around I started working with CT Broadleaf which was my ultimate dream . I began to use a lot of the base blends with CT Broadleaf Ligero and one day Saka called me and said Nick can you please send me up some cigars I can fuckin smoke - I had developed 10 blends all using CT Broadleaf Ligero wrapper that I sent up to Miami. I knew which one was my favorite and before long it became unanimous - #9 blend was unlike anything Saka had ever smoked or JD or any one else in the company (Many of those 10 blends are now used for the Unico Series such as Flying pig, UF-13 , Dirty Rat, JD -4, and also T52 ) Saka began smoking the #9 blend every day which was a great honor because I had always respected Sakas palate and knowledge. To have blended a cigar that would be deemed Made exclusively for the JEFE was amazing and I knew people were going to love this cigar. We had a lot to prove to the world and this blend was the pudding that we had the ability to make top end premium hand made cigars.
Before I could realize it I was in charge of purchasing all tobacco and organizing the production and shipment planning along with blending all new products coming out of the factory. Without the team nothing could be possible. I have never worked with more professionally and dedicated people than those that run Drew Nicaragua. Their passion and love for the leaf and the company is unprecedented. By July of 2007 we had 10 different buildings around Esteli. We were trucking cigars all around town an operational challenge but the team made it easy and we had become so accustomed to working in such conditions. In July of 2007 our dream came true and we moved into the new factory. You can imagine how much more efficient it was to work out of one building instead of 10. The flow of operations improved tremendously and set us up for LP #9 production and our entry into the non infused market.
We are now 1,400 people strong and producing on an avg. 90,000 hand made cigars a day. I have been truly grateful and honored to have the opportunity to work with JD and DE Nicaragua over the past 10 ½ years. I have dedicated my life and spent many years away from my family in CT to help this company become one of the leading producers of hand made cigars in the world. My current title is EVP of International operations and I am a partner in the company. I have been for the most part behind the curtain of tobacco over the past 10 + years. As you can imagine making 90,000 cigars a day is a constant challenge and there is never a dull moment. I often also travel to CT, Ecuador, Mexico, Brazil, and DR for tobacco inspection and review. It is very difficult to be involved in the sales end of things with so much going on. I am making a bit of an effort now to keep update as to what is happening in the market but as I could tell from how many cigars we make things are going well. Gracias a Dios.
To all the hermanos de la hoja On behalf of the DE Nicaragua team - I salute you for your continual support and confidence in Drew Estate.
The long winded version ☺
I was born and raised in the great black tobacco state of Connecticut. We are proud to lay claim to the first cigar factory in the new world in Suffield, CT. (I am sure this will start some debate amongst Cubans ☺ ) I started smoking cigars toward the beginning of the boom in the early 90's. My grandfather on my fathers side was an avid CT BROADLEAF smoker. He worked at the Winchester Factory after WWII and at the time New Haven, CT had many cigar factories. He smoked Top Stone extra oscuros along with Toppers and FD Graves. My other grandfather has been an avid pipe smoker for the past 60 + years. My earliest memories are filled with the aroma of some great tobaccos and from this time I began to gain a great appreciation for the sacred leaf.
By August of 1996 I had learned everything I could , at that time, about the process of growing, curing, construction, and all the brands (advertised) blends on the market. My favorite shop was the Calabash Shoppee in Hamden, CT - ( in 2005 they sold to new owners whom ended up destroying the business) which was owned by two amazing women - Mary Russo and Carol Velardi. They had started the store in the 70's and were a full fledge tobacconist with a walk in humidor and the largest pipe selection in the state. I used to frequent the store often in 1996 and there would constantly be lines outside the humidor. I was working grounds crew at Quinnipiac University that summer and it was my dream to work at the Calabash. So one day in July I approached the ladies and they took down my contact info. A month later they hired me to handle all customer relations/sales and they also put me in charge of sampling all new products/blends to see which ones were worthy to bring into the shop. Bingo ! That was August 1996 and I just started working on my bachelors degree in International Business the same month . When I wasnt in class I was at the store working. These were some of the best days of my life and I got to meet so many different people from all walks of life. Mary and Carol became my second mothers and taught me a lot about the retail end of the business.
About a year or so later in 1997 I met Rick Ardito(currently works for Kurt Kendal with 7-20-4 cigars) who was working for a company I never heard of called Drew Estate. Rick was from Guildford, CT and a lot of my family is from Guilford, and it turns out Rick knew a lot of them or knew of them.. We instantly hit it off and I enjoyed Ricks amazing sense of humor and goofy nature. He would always bring a smile to my face. At the time Rick was pushing a cigar called Cimero which I never brought into the store but Rick would always pass by to chat. Soon after Rick brought me samples of La Vieja Habana which was being made in Esteli, Nicaragua by Nick Perdomo. They were great cigars and we brought them into the shop and not soon after we did an event one Saturday afternoon. That was the first time I met Jonathan Drew. It was a very successful event and we exchanged contact info that day and continued to remain in touch from about 1997 until 2003.
I graduated in 2000 and a month later moved to Rome, Italy to work for the Vatican during the great Jubilee. I helped pilgrims around the world at different holy and tourist sites throughout Rome. I also worked with refugees from Ethiopia and Eritrea. I then set off to follow Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers around Europe with only a back pack. I slept in hostiles and in parks to make ends meet since I didnt have much money. I went to Spain, German, France, Slovakia, Austria, and Switzerland always enjoying cigars along the way. My staple smoke was Montecristo #4.
I returned to CT in 2001 to continue my masters degree in International Business and working at the Calabash. After a year into the program I was offered a job in Italy to work for an Italian Renaissance art history tour that took high school students from Sienna, to Florence and Rome. I had a full blown case of the travel bug and I figured while I was already in Europe I would back pack around the globe. I set off from Italy to Spain to Paris to Mubai , India, then to Thailand, down the Mai Kong river into Laos , Vietnam, China, and then to Japan. The whole time I was traveling around the globe Jonathan and I had been emailing each other back and forth. JD sent me an email in Dec. 2002 Nick Call me . I obviously have some serious shit to talk about. I didnt have any plans returning to the States but it was my dream to rent a BWM bike and travel through Central America and learn how to bunch and roll cigars. I called JD from Japan and he invited me to come to Nicaragua and check out the operations and see if I would like to be his right hand man. Of course I was interested. ☺ I arrived to San Francisco in Jan. 2003 a day before the Iraq War protest 250,000 strong in the streets and all I could think about was finding a book store through the large crowds so I could learn more about Nicaragua. I then took a train from San Fran to Denver and then a plane to CT and on March 15th I landed in Managua , Nicaragua for the first time.
I had just gotten married in India and was expecting a child that June. It was an amazing time of my life and I now had the opportunity to put my degree in International Business and my great love for the leaf into action. My daughter was born in Managua in May and I didnt leave Nicaragua for almost 3 years straight. And when I did leave it was only for a week or two. For the past 10 ½ years the majority of my time has been spent living in Esteli. Jonathan put a tremendous amount of trust in me and I began to learn the production process. Almost the first month in I began experiment with blending. I was a Padron 3000 maduro , Fuente Hemingways, Don Carlos, VSG , Opus X , smoker at the time. Although I didnt smoke infused cigars I had an appreciation for all products from working at the store. I have never been in the business of telling people what they should like but always trying to find cigars /blends. that people would enjoy. I was now in the thick of things and exposed to legends in the business that I had always read about and admired. These legends were my teachers of taking my knowledge and skill to the next level. I then learned how to bunch cigars and my next dream was developing a non-infused blend.
The company was growing rapidly and I was fortunate to work along side Manuel Rubio, the GM of the factory. He welcomed me in with open arms and we began working as a team immediately collaborating on making the operation more efficient and continually increasing and maintaining quality. Every month the States would call for more production and shipments. Rubio and I were knocking down walls renting new buildings expanding to keep up with the demand. Jonathan put me in charge working with him on the Kahlua blend that year and it was a success. He then gave me the reigns to work on Java with Rocky and eventually Sauza. All along I had been working on a number of non-infused blends that I would smoke and bunch myself. By the time Steve Saka joined the company I had a number of base blends I had been working with and developing and smoking on a regular basis. By the time 2005 / 6 rolled around I started working with CT Broadleaf which was my ultimate dream . I began to use a lot of the base blends with CT Broadleaf Ligero and one day Saka called me and said Nick can you please send me up some cigars I can fuckin smoke - I had developed 10 blends all using CT Broadleaf Ligero wrapper that I sent up to Miami. I knew which one was my favorite and before long it became unanimous - #9 blend was unlike anything Saka had ever smoked or JD or any one else in the company (Many of those 10 blends are now used for the Unico Series such as Flying pig, UF-13 , Dirty Rat, JD -4, and also T52 ) Saka began smoking the #9 blend every day which was a great honor because I had always respected Sakas palate and knowledge. To have blended a cigar that would be deemed Made exclusively for the JEFE was amazing and I knew people were going to love this cigar. We had a lot to prove to the world and this blend was the pudding that we had the ability to make top end premium hand made cigars.
Before I could realize it I was in charge of purchasing all tobacco and organizing the production and shipment planning along with blending all new products coming out of the factory. Without the team nothing could be possible. I have never worked with more professionally and dedicated people than those that run Drew Nicaragua. Their passion and love for the leaf and the company is unprecedented. By July of 2007 we had 10 different buildings around Esteli. We were trucking cigars all around town an operational challenge but the team made it easy and we had become so accustomed to working in such conditions. In July of 2007 our dream came true and we moved into the new factory. You can imagine how much more efficient it was to work out of one building instead of 10. The flow of operations improved tremendously and set us up for LP #9 production and our entry into the non infused market.
We are now 1,400 people strong and producing on an avg. 90,000 hand made cigars a day. I have been truly grateful and honored to have the opportunity to work with JD and DE Nicaragua over the past 10 ½ years. I have dedicated my life and spent many years away from my family in CT to help this company become one of the leading producers of hand made cigars in the world. My current title is EVP of International operations and I am a partner in the company. I have been for the most part behind the curtain of tobacco over the past 10 + years. As you can imagine making 90,000 cigars a day is a constant challenge and there is never a dull moment. I often also travel to CT, Ecuador, Mexico, Brazil, and DR for tobacco inspection and review. It is very difficult to be involved in the sales end of things with so much going on. I am making a bit of an effort now to keep update as to what is happening in the market but as I could tell from how many cigars we make things are going well. Gracias a Dios.
To all the hermanos de la hoja On behalf of the DE Nicaragua team - I salute you for your continual support and confidence in Drew Estate.
NicaNick,
Thank you for the great background story. It was an enjoyable read and a true honor to have you here. Reading that story further cemented the fact that dreams do come true for people. I hope to visit my uncle one day in Nicaragua and come visit the factory and even meet you. Thanks again for the great smokes. I have my first #9 sitting in my Humi for 2 months now and may finally try it on Thanksgiving.
-Eddy
Thank you for the great background story. It was an enjoyable read and a true honor to have you here. Reading that story further cemented the fact that dreams do come true for people. I hope to visit my uncle one day in Nicaragua and come visit the factory and even meet you. Thanks again for the great smokes. I have my first #9 sitting in my Humi for 2 months now and may finally try it on Thanksgiving.
-Eddy
Oh ok! Ill let him know then. He thought it was cheaper there. If its not worth it then Ill call him off the search. I figured anything was cheaper than what we pay in NY with the tax but if its not cheaper than ordering online I will let him know not to waste his time.
Wow, what a great story!! Good luck to you and everyone at Drew Estate, hopefully I'll be able to make it on a Cigar Safari within the next few years! Keep doing what you guys do, Drew Estate is my #1 brand!! cheers!
Thanks for sharing that story and for joining BOTL! I'm also from Guilford and my Mom still lives in town. I went to high school with Rick Ardito, great funny guy.
