Another week has passed by here at Mission Bay RV Resort. Sometimes, when we’re stationary for extended periods of time, I don’t have a lot to say about the RV lifestyle. As full-timers, we settle in and go about everyday life as if we’re living in a permanent residence. Of course, an RV park is a different kind of neighborhood. Neighbors come and go constantly – typically the park fills up on weekends and many younger families are here. On Sundays and Mondays, a major exodus occurs and the park becomes quiet with a lot of open sites.

With neighbors moving in and out of the park, we often have opportunities to meet people. Over the past five years, I’ve had the chance to chat with quite a few very interesting people that retired from businesses they built. I always enjoy hearing their stories of how they succeeded at entrepreneurship. It takes a certain type of personality to risk financial stability and go out on your own.

I lived my working career in a corporate environment. I traded security and a guaranteed pension for the chance to be my own boss and build my own business. I sometimes wonder if I could have been a successful entrepreneur. Donna spent most of her career working for herself.

Some regular readers of my posts may have noticed I’ve taken up cigars in the last seven or eight months. In fact, I’ve become quite a cigar geek. There are some great success stories in the cigar industry – and also some failures. I think one of the greatest stories is that of Nick Perdomo Jr.

Nick’s grandfather Silvio and his father Nick Sr. made cigars in Cuba. They lived in San Jose de las Lajas and worked their way up to management positions at the Partagas Cigar Factory in the 1940s and 1950s. They were visited at the factory by then president of Cuba Fulgencio Batista and were anti-Castro. When Fidel Castro took over the country, Silvio was put in prison and Nick Sr. was shot by soldiers – he survived. Silvio spent more than 15 years in prison and Nick Sr. managed to get out of Cuba and immigrate into the United States. He lived in Baltimore working as a janitor before becoming a US citizen and moving his family to Florida. He built a successful contracting business there.

Nick Jr. served in the Navy where he learned to be an air traffic controller. Later he worked as a controller at Miami International Airport. The desire to follow his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps as cigar producers was strong in Nick Jr. He began making cigars in his garage – called Nick’s Cigars. In 1992, he employed three rollers (skilled laborers that hand roll cigars) while he and his wife packaged and marketed the product. They made a little over 9,400 cigars that year. Nick worked the business by day and at the airport on the swing shift from 4pm until midnight.

The 1990s were a boom time for the cigar industry and Nick’s Cigars took off. In 1997, Nick Sr. came out of retirement to help his son. They opened a factory in Ybor City, Florida. The high cost of labor was stifling though. In 1997, Nick produced one million cigars but wasn’t making much money.

Nick Sr. moved to Nicaragua and they opened a new factory there in Esteli. Their sales were booming and they also contracted with CAO to make cigars for that brand. Then a disaster struck. They had a large batch of cigars that were sub-standard – they wouldn’t burn correctly. Nick identified the issue as a bad lot of tobacco he purchased from a broker. He lost about $300,000. That’s when he decided to change his approach.

They acquired farmland in Esteli, Condega and Jalapa Valley – prime tobacco growing land in Nicaragua. They would take charge of growing their own tobacco, fermenting and aging it themselves and make their cigars. That way they could control the quality throughout the process. Nick continually reinvested in the company.

Today the company is still family-owned and operated but the name has changed to Tabacalera Perdomo. Their headquarters is in Miami Lakes, Florida but their factory is in Esteli, Nicaragua. They have the second largest cigar factory in the country – it’s an 88,000-square-foot facility. Nick Jr. incorporated modern farming techniques with traditional methods to produce high yields of quality tobacco. Ninety-five percent of the tobacco he uses in Perdomo cigars comes from his farms – the remainder is from Connecticut Valley or Ecuador for wrapper leaf.

Speaking of wrapper leaf, there are three main components to a fine handmade cigar. There’s the filler leaf – the inside of the cigar – the binder leaf which holds the filler in place and helps control the burn and the outer wrapper leaf which gives the cigar its color and appearance. Although the wrapper is less than 10% of the tobacco in a cigar, it has a great influence on flavor and is the most expensive tobacco used.

There are three methods of hand rolling used by most makers – the first is the book method. This is the easiest and fastest way to roll a cigar. Basically the leaves are stacked then folded like the pages of a stapled magazine before rolling. This method is usually found on cheaper cigars and can be inconsistent in quality. The next method is the accordion style. Here the leaves are individually folded like pleats on an accordion, then bunched together. This takes more skill than book rolling and the results are better. The pleats allow good airflow and the cigars draw and burn well. The third and most difficult method is called entubado. Here each leaf is rolled into a scroll-like tube before bunching. It’s the most time consuming and takes skill but it produces the highest quality and consistency.

Nick Perdomo only uses entubado rolling in all of his cigars. Today, Tobacalera Perdomo makes about 22 million cigars annually! Nick spends time at the farms and factory and also keeps a grueling travel schedule to market his product. From a beginning with three employees in his garage to a huge facility employing over 2,000 people was a journey of about 20 years.

His company is totally vertical – they plant and grow their tobacco. They makes the cigars. They have a box factory to make their own cigar boxes. Their packaging department has a machine that makes the cellophane wrappers for each cigar – 9,000 per day. They make their own cigar bands and graphics. Nick’s obsession with quality means he wants to have control over every aspect of the product with his name on it. What a rags-to-riches success story!

My blog post wouldn’t be complete without a dinner plate photo. On Monday, Donna sauteed shrimp with bacon and served it over cheese grits. Asparagus spears were the side dish. The box of grits was part of a gift basket of local goods from Miriam and Rand Armbrester when we visited with them in Alabama last spring.

Southern shrimp & cheese grits

The weather has been fine all week – sunny and in the mid-70s. The nights cool quickly and overnight lows are in the mid-50s. Last night we had a few thin clouds and it made a spectacular sunset.

Sunset over Mission Bay

The week ahead looks to be a little cooler with highs in the upper 60s. We might even have a rain shower before Thanksgiving.