Cigar Aficionado

From a hustling, boom-time cigar sales rep of the 1990s to a respected brand owner, Erik Espinosa’s rise to prominence has been slow, steady and far from easy. Born in Havana, the 57-year-old came to the United States when he was only three months old. His entry to the cigar industry was rocky, fraught with false starts and unsuccessful partnerships, but he never gave up. Today, he produces more than four million cigars a year in Nicaragua, many of which have appeared on our Top 25 lists. And now that he’s linked to celebrity chef Guy Fieri, Espinosa’s cigars enjoy a level of fame he’d never imagined.

Cigar Aficionado managing editor Greg Mottola met with Espinosa at the magazine’s New York City offices to discuss his long journey in the cigar world.

MOTTOLA: Many people know you now because of the Guy Fieri project, but before we get into that, talk about your start.

ESPINOSA: I was an indie broker and sold for different companies in Florida. I had Drew Estate, Rocky Patel, Alec Bradley. I started in 1997 and did that for about 10 years.

Q: How does a sales rep become a brand owner?

A: I sold myself out of a job. When you’re good at what you do, when you make a commission, your checks get bigger and bigger and most of these companies felt that if they hired somebody else or went in-house they could pay them a hell of a lot less than what they paid me. One company gave me a bonus check and a pink slip in the same day.

Q: What was your first brand and who made it?

A: Being friends with Rocky [Patel] I started one brand called Rio and another called Vibe with my ex-partner Eddie Ortega. It was made in Honduras by Plasencia through Rocky.

Q: How did that partnership start?

A: He ran a cigar shop and we saw each other all the time and we became friends.

Q: What year was that?

A: About 2003.

Q: So, you were a brand owner and a broker at the same time?

A: Yes, which was a conflict of interest but a lot of those manufacturers didn’t care because I was putting out a lot of high numbers for them. Rio and Vibe lasted a few years.

Q: Talk about Serie X. That came and went early on, but you got into some trouble there.

A: It was a rookie mistake. We just didn’t know any better. It was made by Oliva. Phenomenal cigar, we were doing very well.

Q: What was the problem?

A: We called it Serie X. I think if we used any other letter we would have been fine but we got a cease-and-desist letter from Fuente. He had an issue with the X.

Q: Because of his OpusX brand?

A: Yes, and he should have. I would have had an issue too. He had Opus which has a predominantly large X on the band. We were releasing a new product and got excited. We didn’t do our due diligence.

Q: So, you ceased production?

A: We did.

Q: What were your brands afterward and who made them?

A: Then we did 601. We didn’t want any more issues with any more names or letters so we decided to come up with a number instead.

Q: Who made that?

A: El Rey de Los Habanos. The Garcia family. They became My Father Cigars.

Q: You were with the Garcias in the early days before they became the superstars they are today. How was that?

A: It was wonderful. They made great cigars. They were making some of the best cigars coming out of Nicaragua.

Q: You were using Mexican wrapper on top of Nicaraguan tobacco way before it became trendy. You actually embraced it with Murcielago. Talk about that brand.

A: It’s one of my best sellers. I sort of fell into it. There were these two guys in Fort Meyers and they were growing in Mexico. I don’t the name. They offered their wrapper to me. I went to see it in Nicaragua. We took it down to the Garcias and we started working with it.

Q: Why did you and Eddie Ortega separate?

A: He went down to Nicaragua a lot more than me and wanted to continue with the Garcias, but I wanted my own factory.

Q: When you and Eddie split, who kept what?

A: He kept Cubao, Rio and Vibe. I kept everything else.

Q: Where did production of Murcielago and 601 go?

A: I opened up a factory called La Zona in Estelí and we started making them there. That was around 2012.

Q: Did you find it difficult to replicate the brands in your own factory?

A: Yes, being a smaller company and factory, we couldn’t get some of the higher quality tobacco.

Q: How long before the blends were right? 

A: It took like a year to get it right, and to get the tobacco that I wanted. We started from scratch.

Q: How was it going out on your own?

A: Dark days in the beginning. We had to sort of start over. The brands weren’t doing well. They were beat up. The economy was bad. We didn’t have sales reps. Mostly phone sales. I was the only one going out there. Then I brought my son [Erik Espinosa Jr.] on board.

Q: How old was he?

A: My son was going to college at the time. I told him I needed his help. I had a vision and plan. I don’t know if I stopped him from following his dreams because he stopped what he was doing to come on board. He has a ion for cigars, but I never really asked him if that’s what he wanted to do. He didn’t even think about it and he went right to work.

Q: What did you have him do?

A: I really didn’t know how to run a business. Eddie ran the business and I was out there selling. My son had more knowledge than I did. He oversaw operations while I was selling cigars. That had to be around 14 years ago.

Q: Eventually, you turned production of 601 and Murcielago over to A.J. Fernandez, another superstar in the cigar world. How long was it at La Zona before A.J. took it over? 

A: About four or five years.

Q: Why did you do that? I thought you wanted to make the brands yourself.

A: It was still a struggle to get the wrappers I wanted. To get wrapper, you have to buy 20 bales and 10 of them are not so good.

Q: But didn’t you want full control?

A: A.J. gets some of the best wrappers known to mankind. He opened a factory in Ocotál and he gave me free rein to use anything I wanted. Since I was buying wrapper from him he said, “You want my good quality stuff, let me make it for you.” So I said OK. I didn’t have to struggle anymore with wrappers.

Q: Obviously you like his work.

A: Totally. He does things right. It has to be his standard and he has a real high standard. Flavors are a matter of opinion, but quality is a matter of fact and quality-wise, his cigars are impeccable.

Q: 601 comes in how many types?

A: Blue, Red and Green. I make about 1 million per year.

Q: And Murcielago?

A: That just comes in one type. I make about half a million per year.

Q: Now that 601 and Murcielago are made by A.J., what’s made at your La Zona factory?

A: The Crema, Espinosa Habano and Laranja.

Q: Laranja was a benchmark for you, critically speaking. The Toro was the highest score you ever received from Cigar Aficionado at 94 points. And it was a Top 25 cigar. What was the thinking behind this brand?

A: I’m a big fan of Frank Sinatra and orange is my favorite color. He once said “orange is the happiest color.” I made up my mind that the next project I did would have an orange band. I went to Nicaragua to buy some tobacco. The guy shows me this Brazilian wrapper and the way it hit the light at the moment, it looked orange.

Q: We certainly liked it, but how did the market respond?

A: Great response. Laranja means “orange” in Portuguese. If I called it Orange, people would think it’s infused with citrus. A lot of people think they get citrus on the palate.

Q: Including us. Can’t that flavor occur naturally?

A: Of course, but I think it’s perception. I promise I don’t squeeze any orange juice into it [laughs].

Q: Is it still in production?

A: When Covid hit, it destroyed Brazil. They weren’t growing the wrapper. And I only use that particular wrapper. So, I couldn’t make it for a while. I didn’t make one single Laranja for over two years. I only started making it again last year. The wrapper is the same.

Q: Is this the most expensive wrapper you use?

A: No. Just the hardest to get. Cost went up, not crazy, but all prices went up.

Q: Is there still demand?

A: Yes, but we don’t make as much.

Q: That has to be frustrating.

A: It is but when you do things the way you’re supposed to, it’s a struggle. We could change the wrapper, but I don’t want to deceive anyone so I’d rather just not sell.

Q: How large is your La Zona factory?

A: Fourteen pairs of rollers.

Q: How many cigars does it produce a year?

A: About 1.4 million a year.

Q: How often are you there?

A: Two or three times a year. Hector Alfonso goes 10 times a year. He oversees the blending, logistics.

Q: Who’s Hector, what does he do?

A: I don’t give titles. If my son is my right-hand man, Hector is my left. He helped me blend Laranja, 601 Warhead, Knuckle Sandwich.

Q: How did you meet him?

A: Hector used to run a shop in Miami. We hit it off. I made him an offer. He left the cigar shop to work with us. He’s a very smart guy. He’d go to Nicaragua a lot and he learned tobacco. As a blender I’d put him up against almost anybody out there.

Q: Did you see the same spike in demand during Covid as the rest of the industry?

A: Absolutely, but I’ll tell you what we did differently. All my guys were doing events on Zoom. We’d talk to store owners and they’d invite their customers on Zoom and we’d sell product. We did that for two months. It took a few months before the demand came.

Q: What kind of growth did you see?

A: In the height of the boom, we were up 80 percent. We didn’t have the big numbers and demand before but then we got them. We never stopped doing events.

Q: Are you on the road a lot?

A: About 250 days of the year. I’m worth a lot more visiting cigar shops doing events than going down to the factory. I took the model from Rocky. I saw how he built the company being on the road. People smoke from who they like and who they know. The more doors you knock on the more chance of doors opening up. I don’t want this life for my son.

Q: And, finally, we get to Guy Fieri. How on earth did a collaboration like that happen?

A: He reached out to me through a mutual friend a few weeks before Covid hit. He was doing the Food & Wine Festival and happened to be in South Beach. He called me up and asked if I could meet him. He wanted to make a cigar. I met him the next morning outside of the Lowes Hotel in South Beach. I brought him some Cuban pastries—not knowing that he doesn’t eat sweets—a cutter and cigars.

Q: What cigars?

A: Laranja. He gave me back the cutter and said he doesn’t use a cutter. I look at him and said, “I guess you’ve done your research on me?” He had, but really didn’t use a cutter. He tells me the reason he wants to be in the cigar business is because he didn’t want a big company. Something medium sized. He got his star in Hollywood and he asked his agent: “Now can I have a cigar company?” His people told him yes. I said that’s a great story, but I told him that I had to decline because a celebrity cigar never worked in our industry.

Q: What did he say?

A: He asked why and I told him that there’s never been a celebrity that’s ever worked hard, done events and promoted the product.

Q: How did he react to that?

A: He says, “Well I did my research on you but you didn’t research me. Everything I do, I do it right or I don’t do it. I’m going to be in the business. If it’s my brand, I’m going to be involved.” . . . I said, “You just signed a big contract with the Food Network. Why do you want to be in the cigar business?” He says, “I have a ion. Been smoking for a while and I’m definitely not doing it for the money. I want my own cigar company.” I said if you can do what I asked you to do then let’s go to work. I’m not going to make a celebrity cigar. I’m making a cigar that happens to be for a celebrity.

Q: Do you have a contract?

A: No. We shook hands and here we are three or four years later.

Q: How involved was he in the blending?

A: He wanted to get down to Nica but couldn’t because of Covid so we sent samples: 10 maduros and 10 Habanos made by A.J. Fernandez. I asked him to smoke one every day, not all at once. I wanted to know which number was his favorite. Blend No. 7 was our favorite one in the office. He picked the same one.

Q: Was it strong?

A: Yeah, it’s what Knuckle Sandwich Habano is now. His palate was similar to ours.

Q: How did it perform in the market?

A: It caught on quick for two reasons. Reason one: the cigar was fantastic. Reason two: he did something about it. He promoted the hell out of it. So, it was a combination.

Q: What’s the business arrangement?

A: Fifty-fifty and a handshake. He promotes the product as much as we do.

Q: What do you say to people who are skeptical?

A: It doesn’t happen anymore. It happened in the beginning. People see him with a cigar. When he does charity events, when he does tailgate parties, he’s aways smoking a cigar. Whenever he’s able to smoke cigars on camera, he does.

Q: Has this helped your other brands?

A: Yes. He has his own Tequila company with Sammy Hagar. He does a lot of events. We got a lot of new s through liquor stores that carry cigars so they open a lot of doors for us. Some retailers see him at Big Smoke, see him at the PCA [trade show], see how much he’s involved. It’s opened doors for some of our other brands.

Q: Which brands are your best sellers?

A: 601 Blue and Murcielago, neck and neck.

Q: What about Knuckle Sandwich?

A: That’s about 25 percent of our sales.

Q: You’re not huge, but you’re not tiny either. What’s the challenge of being in the middle?

A: I can’t get to the people who are not on social media. I can’t reach the golfers of the world. I can’t reach older smokers. I have no channels to them. They buy online. They don’t go to events so I can’t meet them or connect.

Q: Do you consider yourself boutique?

A: I don’t know what that means. Do you define it in the number of sales?

Q: I always looked at it as a small operation more concerned with quality and craft than sales and productivity.

A: There you go, but how small? Is it a numbers thing? Most people would agree with you.

Q: What does it mean to you?

A: People judge it in of sales. Nobody knows the number. I consider us boutique in the sense that we’re hands on. We’re not corporate. We can do things quickly. We don’t have to do things through channels of approval. But I do things the right way, or I don’t do them at all.