Ever since smoking my first RoMa Craft Tobac cigar, I have wanted to visit the company’s factory, Fabrica de Tabacos NicaSueño S.A.

I had been told it was compact, but even I was a bit taken aback by its intimacy. Located in the back of a house in an unassuming neighborhood of Estelí, Nicaragua, you would never know it was there if you did not have an address. You walk through a living room and kitchen before going into the backyard where you see two teams of rollers in the front and a quality control table in the back behind them.

Despite its smaller size, it is obvious when visiting that the people working there know exactly what they are doing and are extremely proficient at their jobs.

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Brooks Whittington

I have been smoking cigars for over eight years. A documentary wedding photographer by trade, I spent seven years as a photojournalist for the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star Telegram. I started the cigar blog SmokingStogie in 2008 after realizing that there was a need for a cigar blog with better photographs and more in-depth information about each release. SmokingStogie quickly became one of the more influential cigar blogs on the internet, known for reviewing preproduction, prerelease, rare, extremely hard-to-find and expensive cigars. I am a co-founder of halfwheel and now serve as an editor for halfwheel.