(Editor’s Note: I found this draft sitting on my computer, it’s over two months old. Puro Sabor was held Jan. 15-18 in Nicaragua.) No one really knew what to expect when it came to the third annual Nicaraguan cigar festival, formally named Puro Sabor. In fact, no one really ever expected we’d even get here. After the second festival, held in 2011, I distinctly remember an almost unanimous outcry from the organizers that Nicaragua would never hold another festival. The word organizers is in italics because the overwhelming consensus from the organizers themselves was that it was anything but organized. Yet, I arrived in Managua, Nicaragua’s capital, on Wednesday. Before I even got there two themes emerged. One, this festival would largely be attended by the collective cigar manufacturing world; and two, for the fifty-some people that were actually in touring groups, their status and opinions would be checked constantly. This was a test, to see if Nicaragua could hold a festival. The complaints about the 2011 festival were rampant: constant infighting amongst the companies that make up the Nicaraguan Association of Tobacco (ANT), disorganization, tardiness and a lack of professionalism that led many to agree not only was the festival a ...
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