Drew Estate is one of the largest cigar brands out on the market. I recently had the opportunity to chat with Pedro Gomez Rodriguez, Global Brand Ambassador and Factory Spokesperson of Drew Estate, about his experiences in the industry and about the brand's story, from inception to where they are heading today.

[Tyler Caldwell]: Hello everyone, I'm Tyler Caldwell here and with me is my great friend Pedro from Drew Estate. Thank you so much for coming in and doing an interview with us today.

[Pedro Gomez Rodriguez]: Thank you so very much for having us and for all the support that you have been giving us since day one. For me, it's a pleasure to be right here at the headquarters, man. This is amazing.

[TC]: That's right. So let's just bang out some questions here. Let's inform the masses out there who Pedro is and your role with Drew Estate.

Pedro's Journey into the World of Cigars

[PGR]: Absolutely. Well, first things first, when it comes to Drew Estate, it's all about teamwork. Everything that we do in Drew Estate is with the end consumers in mind, our business partners, and everything when it comes to the trade.

I was born in Estelí, Nicaragua, and before I came to cigars, I was a saddle maker. So I started to make saddles when I was 10 years old. And that's when I started to work from Sunday to Sunday. And then I dropped out of school for two years when I was 12 years old. I decided to go back to school, but I could not afford to quit my job at the saddle shop. So I finished school, going to work at the same time. When I finished high school, I applied for a full scholarship, which was funded by the United States government and managed by Georgetown University. I majored in International Commerce, and the program sent me to Iowa. Coming from Estelí, Nicaragua, to the Midwest, I was living there for two years with zero English knowledge. I graduated in 2006 and went back to Nicaragua.

Upon my return, I went to every single cigar factory in my hometown looking for a job and couldn't find one. My last hope was this little cigar factory in Estelí, which was called "La Fabrica del Gringo Loco," which means "The Factory of the Crazy Gringo," which came to be known as Drew Estate. I went there, I applied for whatever they had available. They didn't have anything, but they said, if you really want to work, come 6:00 a.m. tomorrow. I had the opportunity to meet Nicholas Melillo of Foundation Cigars, and then from there, my role started at Drew Estate.

At the same time, I was learning from every single department, everything that was taking place in the production floor, in the packaging department, and the tobacco warehouse, in the fermentation room, even in the tobacco fields. So after a year of doing everything that they were asking me to do, they ended up giving me more consistent responsibilities. So then I became Nicholas's assistant, who was the Director of International Operations at the time. Back in 2007, Jonathan Drew, the founder of Drew Estate opened up Cigar Safari, which is our tourism program that we have in Nicaragua where we bring retailers and consumers from the United States and from all over the world to come and see how the cigars are being made at Drew Estate factory and at Joya de Nicaragua.

I had the opportunity to meet a lot of great people. By 2010, Jonathan Drew promoted me to run the International Sales department. So at that time, I was doing everything in Nicaragua for Drew Estate in the factory. And then by 2012, Jonathan offered me the chance to come to the United States to work full time for them here. And it was a beautiful blessing. I came here with a work visa in 2013. And then, at the same time, I was managing the Cigar Safari tours in Nicaragua. I was doing that for six months. We were hosting around 35 groups. There was a group coming on Sunday and leaving on Wednesday, and a few hours later, another group was landing into Managua Airport. The next six months I was traveling all around the United States doing cigar events. And for me, when it comes to people that have the opportunity to come to my country, I took it very seriously and I took it to heart because if somebody comes to my hometown and they are there for a reason, because they love cigars, I'm going to make sure that whoever is there thinks about Drew Estate and Joya de Nicaragua cigars when they remember Nicaragua.

[TC]: There you go.

[PGR]: It's an educational opportunity to learn all about tobacco: growing, fermenting, and curing tobacco to be made into cigars, as well as about the rich culture of Nicaragua and Estelí and the amazing tradition that is in my country.

Today I work in the Marketing department as the Global Brand Ambassador and the Factory Spokesperson. God is the best because He's the one that has been giving me all the opportunities, putting me at the right place at the right time with the right people. And Drew Estate is not just about making cigars. Drew Estate is a big family, with relatives that come from all walks of life. And we work very hard to make sure that every single puff that comes out of every Drew Estate cigar gives you what you are expecting, which is to have an amazing smoke.

As you already know, at Drew Estate, we have all different types of cigar brands, each providing unique smoking experiences. Whether it's a traditional cigar, an infused cigar, or a non-traditional cigar, at the end of the day, like every single company that is in the industry, it's not about how amazing your cigars are, it's about the great people behind them.

Drew Estate and Joya de Nicaragua's Connection

[TC]: Very interesting. I'm glad you brought up Joya de Nicaragua because the folks out there who know Drew Estate, they also know Joya de Nicaragua, but there's people out there who don't understand that Drew Estate also represents Joya de Nicaragua. There is that partnership and that connection to one another. One of the first cigars I ever smoked was the Cabinetta from Joya de Nicaragua, and to this day, it's still a top 10 cigar for me.

[PGR]: It's a beautiful cigar.

[TC]: The first cigar I ever smoked when I was 20 or 21 years old was the original Kahlua. Good luck finding those out there now.

[PGR]: That's right. When it comes to Joya de Nicaragua, you're talking about the oldest cigar factory from Nicaragua. And I do remember back when I joined the industry, there were certain cigar brands coming from Nicaragua that were producing strong cigars, maybe a little stronger than the market prefers. And then, little by little, Nicaragua started to surpass all their amazing counterparts, like Dominican Republic cigars or Honduran cigars. Nicaragua cigars are in a beautiful spot where people can have something from Nicaragua, not just from Joya de Nicaragua, not just from Drew Estate, but from every amazing player that is in the game.

There are great cigars that come from Plasencia, Oliva, Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust, Foundation Cigars, Perdomo, PadrÓn, My Father Cigars, Tatuaje, and RoMa Craft. Man, I don't want to leave anybody behind because I have so much love and respect for everybody up there. Nicaragua is all about striving and reinventing to bring cigars that are unique and special for the end consumer. What you guys are doing right here, right now, creating content for end consumers and retailers, that's something that we die to have. In the cigar industry, the venues that you have to promote your brands are very few.

Cigars bring a lot of people together. And that's what we are doing right here: making handmade cigars with tobaccos that come from different countries to create unique blends that eventually will make it as a regular production for a cigar brand. This is just the beginning of Drew Estate.

[TC]: Absolutely.

[PGR]: How is that H99 treating you?

[TC]: I've got to say, I've been a fan of H99 since they've been announced and came out. Liga Privada has always been one of the top lines of cigars in the industry, but the H99 is a game changer. It's completely different from anything else in the Liga Privada line. For anyone out there who is always trying to chase that Cubanesque flavor, if you want it from Liga Privada, the H99 is the one to go for.

[PGR]: Thank you so very much, man. That's a beautiful way that you put it right there. For everybody out there, when it comes to H99, it comes from the Liga Privada family, which is Liga Privada No. 9, Liga Privada T52, and Liga Privada Aniversario. When it comes to every cigar that we make at Drew Estate, they each have their own unique taste and flavor.

Traditional and Collaborative Cigars

[TC]: Can you tell us a bit about the different cigars you have to offer and how you approach making them.

[PGR]: Let's start off with a traditional cigar, like H99. We use a very interesting wrapper, which is a hybrid made of Habano T52 with Habano H99 seed. This combination is grown in the same tobacco fields where all the wrappers come from for Liga Privada, whether it's Broadleaf or Criollo. That one turned out to be a very good one. As another example, when it comes to UndercrownUndercrown, there's the Undercrown Maduro, the Undercrown Shade, the Undercrown 10, and all three different blends are traditional cigars. My go-to when it comes to the Undercrown is the Underground 10. It's a very robust, medium-to-full, hot Mexican chocolate from the beginning to the end.

Another one is Blackened by Drew Estate, which is our second collaboration with Metallica and Blackened American Whiskey. We released this cigar this year, and this cigar has been moving and performing like a rockstar. It's more medium in body and strength. We use a very nice Connecticut-shade wrapper that comes from Ecuador in South America. We use a Broadleaf binder that comes from the state of Connecticut. And when it comes to the filler, we use black tobacco that comes from Pennsylvania and Nicaragua. Shade to Black, which is this one right here, follows through with what M81 Blackened cigar by Drew Estate delivered two years ago. And both blends were handpicked and selected by James Hetfield, the lead singer of Metallica. For us, having the opportunity to do a collaboration at that magnitude has been a milestone for Drew Estate.

We put in the hard work, maintain consistency, and stay persistent. In terms of other collaborations that we have done in the past, we have a collaboration with Pappy Van Winkle. All the traditional cigars that we have made in the past, like Herrera Estelí, which is the whole face of this Herrera Estelí cigar line, is Willy Herrera, who is our master blender at Drew Estate. So we have the Habano, the Norteno, and the Miami, which is handmade, "El Titan de Bronze," in Miami and in an area that is called "La Pequena Habana." That's the most boutique cigar factory right here in the United States. We also make other traditional cigars, like 20 Acre Farm, where we use Florida sun-grown tobacco, and we incorporate those special tobaccos into that blend. We have Nica Rustica, which is a really nice one too.

We also have non-traditional cigars, including Kentucky, Deadwood, and the ACID line, which is in the infused category. ACID, by far, has been the OG when it comes to cigars that we have released in the past that have been selling more and more every year. Another one is Tabak Especial, is a coffee-infused cigar. It's really amazing for a morning smoke. If you are a coffee guy, you're going to love it because it really delivers what the cigar is all about. The Tabak Especial Dulce is mild-to-medium and the Tabak Especial Negra is closer to medium-bodied. And then, besides our super premium cigars and our value cigar brands, we also have our grab-and-go brands. In this case, Factory Smokes as well as the cigars that we make at Drew Estate, using all the different cigar lines, blends, and flavors from our portfolio. So, long story short, Drew Estate always does its best to create a cigar for every palate out there. From new cigar guys to people that smoke on a regular occasion to the guys that are heavy hitters and cigar geeks, there's something for everybody.

[TC]: Absolutely. I've always told people, working on the retail side for so many years, the real benefit to Drew Estate is that the portfolio is wide enough to where there's a flavor for everybody. When you go to a restaurant with a nice menu, there's always a meal, an appetizer, a drink, and something that everyone's going to love. Drew Estate has it all. If you want something sweeter flavored, Drew Estate's got it. If you want something spicy and strong, Drew Estate's got it. If you want a Connecticut that is mild, smooth, and creamy, Drew Estate's got it. And everything in between too.

[PGR]: That's right.

[TC]: And then, going back to Joya de Nicaragua, they have a pretty decent sized portfolio too. It's the same format. There's so many different cigars that fit everyone's palates.

[PGR]: Absolutely. Yeah, when it comes to Joya de Nicaragua, speaking about Cabinetta, that's an amazing smoke. It belongs to the legendary brand, AntaÑo. There's also the Antaño CT and the Dark Corojo. There's also Obras Maestras, which translates to "Masterpieces" from Drew Estate. When it comes to Cuatro Cinco, there is Número Uno, Cinco Décadas, and Cinco de Cinco. Cinco de Cinco is like a treat. We take care of our family and our friends. But if one day you want to take care of yourself, because life is very short, and you see Cinco de Cinco looking at you, don't even think about it. Don't ask any questions. The only thing you'll be wondering is how many boxes you're going to buy from there. But grab them and give them a shot.

Joya de Nicaragua was how the whole thing came about with Drew Estate. Back in the mid-2000s, with Joya de Nicaragua, we had the opportunity to start the distribution relationship with them. And it has been a beautiful marriage, if you put it that way, because Joya de Nicaragua is a very traditional cigar company while Drew Estate is a non-traditional cigar company, in the sense of the profile of the company, the cigars that we create, the blends that we have, the names that we use in our cigars, and even the stories that are behind those cigar names. It's very different compared to how Joya de Nicaragua is. And at Drew Estate, we have a lot of respect for Joya de Nicaragua; they make amazing cigars. They have a team down there that have been with the company for many years. Joya de Nicaragua are the pioneers.

They were the first. Before everybody else, it was Joya de Nicaragua.

So, for Drew Estate, it was a big opportunity because it gave us the chance to hit a type of customer that would likely never smoke an infused cigar, which was the type of cigar that we used to have back in that time. And then from there, Joya de Nicaragua evolved. Now it's not just a big cigar company in the United States, it's by far the most well-known cigar company worldwide. It's unbelievable. The story that Joya de Nicaragua has is priceless.

Pedro's Personal Favorites

[TC]: Absolutely. So let me ask you this, out of the portfolio of Drew Estate, and Joya de Nicaragua included, out of everything that's ever come out of the factories, what has been your absolute favorite cigar?

[PGR]: My absolute favorite? When I started working for Drew Estate, my absolute favorite was Kuba Kuba. I was smoking that cigar left and right. And then after that, my palate started to evolve. And then from infused cigars, I start to enjoy more mild-to-medium traditional cigars, then more medium-bodied cigars. Today, I smoke more medium-to-full cigars. But at the same time, I smoke everybody's cigars. What's my favorite cigar? The one that we sell the most. That's only a joke, but what's my go-to cigar? When it comes to Drew Estate, I like Undercrown 10. Undercrown 10 is an amazing cigar, where we use high-priming Mexican wrapper, which is the San Andrés. We use a Broadleaf binder. And right in the filler, we use heavy, rich Nicaraguan tobaccos. That cigar right there literally encapsulates the celebration back in 2020, a cigar that we released to celebrate 10 years of Undercrown being in the market.

I know there are going to be people that are debating right now, thinking, "What about Liga Privada? Well, what about this? What about that?" Well, there are so many out there, and I will tell you like this, the idea for companies is not to make what they love, but to make what the consumer loves. We strive to keep an open mind, not just in the manufacturing side or the retail side. It's also very important in the end-consumer side. Because in order for you to see how everybody's dancing to the song that the DJ is playing, you have to have open ears and have an open mind to try a little bit of everything. You will never know what surprises you're going to find. Because when it comes to cigars, it's not just great cigars that come from Nicaragua, there are also amazing cigars that come from Dominican Republic, from Honduras, even from Cuba.

That's why Drew Estate purchased a lot of tobacco from various locations. We import tobacco from Brazil, which is the Mata Fina, and from Ecuador, which in this case is the Connecticut-shade and the Habano wrappers. Tobacco that we import out of Indonesia, the Sumatra wrapper, tobacco that we use from the Dominican Republic, from Honduras, a lot of tobacco that we use from different tobacco regions in Nicaragua, which is Estelí, Ometepe, Condega, and Jalapa. Then tobaccos that we import out of the United States, we get tobacco from Florida, Louisiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. We are keeping our eyes open. When you are creating blends, it's not just about creating what everybody is making, it's about taking the risk of tobacco that has never been used in a premium cigar. We're going to create many different blends using the same tobacco that will be utilized in different proportions of tobacco. Once we find something very interesting, it's up to the factory capacity, if we have that one, to make it not only as an annual release, or a limited edition. What counts for a company to survive in the industry is having regular-production brands.

[TC]: It's all about the core line. Something you can get every day and smoke every day.

[PGR]: That's right.

Drew Estate's History

[TC]: Can you talk a bit about Drew Estate's history, from when the brand started to where you are heading today?

[PGR]: Absolutely. The leadership and the vision of Jonathan Drew, the founder of Drew Estate, and how the brand came to be is very interesting. Before Drew Estate became what it is today, it was a little kiosk at the World Trade Center in New York City. Jonathan Drew, being from Brooklyn, saw the amazing opportunity of selling cigars. And he has always been a cigar guy who is very passionate when it comes to cigars and everything that we can create by hand. He ended up making a trip in the mid-'90s to Nicaragua. I still remember the original house in Estelí, in downtown Estelí, where Drew Estate started. By late 1999, Jonathan decided to open his own cigar factory, which was renting a house and hiring five or six people. Long story short, one house became 11 different houses. Back in 2006, when I joined Drew Estate, I was running all over town, going to the production floor that was in one house to the packaging department that it was in another house to a little warehouse that we were renting out down the street and making sure that everything was running the way it should when you have one big facility. Well, we didn't have that, because we didn't have any money at the time.

Drew Estate ended up buying and acquiring a piece of land in the west side of Estelí, and they started to build a huge factory. And everything is about reinvesting the money that you have as a profit and reinvesting in the business. In 2007, we moved from 11 different houses to this facility. But before this facility came into reality, there were some social issues. Growing tobacco and making cigars in Nicaragua, during the '80s, was difficult. We went through a civil war in my country; It was impossible for companies to operate in a very hostile environment.

Jonathan entered Nicaragua in the mid-'90s where there was no electricity, no running water, and scarcity everywhere. It was a nightmare. You have to truly love it to not only survive, but also take every single punch that life throws at you and keep moving forward. It takes a true passion for cigars and a love of the craft to make your project come to fruition. And then, from that point on, Drew Estate started to evolve.

When we moved to this amazing facility, people around the neighborhood thought that Drew Estate was building a cathedral because it was that grand of a facility; something that was not taking place in Nicaragua at that time based on the scarcity and issues. And then from there, we built a reputation and the profile of this company made its way here to the United States. Drew Estate took a whole different approach to building a big factory and creating it to be the most beautiful cigar factory in the industry. And the idea was to bring retailers and end consumers to see it and experience it. I never knew that they were going to offer me that opportunity to run tours. Everything happens for a reason.

Drew Estate's Cigar Safari Tours & Barn Smoker

I want to give a beautiful shout out to Manuel Rubio, who is our General Manager at Drew Estate factory. He asked me, "Hey Pedro, we've got some backpackers at the gate, so go up there and just give this guy a little tour." And I said, "Sure." Well, that little tour that these guys were expecting to have, which was maybe for 30 minutes to one hour, turned into five hours. The way I do my tours, one hour doesn't fit in the presentation to really show these people the hard work that goes into cigar making.

From the guy that is growing tobaccos in the field, to the people that are picking up those leaves one by one, to the person that is hanging those leaves in the air-curing barn, to the point that you are bringing that raw material to the factory and everybody's taking one leaf at a time and making buncheros, rolling them, and then passing the wrapper, it's hard to explain all of that in one hour.

At the end of the day, life is about finding where your passion is. It's not about finding a good job. That good job can become boring at the end of the day, or eventually it will be boring. But if you find your passion, trust me, that passion that you have is going to take you to places that you will never imagine. Put it like this: In 2006, when I joined Drew Estate, I could never imagine that in 2024, I would be flying to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and coming to see you guys right.

I'm just a grateful person that I love what I do. I'm very grateful before anything else, because there are so many great talents out there, great people from Estelí, Nicaragua, that they could be doing what I'm doing. When it comes to respecting everybody, I have my respect for other people. And when I can learn something from somebody, I'm going to ask question after question because life is about learning.

In terms of education, we were talking about Cigar Safari and the tours that we do in Nicaragua. We are bringing that stuff right here to the United States. Next month, we are starting with the Barn Smokers. There will be a Barn Smoker in Connecticut, Kentucky, and Florida. The Barn Smoker is a beautiful cigar event that takes place in tobacco fields, which are the same fields where we get the tobacco that we use in Liga Privada, in 20 Acre Farm, and so forth. So this year we are hosting a festival where we're going to have amazing food with the best chef, great live music, and an educational presentation from Jonathan Drew, Willy Herrera, the owner, the family that has grown tobacco for centuries on those particular tobacco fields, myself, Joya de Nicaragua, and everybody from Drew Estate. And the idea is to show everybody a good time, but the most important thing is to educate people about tobacco and cigars. We at Drew Estate believe that cigars go hand and hand with experience.

[TC]: Absolutely.

[PGR]: Tobacco has a very deep story in society, as we know it. And that's a very important fact to know when educating others on how different every cigar is depending on the tobacco used. Just right here at Smokingpipes, you are the biggest retailer when it comes to pipe tobacco and pipes, so you know what I mean.

[TC]: That's right. Thank you for doing this with us today. Everybody at home, on your devices, wherever you're watching this from, make sure you check out Smokingpipes.com, check out the very vast selection of Drew Estate products as well as Joya de Nicaragua. Make sure you let us know which one's your favorite in the comment section.

[PGR]: Absolutely. God bless all of you. We're looking forward to seeing you at future cigar events all around the world. In the meantime, stay smoking, and be blessed.