PCA Magazine Show Issue 2021

26 PCA The Magazine | SHOW 2021 PREMIUMCIGARS.ORG places, and I found this spot, a colonial building I believe was once a hotel, and I fell in love with it.” Establishing his own factory took Espinosa Cigars to the next level. The first cigar produced in the newLa Zona factory in Estelí was the Espinosa Habano, amedium- bodied cigar featuring an Ecudador habano wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and fillers. The classic blend of cream and spice is still one of the company’s top sellers, garnering several 92 ratings from Cigar Aficionado . But success came neither soon nor easily for Espinosa. He soon found the going tougher than he anticipated: “When I first got there not toomany people wanted to helpme. So I could onlymake cigars with the RIK ESPINOSA must like hats. He seems to have worn just about every one the cigar industry has to offer. In fact, he literally started at the bottomand worked his way up. In 1998 he began working for Caribe Imported Cigars, which at the time was the importer and distributor of Camacho and Baccarat Cigars. Espinosa recalls: “I worked in the warehouse. I wanted to have some knowledge on the brands that we weremaking at the time. I worked there a couple of months. I wanted to learn the ins and outs of the business.” He learned the art of selling fromnational sales manager Sal Fontana: “I would travel around the whole country, just riding around with the reps.”When he tired of spending his time on airplanes he informed brand owner Christian Eiroa that he wanted to represent him in Florida as an independent broker, adding well known brands such as Padilla, Indian Tabac, DrewEstate and Alec Bradley to his portfolio. While calling on retail stores hemet his future partner, Eddie Ortega. In 2003 they created EOBrands, producing boutique lines Reo and Vibe with the help of Rocky Patel and Nestor Plasencia. From there theymade the leap to establishing their flagship line 601, memorializing the month and year they first traveled to Nicaragua, where the brand was manufactured by Don Pepin Garcia. That line’s success was followed by the introduction of Cubao andMurcielago, further establishing the partners as legitimate brand creators and innovators. Just as the brands were taking off, the economy began going south, making it hard to remain profitable as a partnership that was contracting their brands and relying on distributors to sell their cigars. By 2012 the partners agreed to an amicable split, each deciding to establish his own company. Espinosa was still having his brands produced by other manufacturers, and realized the need for taking control of his production. He states: “I always wanted to have my own factory. I went around (Nicaragua) shopping for BY LARRY WAGNER The Blend E tobacco people were selling. I had a lot of help fromDrew Estate, and AJ Fernandez helpedme tremendously. But when I would buy, say Mexican wrapper, I would get 10 bales of decent stuff, but I also had to buy 10 bales of not so decent stuff. As time went by I had more hookups, but I would struggle at times to get great wrapper.” That issue was resolved when he struck an arrangement with Fernandez to produce some of Espinosa’s lines at the San Lotano factory, about an hour’s drive fromEstelí. Currently that factory produces the 601 Red, Blue and Green, Murcielago and the Laranja Reserva Escuro. Espinosa Cigars Erik Espinosa