Regardless of your opinion, Acid cigars are popular because of their unorthodox taste. The sweet and fragrant profiles of Acid cigars have been credited with introducing scores of consumers to premium cigars who would otherwise maintain an aversion to them.
The company began as a shoestring operation out of a kiosk in the World Trade Center in the late s. Acid cigars were an experiment at first. The trial and error that went into creating the many different blends that make up Acid today has paid handsome dividends. The brand was acquired by global tobacco giant Swisher International in Today, Jonathan Drew serves as President of Drew Estate and continues to steer its culture in an unconventional direction.
Jonathan Drew emphasizes Acid cigars are made by hand from premium long-filler tobaccos which are infused with a wide range of botanical oils and extracts. The actual infusion process is a proprietary secret held by only a handful of individuals within the company. The tobaccos are exposed to a select combination of botanical oils and extracts to achieve each blend. The infusion process takes place naturally over the course of months. Herbal notes of lavender and violets accompany velvety spices in a traditional 5 x 50 Robusto shape.
The CC is encased in an elegant glass tube, which further concentrates the flavors of the blend as the cigars rest. An exotic and milky profile of tea leaves, clove, lilac, and spices mirrors the classic Kuba Kuba taste in a smaller 4 x 38 format.
Floral and buttery impressions unleash an ambrosial, plum-like sweetness with a touch of pepper in a gently sloping 5 x 54 Belicoso. A darker and sweeter rendition of the original Blondie reveals an herbal and semi-fruity essence while notes of lavender, raisins, and spices gently layer the palate. Tasting notes of tea leaves and herbs culminate with a hints of earth, pepper, and a touch of licorice. An easygoing bouquet emerges in a consistent finish delivered in a classic 6.
A thick and chunky 5 x 58 Gordo is box-pressed to unleash a cool-burning and fragrant smoke with notes of lilacs, herbs, spring flowers, spices, and cloves. Dense notes of damp grass and pine mingle with a musty sweetness before a lingering finish is revealed in a 5 x 42 format. A petit 4 x 32 profile reflects the bestselling Kuba Kuba blend with notes of cloves, herbs, lavender, and tea leaves in a tidy tin of 10 cigars. As part of the deal, Swisher will acquire all of the Drew Estate brands, as well as the Gran Fabrica Drew Estate factory, the largest cigar factory in Nicaragua at , square feet.
Based in Jacksonville, Florida, privately held Swisher International is the world's largest producer of machine-made, mass-market cigars, with its flagship product, Swisher Sweets, the largest-selling cigar brand in the world.
The company has manufacturing facilities in West Virginia and the Dominican Republic, and sells its product in more than 80 countries. Drew Estate president Michael Cellucci noted that Drew Estate, which currently has headquarters in Miami, would benefit from the association with the much larger company. This is a developing story.
For more details on the acquisition, see tomorrow's Cigar Insider. Big Smoke Las Vegas weekend was filled with fine cigars, spirits and friends. Anticipation was in the air Saturday morning as hundreds of people eagerly lined up outside The …. This is what happens when your cigar is named Cigar of the Year. Cigar Life. The Magazine. Drew Estate certainly puts money into tobacco. In a cigar world where making puros cigars made entirely with tobacco from one country is a bragging point, Drew Estate goes the other way.
We like fillers," says Drew. Ligas, for example, are made from a four-nation blend of tobacco. Walking into a sizeable warehouse full of cigar tobacco, Drew says, "this is nothing—this is six to eight weeks of production. Saka says Drew Estate has "40 different [cigar] blends—we use 32 in current production. The expansive main rolling area in Drew Estate is colorful and lively, with workers making handmade smokes.
Energetic music pumps through the entire factory. Drew takes pride in the workers, and in the work they do. He's particularly proud of the way the cigars draw. It's noteworthy since Drew eschews the use of draw-testing machines, which are standard for much of the industry.
Finished cigars are wrapped in newspaper, and receive four bar codes that show the buncher, roller, supervisor and other details. Melillo created the system. Inside Drew Estate's quality-control room, supervisors stand in front of an ashtray containing several lit cigars, checking the blends.
Behind them are a series of oversized line graphs in various colors, showing the level of rejected cigars on a daily basis. Drew Estate is now a major presence in the cigar market, with a broad product portfolio, making everything from tiny tinned smokes to hefty, heavy-bodied double coronas.
The size of the portfolio and the range of cigar quality allows the company to buy tobacco in large chunks, rather than piecemeal. Buying in bulk allows the company to sort on its own, pick out the finer things for higher-end production and use lesser-quality leaves on cheaper products. The goal is to buy binder leaves, sort them, and find gems that can be wrappers. Experience has taught them to be hands-on in their tobacco buying. Drew Estate has its eyes on other businesses outside of cigars.
This summer it put its Acid brand on a line of tobacco used to fill hookahs, which is known as shisha or sheesha. At press time it started shipping Acid Shisha by Starbuzz, a brand made by the priciest producer of shisha tobacco on the market. Once smoked strictly in the Middle East, hookahs are hot among the younger aficionado crowd.
Drew Estate was built on big dreams, and the cigar guys behind it have plans to be even larger. At full capacity, the factory could produce almost twice what it's doing now, some , cigars a day.
And the company is considering expanding across the street, with another 30, feet of space for tobacco processing. It was built for a nontraditional smoker," says Drew. The Liga Privada brand was the first substantial step toward fully utilizing our experience in tobacco and capabilities at the Gran Fabrica.
I think that it is safe to say that this is the direction we will be heading in as we continue into and beyond. Big Smoke Las Vegas weekend was filled with fine cigars, spirits and friends. Anticipation was in the air Saturday morning as hundreds of people eagerly lined up outside The …. This is what happens when your cigar is named Cigar of the Year. Cigar Life. The Magazine. Cigar Find a Retailer. Top Search Search. Acid is Born Drew moved to Nicaragua in late with the borrowed money to start production while Samel stayed in New York to run the U.
Looking Ahead Drew Estate has its eyes on other businesses outside of cigars. Drew Estate. Great company and great cigars. Very interesting article. I am glad to see the dedication these folks put into their smokes, it truley shows through the end product. Have not found another cigar I would rather smoke day in day out besides Acid. Have over Acid's in my humidor right now.
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